Day 4.1of an Unforgettable Journey

I have been looking forward to visiting the original Tsingtao Beer headquarters in Shantung for a long time. Tsingtao (now spelt Qingdao) has been my favourite beer for more than 30 years. I still remember the days when two or three of my friends would have dinner, chit chat and play music in the evenings and during weekends when I was staying in one of the outlying islands. These were happy carefree days. I visited the Coors Beer Brewery in Colorado when I visited America last year as part of my tour of the Yellow Stone Park  and was quite impressed by how much care they put into making good beer.  On the morning of Day 4 of our trip, we took the high speed magnetic levitation (Maglev) train from Tsinan to Tsingtao which had a top speed of about 186 miles per hour. We started at 9 and arrived at 10 a.m.

The Concord High Speed Maglev train at Tsingtao Railway Station, first built by the Germans in 1901 and substantially renovated in 2008 to accommodate the high speed passenger train traffic in connection with the yachting events of the 2008 Olympics.

The overhead digital clock shows our time of arrival. Despite its age, it was a quite comfortable train station. The first tourist spot we visited was the Tsingtao Brewery. It was so famous that it got a whole street named after it.

For some reasons Tsingtao people thought that it might make various manholes for public utilities more easily recognizable if they were to use cartoon characters to identify them.

The the manhole in the previous photo was supposed to serve this city light.

Even rubbish bins are made of beer barrels!

An almost complete view of the Tsingtao Beer Street, a street of pubs and restaurants.

How could there be beer without beer girls?

And good food?

Is this young man ( from the way he dresses, from Xinjiang?), trying to take advantage of the better moods of tourists after they have had a drink or two, to earn a few thousand dollars?

Everything in this street appear to be made with beer related products. Here's an artificial man built with beer cans right behind another huge Tsingtao beer can. Beers, beers and beers everywhere.

The first Tsingtao Beer Brewery was started by the Germans in 1903 and in 2003, exactly a century later, they decided to stop production at the old facilities and started using modern mechanized brewing technique and turned the old beer plant into a museum. Like so many things in China, it has a tortuous history. The first plant was owned by the Germans until 1921 when it was sold to the Dai Nippon Breweries which later split into Sapporo Breweries which continued to own it until 1945 when it was taken over by the Nationalist government in Nanjing which sold to the Tsui Family but in 1949 their shares were nationalized by the Communist Government and it became a state owned enterprise. In the 1990s, it was privatized and its interest were sold to the German Anheuser Busch group which sold 20% of its interest to the Asahi brewery in 2003 and later the remaining 7 % to Chinese business Chan Fashu. From the start its flagship beer is pure standard pilsner made from hops and barley with spring water from the Laoshan Springs with 4.7% alcohol content but it also now produces a 5.2% alcohol content dark beer for domestic consumption. Now, however, only beer made in Tsingtao still uses spring water from Laoshan. Since 1991, it has sponsored a 2-week Tsingtao International Beer Festival (now renamed as simply the International Beer Festival) in August of every year to promote beer drinking and tourism. But for me, the main purpose of the visit is sentimental and photographic.





A horse to symbolize the continuing vitality of the Tsingtao brand at its centenary





What would there be for celebration if there were no god of alcohol and merry making, the Greek god Dionysius?

This is where real Tsingtao beer with spring water from the Laoshan Spring is now produced.

This is the entrance to the visit to the beer museum.

This is my first view of the inside of the brewery.

First we were shown some distillation containers. We were then led upstairs

where we we found various equipment used in brewing.

 

Barley or hops had to be soaked and fermented.

Models of workers working on the barley.





The barley had to be grounded into pulp before fermentation.





The ground barley had to have water added and the pulp produced must be filtered.

This looks really impressive and reminds of the machines in Walt Disney's cartoons.

So does this wheel. Looks rather like the steering wheel of a ship!

I had forgotten what this machine was for. I like it because of its classic old fashioned cartoon machine looks. Presumably for filtering the beer?

This is where the fermentation process started

The fermentation process had to be constantly monitored.

A closer view of one of a model of the master brewer.

The draft beer had to be left to stored in huge containers.

After fermentation, the beer had to be distilled. The temperature and pressure had to be carefully monitored.

Some equipment for gauging the pressure.

This is where all the fermentation and storage of the old plant were done.

And the beer had to mature in wooden barrels.





Equipment for emptying the contents of the barrels into other containers.

 

Another valve for moving the beer around from one part of the plant to another.





They had their own fire safety equipment just in case

Model of a worker working on producing beer barrels.





When the beer is ready, they must be bottled. Both new and recycled bottled had to be washed first.

A machine for sanitizing the interior of the bottles.

Machine for draining any remaining liquid out.

Another machine for cleaning the lower half of the bottle.

Bottles had to be stored.

Nozzles for delivering the yellow gold?

Now everything is automated and it takes less than a hundred staff to man ever step in the production of the new plant. Machines can work 24  7 and are seldom on strike for pay rises.

This assembly line takes care of everything from bottling, capping, labelling and packaging.

The finished bottles being shoved along a conveyor belt.

They are mindful of competition. Here's a sample of beers from their competitors all over the world.

Various Tsingtao labels.

More Tsingtao labels from before 1996

New labels.

In this room, we were treated to a sample of their beer.

In the museum, all decorations are made with beer bottles.

Towers of bottles

Another wall decoration. Happy 2000! Probably the year when this was done.

Beer from heaven! Outside of the museum just before the stairs leading to the beer hall downstairs.

We then went through this narrow corridor to reach their beer hall below.

A man sitting?

A man standing?





A crown for the man?





The music of beer making or more likely of beer drinking?

There is a souvenir shop selling mementos next to the beer hall on the ground floor. A Tsingtao beer barrel for sale.

 Tsingtao barrels being carried by a horse and two more by a camel.

by a horse cart,

by another horse cart.

A lovely waiter with a bottle of Tsingtao stout.

A cook with his beer.

Two men with their favourite beer

Two sailors with their best friend.

Two piggy cooks carrying a bottle of Tsingtao.

Two more doing the same.

Two Chinese ladies

Two more ladies entertaining beer drinking boys?

More ladies entertaining their menfolk

Another lady waiting for the return of her husband from the pub?

They even got fans for sale. Wonder what they've got anything to do with beer. Perhaps to fan the men too hot from drinking?

Beer on the tap

A photo of the Tsingtao Legend. This marks the end of the beer journey.

After lunch we were led to the home of Hong Yau Wai (康有為), which Mao Tse Tung used as his summer palace.





My first view of the home.

An external view of the the home from the other side of the stairs.

The sitting room, full of mahogany furniture.

His study, called "解慍觧" meaning "corner for relieving anger". In his later years, he could relieve his stress only by studying and practising calligraphy.

The verandah to the home of Kang.

The room in which Kang would sometimes receive guests. But all the furniture were gone because after the revolution, it was occupied by local residents who had to be paid to move out before the city could take it over and restore it as a tourist attraction.

Born in Nanhai , Guangdong (廣東南海), Kang Yuwei (康有為) (1858-1927) was one of the earliest
Chinese political thinkers in late Qing Dynasty and author of the book Da
Tungshu (大同書)  (literally The Book of Great Unity)
the ideas of which were first formed in 1884 and written partly in China and
partly whilst an exile in India but its full text was not published until 1935,
7 years after he died. In this book, he advocated the establishment of a
utopian state in which both the family and property should be abolished and
there are no more political boundaries and the world is a federation of
democratic (with directly elected political assembly) autonomous regions under
a central government. He considered the existing system of lifelong marriage
too oppressive and that marriage should be based on freely entered into
one-year renewable contracts between men and women and children should be cared
for by state-run nurseries and schools whilst old people should be looked
after in state-run homes. His political ideals appear to have been influenced
by the Confucian idea of Benevolence or Humanity (仁) but he was also a firm believer in the ability of technology to
improve material living conditions. In his utopian state, every one should ideally work
for just three to four hours a day. There would also be complete equality between
men and women. He also advocated the abolition of the capitalist system. He
classified human suffering under various categories: personal(conception,
sickness, premature death, loss of limb, living as a slave, a woman, a poor
man, a barbarian or outside of China, being an orphan or a widow,)
natural evil ( famine from droughts, floods, epidemics, fires, volcanic eruptions,
locusts) man made disasters (building collapses, shipwrecks) social and political
evils (corporal punishment, imprisonment, taxation, military conscription,
social stratification, oppressive political institutions, bonds of family and
state) mental and psychological evils( stupidity, hatred, fatigue, lusts,
desires and attachment to things) stresses  associated with high social
position (wealth, eminent position, longevity, being a ruler, and being a
spiritual leader). To him there is a hierarchy of religions in order of
increasing superiority as follows: Christianity and Islam, Confucianism, Taoism and
Buddhism and predicted the gradual elimination of the lower religions. He has a
photographic memory and could recite poems verbatim from a very young age. He
was a famous Confucian scholar and had written 《康子篇》、《新学伪经考》(
A Study of the so-called  Forged Rediscovered Classics) （陈千秋、梁启超协助编纂
）and《春秋董氏学》and "孔子改制考》(A
study of Confucian Reforms). He was much admired by Mao Tse Tung.

Coming from a family of officials, he was educated in the
Confucian classics and took and passed the imperial Civil Service Examination
as a scholar (進士), the equivalent of a Ph D but didn't like the
8-legged formalist style of writing. He first started learning about Western
literature and philosophy in 1879. He travelled to 11 countries in Europe and wrote a book about what he observed and thought ,
studied at Cambridge and returned to China to advocate the establishment of a
constitutional monarchy for China but his ideas were rejected after which he
devoted himself to reading, writing , teaching and calligraphy. Together with
Liang Qichao, he published a 《中外紀聞》(Chinese and Foreign
Chronicles and News)  and later formed a Strengthen Study Society (强学会) in Beijing. All through his life he had been a libertarian.

In 1895, when he went to Beijing to take the Imperial Civil
Service Exam, he learned of the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki (馬關條約) on 17th April which ended the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895
(中日甲午戰爭) over the sovereignty of Korea. This treaty replaced the
Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty of 1871. As a result of this treaty,
China recognized definitively the full and complete independence and autonomy
of Korea which thereafter ceased payment of tribute and performance of
ceremonies and formalities to China and China ceded to Japan in
perpetuity Taiwan and Penghu (彭湖群島) and the eastern
portion of the bay of Liaodong Peninsula (遼東半島) together with all
fortifications, arsenals and public property and China had to pay to Japan an
indemnity of 200,000,000 Kuping taels of silver, an amount equivalent to three
times the then annual GDP of Japan and had to open to Japanese trade the ports
of Shashih (沙市), Chungking (重慶), Soochow
(蘇州) and Hangchow (杭州) and China granted to
Japan the status of most-favored nation in its trade and diplomatic
relationships. Originally, the Japanese were asking for three other ports to be
opened. namely 順天, 湘潭 and 梧州 and also that no rights over Fujian province be signed with any
other nation but owing to the international diplomatic intervention (because
Japanese occupation of part of Liaotung Peninusula seriously affected the
interest of Russia in the three north eastern provinces in Manchuria and German
interest in Shantung), Japanese demands were cut down. But when this was
announced the whole of China was in uproar and together with 1300 Imperial
scholars, Kang submitted to the Emperor what has been called 公車上書, asking for drastic political reforms. This didn't reach the
Emperor. In May, he petitioned the Emperor again but didn't get any response.

When the German occupied Tsingtao  (at that time
called 膠州灣), in 1897, he petitioned the Emperor for
another time for political reforms and was received by Emperor Guangxu in June
16th 1897.  He then presented 《应诏统筹全局折》，his two books 《日本明治变政考》( A Study of Meiji Restoration of Japan)、《俄罗斯大彼得变政记》(A Political Memo on the Reforms of Peter the Great). In April, the
same year, together with Liang, he organized the Society for Saving the Nation
(保国会) to advocate reforms. He was then appointed a writer of Secretary
of State (总理衙门章京) with permission to present papers on
reforms. This influenced the reform movement of Guangxu (光緒) who instituted what has been called "The Hundred Days
Reform" (百日維新 or 戊戌政變) but this angered
Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧). All through his life,
he was a close friend of Liang Qichao (梁啓超) who also pushed for
constitutional monarchy. It was the darkest period of Chinese history. But
after the failure of the Hundred Days Reform, his brother was assassinated and
he himself together with Liang Qichao, fled to Japan because he was ordered to
be arrested and dealt with by slow slicing (凌遲). 
There they formed the Protect Emperor Society (保皇黨) to
preserve the monarchy through constitutional reform instead of opting for a
democratic republic as advocated by the likes of Dr. Sun Yat Sen who formed the
Revive China Society (興中會) and the Revolutionary
Alliance (革命同盟).