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A roundup of the best hotels, restaurants and more in the Olympic sailing city of Qingdao.

Beijing Olympics: Qiangdao Sailing
By Debbie Mason from Forbes Traveler

Olympic sailing city Qingdao's red roofs, winding, tree-lined avenues and blue skies are not perhaps what you'd expect from one of industrial Communist China's major cities.

A legacy from the Germans who took it over after the Boxer Rebellion of 1897, Qingdao's remarkable European style, particularly in the Badaguan area west of the city, has today become a favorite with Communist Party officials.

Go to Forbes Traveler to view the slideshow:

There is, however, more than 19th-century European charm in Qingdao. Modernity has arrived in a big way, and it has its share of straight, wide boulevards and concrete blocks that are typical of most Chinese cities. The differences here, though, are the unmistakable whiff of fresh sea air wherever you go and the distinct lack of traffic jams-though how long that lasts is surely just a matter of development.

Just over an hour away by plane from Beijing, the coastal city makes a welcome getaway from the capital's chaos and smog. Spread around a large natural bay, the seven-million-strong population is almost blase about the upcoming international regatta.

"Oh, sure we're excited about it, but our city would do fine even without the Olympic Games," says Wang Hui, Yinhai International Yacht Club's chief liaison officer. "Ours is a beautiful city, and it would develop anyway."

Since April, Olympic teams began arriving to begin practice rounds, "to get themselves familiar" with the conditions in Qingdao.

Could the stagnancy of the air, the lack of summer wind pose problems for the teams?

"Well yes," says Wang, completely unfazed by the question. "The lack of wind is a problem, in fact I don't really know why Qingdao was chosen to host the sailing!"

With just seven large five-star hotels in the city (including the Sea View Garden Hotel), it will be a a challenge to accommodate the sailing teams, staff and spectators, especially with the concurrent hosting of Qingdao's annual international beer festival. The festival opened a day after the Olympic opening ceremony-the very day the actual sailing commences.

"We are always really busy during the beer festival, and in fact half of our rooms have gone already to people coming for that," says one receptionist at the Shangri-La Hotel, which opened a whole new wing in March because of the Olympics. She adds, with equal candor, "We haven't even decided what our prices are going to be for that period, but they will be at least four times what they are now."

Though hotels we checked with say there are plenty of rooms free at the moment, it's likely visitors to Qingdao this August may have to look for cheaper options if they leave booking too late.

There is plenty to do in and around Qingdao, whether it's to stroll along the coastal path by the beaches, wander and marvel at the old streets, get out of the city and take to the mountains, which include the tallest of China's entire coast, Laoshan, or just sit by the road eating the heaps of cheap, fresh seafood and drinking Qingdao's most famous asset, Tsingtao Beer, on Yunxiao Lu.

Every Qingdao-an you speak to, beer drinker or not, has a quiet pride in their city's homegrown beer. It is available poured from the tap straight into plastic bags on every street in the old town. The bottles available in Chinese restaurants overseas, while perfectly drinkable, can't hold a candle to the fresh stuff. A tour of the Tsingtao Brewery is an evocative trip back to its early days, when German colonists founded it in 1903.

As well as taking the Olympics totally in their stride, the Qingdao-ans seem relaxed in just about everything. There's no staring at foreigners, or approaching strangers to practice their English or ask for photographs. Although minimal English is spoken, there's no surprise or laughter when the odd foreigner does manage to produce a bit of third-rate Mandarin, just a willingness to help that isn't forced.

See our slideshow of Beijing Olympics: Sailing.