Asia's largest beer festival,

where over 1,400 types of beer are served

and over six million people visit every year.

Tsingtao is this city's namesake beer.

In 2017, it was the third-most consumed beer in the world,

after American behemoth Budweiser

and Snow, a Chinese beer only sold in China.

But while Snow may dominate by sheer numbers,

Tsingtao is more internationally known.

It is one of the oldest beer brands in China,

started by Germans in the early 20th century.

Today, it's available in over 70 countries,

and is the host of this really, really intense beer festival.

But this city's beer-making history goes back even further

to 1903,

when the Tsingtao Brewery opened under the name

Germania-Brauerei.

At that time, Qingdao was a German colony,

and the Germans built a centralized pipe system

for drinking water,

a rarity in China at the time.

Water was piped in from the mountains,

which, along with hops and barley,

were the only ingredients in the beer.

In 1916, the brewery was sold to the Japanese.

And rice was added to the recipe.

And in 1949, when the Chinese Communists came to power,

the brewery became a state-owned enterprise.

It wasn't until the early 1990s when the brewery was privatized

and became the brand we all know today.

In 1991, the first Qingdao Beer Festival was held.

It now takes place every summer and lasts for about a month.

In 2015, this site was constructed as a year-round ode to beer.

And today, it remains the main venue for the annual festival.

It's not the most environmentally-friendly option,

but plastic bags as a takeout carrier

are very common in China,

in part because they're cheap and convenient.

Tsingtao Beer also tastes better in Qingdao.

Beer, after all, is basically liquid bread,

and the fresher it is, the better it tastes.

But the festival isn't just beer and food.

There are dance performances,

fireworks,

a drone show,

carnival rides,

this eccentric pile of bubbles,

and quite a bit of children.

Despite the festival's popularity,

locals say it is the beer, not the festival, that makes the city.

In fact, Professor Shen says

the first commercial ever made in China

was for Tsingtao Beer, in 1947.