[Video] Eye on Shandong series

Our fourth regional series, Eye on Shandong, explores Qingdao’s historical buildings and beer culture, Qufu’s history as the birthplace of Confucius, beachcombing and seaside foraging in Yantai, and much more!

2 Oct 2025

Culture

(Teaser produced by Lingming Lu.)

Glass towers, German villas and the ghosts of empire: This is Qingdao

Once a German colony and now a vibrant Chinese coastal city, Qingdao blends red-roofed European villas with gleaming skyscrapers. Despite its rich history, stunning seascapes and iconic beer, it remains curiously overlooked by foreign visitors. Kennie Ting, author of The Great Port Cities of Asia: In History, gives us the highlights.

View of Qingdao’s historic waterfront from the Zhanqiao Pier. (Kennie Ting)

If you grew up by Yantai’s seaside, you would never want to leave

For Meilin, a native of Shandong, childhood is filled with salty breezes — days spent exploring the shore and fields, and taking part in ganhai (赶海), where the sea reveals its treasures at low tide.

A woman has fun with her playful young boy on Yantai beach. Because of its fair weather, extensive coastline and abundant tourist sites, Yantai in Shandong province is a very popular summer retreat. (iStock)

Tsingtao beer is reinventing itself for a new generation

Amid Qingdao’s quaint streets brimming with history and heritage, Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. is taking the city’s proud beverage, Tsingtao beer, to greater heights. Distinguished Professor of Shandong University Edmund Li Sheng tells us more.

Tsingtao Brewery has experienced remarkable success in its evolution from a historical brand into a national leader. (iStock)

How China’s Shandong is fighting involution to win back its youth

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With quality jobs, lower life-costs and transparent career paths, Shandong could turn its brain drain into a comeback story. The province’s future depends on whether staying becomes the smart career move — not just the sentimental one. Shandong economics professor Yan Song explains.

People play with soap bubbles at the May Fourth Plaza in Qingdao, China’s eastern Shandong province, on 25 July 2025. (Adek Berry/AFP)

[Photos] The Shandong ‘model’: A trailblazer in China’s history

Shandong often played the role of a trailblazer, in more ways than one. The province was a central part of major turning points in Chinese history, and for historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao, the place holds fond memories of his first books published in mainland China.

In 1914, when the First World War broke out, Japanese troops attacked the German concession in Qingdao, Shandong province. This is a Japanese lithograph depicting the war. (Hsu Chung-mao)

[One from our archives] Family rituals of a Shandong Spring Festival

Chinese New Year customs and practices can be different depending on where one is, whether within or outside of China. Young academic Pang Ruizhi describes his Chinese New Year as a child in Shandong, northern China.