JINAN, May 19 (Xinhua) — Inside a brewery workshop lined with German-style purple bricks, vacationer Ji Hyeonseong from the Republic of Korea raised a glass of freshly brewed unfiltered beer straight from the manufacturing line. He was completely enthralled the second the malt taste reached his style buds.
The scene, nonetheless, was not going down in Germany, the standard residence of beer, however 1000’s of kilometers away, on the Tsingtao Beer Museum within the coastal Chinese metropolis of Qingdao.
“Tsingtao beer features a cool, smooth texture and is absolutely delicious. I’ll definitely recommend it to my friends back home,” Ji stated, including that his household selected to go to the museum as quickly as they arrived in Qingdao.
May 18 marks International Museum Day. Converted from a German-built brewery relationship again to 1903, the museum is attracting an growing variety of guests from overseas because the summer time tourism peak approaches. This is basically due to its immersive initiatives that mix historical past, tradition and leisure right into a refreshing journey expertise.
Inside the museum, technology-driven reveals have captivated many first-time guests like Ji.
In the brewing exhibition corridor, holographic projections vividly recreate a German brewer from a century in the past. Turning abruptly towards guests, he seems to splash them with a digital mug of beer, eliciting laughs and shock.
As night time falls, projection mapping and digital lighting applied sciences remodel the century-old brewery partitions into dreamlike shows of sunshine and shadow, rolling out a feast of nighttime visible wonders.
“We have carefully designed an industrial tourism experience that integrates sightseeing, interaction, tasting and shopping,” stated Sun Ji, curator of the museum.
The purpose is to rework industrial heritage into an immersive cultural tourism landmark that mixes historic exploration, brewing tradition, leisure, eating and artistic consumption, she stated.
Visitors may even step into the position of brewmasters, crafting personalised beer recipes in interactive theatrical gaming areas. Afterward, they will browse the museum’s present store for quirky mascot dolls and different artistic souvenirs.
Still, for a lot of guests, the beer itself stays the spotlight.
“It’s cool seeing the old buildings and vintage equipment, but the most unforgettable part is tasting the Tsingtao beer,” stated American vacationer Andrew Werner earlier than draining his glass in a single gulp.
This experience-oriented tourism mannequin has earned the museum exceptional market attraction. In 2025 alone, it acquired greater than 2.5 million visits.
“As China continues to optimize its visa-free policies, the museum is gaining a rising global profile. We welcomed more than 250,000 overseas visitors in 2025, up around 70 percent year on year,” Sun stated.
To higher serve worldwide vacationers, the museum has launched a ticketing system that helps a number of currencies and worldwide financial institution playing cards, whereas additionally providing multilingual guided companies in Chinese, English, Russian, French, Japanese and Korean.
Bilingual signage all through the venue additionally permits abroad guests to totally immerse themselves within the expertise.
China is leveraging its wealthy cultural sources to create new consumption eventualities and maintain financial momentum. The define of the nation’s fifteenth Five-Year Plan, launched in March this yr, known as for creating industrial tourism tailor-made to native situations and fostering distinctive themed journey routes and high-quality tourism efficiency initiatives.
The coverage push is accelerating the transformation of China’s industrial tourism sector, represented by the Tsingtao Beer Museum, towards technology-enhanced and culturally immersive experiences, respiration new life into historic heritage whereas strengthening preservation efforts.
“Our experience has shown that old factories and aging equipment are still precious assets that preserve historical memory and generate new momentum for cultural and tourism consumption,” stated Zeng Chao, deputy common supervisor of Tsingtao Beer Culture Communication Co., Ltd. and common supervisor of Tsingtao Beer International Tourism Development Co., Ltd.
According to Zeng, the museum plans to deepen cross-industry collaboration round cultural tourism IPs, whereas persevering with to improve immersive theatrical experiences and nighttime excursions. The purpose is to construct a complete tourism ecosystem integrating eating, lodging, transportation, sightseeing, procuring and leisure.
“We hope visitors from around the world will be able to fully experience the unique charm of China’s industrial heritage and the rich culture starting from Tsingtao beer,” Zeng added.