Experience the best of Qingdao

Qingdao occupies a rocky peninsula on the Yellow Sea coast of Shandong. Germany leased the bay from 1898 until 1914, and its legacy survives in the red-roofed villas, Christ Church with its clock tower, the twin-spired Catholic cathedral and the brewery founded in 1903 that gave the city its famous beer.

Zhanqiao Pier reaches out into the bay, ending at a small pavilion, and the seafront runs past the beaches and May Fourth Square. The Laoshan mountains, a granite range rising close to the sea, lie east of the city, with Taoist temples and clear springs. Qingdao staged the sailing events of the 2008 Olympics, and its marina is lined with yachts.

Seafood is the daily food here, notably clams stir-fried with chilli, whelks, prawns and squid, and beer is poured by the glass or into a bag at street stalls. The sea keeps summers mild, fog rolls in off the water in late spring, and winters are cold and dry.