QingDao: Beer in a Bag

After a wonderful dinner on our last evening in Qingdao, we caught the bus back to our hotel room. Entering the bus, both the Missus and I took a whiff while walking past the bus driver. Our driver on our last ride on this route smelled strangely of Qingdao's most famous export, if you know what I mean. He was also driving in flip-flops, which made the entire ride surreal. Heading back to our room, the Missus wanted me to get my "beer in a bag", but we really didn't know where to start. There are literally hundreds of tiny restaurants with stacks of kegs upfront, perhaps they are all pretty much the same; but which one to choose?

The Missus decided to ask a gentleman walking past us down the street. The Missus quickly picked up his QingDao accent, thus making him local, and with that comes some "cred". He told the Missus to follow him, he'd show us where he gets his Tsingtao in a bag every night on the way home from work. He was on his way there anyway……

Which is how Iwe finally got Tsingtao in a bag. The Missus asked for just enough for two cups.

If I recall this was about 50 cents US, and it wasn't like Bia Hoi, but really Tsingtao. This tasted much lighter, more effervescent, and I guess the word would be "fresher" than the bottled stuff. There was almost a faint sweetness to it. Finally, beer in a bag……. now things felt complete.

On our way back to our room, we spied the gentleman who guided us to our beer in a bag. He was sitting at a table, beer bag hanging from a nail pounded into its side. He was also waving us to him…… Curious we walked toward him. As we approached, he started clearing his table….. it turns out he wanted us to join him for dinner! Qingdao sure had grown on me…… I was really going to miss this city.

I do have one more QingDao post, I hope to have it done this week. Thanks for reading!