Fushan Cove and the Olympic Sailing Center on shore.	Middle-aged and senior citizens frequent May Fourth Square for regular exercises.	A Catholic church built in 1934.

THE coastal city of Qingdao, in Shandong Province, is known for both its sublime beaches and industrial prominence. Several Chinese companies, such as Haier and Hisense (both electric home appliance manufacturers), as well as the world-famous Tsingtao Beer brewery, are leaders in their respective fields at home and abroad. Now, the city is earning a reputation in an altogether different realm – sports – as it prepares to host the sailing events during the 2008 Olympic Games. Once the Games are over, the new marina will elevate the city into a marine sports hub expected to attract millions of sailing afficionados and tourists from around the world.

Why Qingdao?

There is a long story behind Qing-dao’s selection as the venue for the Olympic sailing contests. It originated with 67-year-old Chinese sailing champion Wang Zhimin, who became part of the first generation of sailing competitors in China after being recruited onto a provincial team in 1959. As she grew older, she adopted as her mission the public promotion of sailing, and discovering and nurturing young sailors. In 1986, she and her husband founded Zou’s Sailing Club, the first private yacht club of its kind in China, and since then she has devoted herself to building FRP yachts of the OP and Laser classes. When the Beijing Asian Games opened in 1990, the club provided sailing ships for its yachting events.

In 1991, the club successfully applied to the Asian Yacht Racing Union to host the Second Asian OP Class Sailing Championships. The event was the first major international sailing competition to be held in Qingdao, and the first in China to be organized by an individual. Wang’s club saw the entire process through from start to finish – from application to preparation and organization – without a cent from the government, and her seven-member family miraculously delivered a total of 45 OP class yachts.

Inspired by the success of the event, Wang traveled to Beijing in October 1998, and offered to host the 2001 World OP Class Sailing Championships with the Water Sports Administration Center under the General Administration of Sport of China. There, she ran across a team applying to host the sailing events for the 2008 Olympic Games, and an idea quickly formed in her mind: “With ocean conditions and docks ideal for yachting, along with its experience in organizing international events, Qingdao can outcompete any applicant for the Olympic regatta.”

Excited by the idea, Wang called off all her arrangements in Beijing, and immediately flew back to Qingdao. On landing, she drove directly to the municipal government, where the mayor took her proposal seriously and instructed the relevant departments to study its feasibility.

In February 1999, Zhang Qing, then director of the Water Sports Administration Center, and Li Quanhai, then secretary general of the China Yachting Association, endorsed Qingdao’s application during a visit to the city, calling the city “very competitive.” Emboldened by these remarks, Qing-dao submitted its formal application to the General Administration of Sport on May 13, 1999.

A full-scale bidding campaign was immediately launched. Qingdao restated its aspiration to play host to the Olympic regatta, and stressed its advantages as a marina. Meanwhile, it offered to increase daily flights to and from Beijing, from five or six, to 15 or 16 by the start of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. Meanwhile, Qingdao collected weather and tide forecast data for the Olympics period with assistance from the State Oceanic Administration’s Beihai branch. An appraisal report was composed based on the data and was forwarded to Beijing.

As a result of these efforts, the consensus that Qingdao should host the sailing events grew steadily in the Water Sports Administration Center, reaching unanimity by July 1999.

A Public Relations Campaign

To consolidate its initial success, Qingdao intensified its media campaign across China. “Qingdao has almost everything that constitutes a pleasant natural environment: a clean ocean, lush mountains, blue skies, golden sunshine and air imbued with the sweetness of fresh grass. It has grown from a fishing hamlet into a modern metropolis over the past century. Without a long history, it has little to draw upon from the past, which gives the town free rein in its creativity.” The citation is from an article entitled “Have Trust in Qingdao,” which appeared in the newspaper China Sports on August 2, 2000.

Such claims are no exaggeration. In the late Qing Dynasty, Kang Youwei, the famous scholar and reformist, chose Qingdao to spend the rest of his life after the failure of the Wuxu Reform in 1898, which he had masterminded. He described the region with the poetic lines: “Red roofs amid green trees, blue sky above green waves.”

Qingdao is also a popular destination for tourists, particularly during the summer. Its western section offers a spectacular view of European-style homes, vestiges of the city’s colonial past, while the eastern half of the city is glitteringly new and thoroughly modern. Among Qingdao’s top attractions are a landing stage dating from the Qing Dynasty that extends 440 meters into the sea, Xiaoqin Island, and Badaguan, a block of 10 intersected streets lined with spectacular villas and shaded by dense foliage. Strolling in the pine forest along the shimmering beach, thoughts take wing and troubles disappear on the salty breeze.

Qingdao also has a robust economy. It is the home of 10 nationally renowned companies, including Haier, Hisense, electric home appliances manufacturer Aucma, Tsingtao Beer, Etsong Tobacco Group and shoe manufacturer Doublestar. Other sectors, such as the port business, marine research and tourism, are also flourishing.

However, what really gave Qing-dao’s confidence that it would win the bid for the Olympic sailing events are its superb natural conditions for marine sports. Nestled safely in Jiaozhou Bay, Qingdao is relatively protected from the risk of typhoons, with 49 safe harbors and coves scattered along its coastline. The wind, waves, water temperature and climate in the region are all ideal for sailing sports.

To prepare for the Games, the city proposed building four venues for large-scale marine sports events, moving the Beihai Dockyard out of Fushan Cove and replacing it with a comprehensive marine sports center, one of the few in the world that would be located in the heart of a major city. Being able to accommodate marine sports of various kinds and classes, it would have every advantage enjoyed by other world-class sailing venues around the world.

In addition, the large number of hotels and facilities planned would provide all the services required for a major sporting event, while the city’s highly developed transport network and pleasant cityscape would ensure that athletes had an enjoyable and convenient stay.

The city’s merits were well known to people outside of Qingdao, particularly those who held sway in the selection of the host for the Olympic sailing events, and Qingdao seized every opportunity to further raise its profile. When its deputy mayor, Madam Zang Aimin, got word during the Intercity Sports Game in Xi’an in October 1999 that then-ISAF (International Sailing Federation) President Paul Henderson would be coming to the resort city of Sanya, in Hainan Province, she proposed that the Qingdao authorities extend him an invitation, which he accepted.

A schedule for Henderson’s visit to Qingdao was soon meticulously arranged to impress him both with the city’s natural beauty and its modern infrastructure. While overlooking Fushan Cove, where the sailing center was to be built, the ISAF president was effusive, and at the end of his visit remarked that Qingdao was the most beautiful Asian city he had ever seen. Qingdao was most assuredly qualified to host the Olympic sailing events, he said, and if the International Olympic Committee cared to solicit the opinion of the ISAF, he would tell them that Qingdao had his vote. He later wrote a letter of recommendation to the Beijing Olympic Games Bidding Committee.

His words carried weight. After several inspections, including surprise ones, the committee reached a preliminary agreement to hold the sailing events in Qingdao if China won the bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games. On July 13, 2001, the World OP Class Sailing Championships opened in Qingdao. Later that day, news came of Beijing’s Olympic bid victory, and Qingdao was formally announced as the site for the Beijing Olympics’ sailing competitions.

Geared up for the Olympics

The 2008 Olympics has triggered off a sailing fad in Qingdao. Various programs have been launched to boost sailing sports and public knowledge about it, as well as to cultivate young athletes. International experts have been hired to train local children, and sailing courses and clubs have been established in schools across the city.

Meanwhile, the city has been actively participating in international regattas. It sent a boat named after the city to two sessions of the Clipper World Sailing Race, and has become a stop on the racing route. An Yngling class women’s team, whose members are all from Qingdao, has been established, and will represent China at the upcoming Olympics this summer. A promotion campaign has made its way to 37 cities worldwide, advertising the city’s natural, cultural and sporting credentials, and the regulation and supervision of food safety has also been reinforced. In short, Qingdao is buzzing with activity in preparation for the Games.

The Olympic Sailing Center, Qingdao’s New Landmark

Qingdao’s Olympic Sailing Center on Fushan Cove overlooks a sapphire-blue ocean dotted with yachts and sails, as silver-crested waves lap at a shoreline of sleek, modern buildings of the latest design. Hard as it may be to believe, the bay was shunned by locals for the past 50 years because of the noise and pollution from the Beihai Dockyard.

After its selection as an Olympic city, Qingdao moved the factory in 2003 to Yellow Island, dozens of kilometers away from the downtown area. A year later, the world-class Olympic Sailing Center began to rise on the site, and all of its essential facilities were completed by June 30, 2006. In August of that year, the Good Luck Beijing-Qingdao International Regatta was successfully held there.

With 45 hectares of land, 46.9 hectares water and an interior coastline 1,300 meters long, Fushan Cove is a prime location for water sports, tourism and recreation. As the main construction project in the region, the Olympic Sailing Center observes strict ISAF standards while blending in with the city’s natural and cultural environment, and is easily accessed from other Olympic facilities, including the Judgment Center, the Administrative Center and the Olympic Village. Its design not only meets the needs of the Olympic competitions, but also its post-Olympic functions.

In light of the Beijing Olympic Committee’s instruction to present “a green Olympics, a sci-tech sophisticated Olympics and a people’s Olympics,” Qingdao applied the highest standards possible to the center’s design and construction, and introduced a number of the latest technologies. The center makes full use of renewable energy, including solar, tide and wind, for lighting and heating. Its 168 outdoor decorative lamps are all powered by sunlight, and the 41 lights along the levee dividing the mooring and the racing waters use wind energy. Each can save 6,570 kW/h of electricity per year. The turbines above the lights serve not only as power generators, but also as anemometers: they spin only when the wind speed exceeds three meters per second – the minimum needed for sailing.

Another environmentally friendly technology is the temperature control system that uses seawater as its heating and cooling medium. It provides air-conditioning and hot water to the Olympic Sailing Center’s media facilities, and it can control air temperature as effectively as air-conditioning for a fraction of the cost, cutting the power bill by more than RMB 100,000 a year. But environmental friendliness is clearly its greatest merit.

For visitors to the center, the first sight to catch their eye are usually the two breakwaters extending far out to sea. The larger one, which is 534 meters long and 47 meters wide, serves as the seating stand during sailing races, and has a capacity of 8,000. According to Zang Aimin, deputy mayor and vice president of the Olympic Sailing Committee of Qingdao, in previous Olympic sailing races there was no place for spectators. The events were therefore confined to participating athletes. During the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games, both nations planned for similar spectator seating along the sailing courses to enable the audience to watch the contest up close, but the idea was eventually dropped for financial, safety and construction scheduling reasons. For the first time, then, the breakwater of the Qingdao Sailing Center will offer viewers a front-row seat for the sailing competitions.

Eyeing the Post-Olympics Era

It is a common problem that many expensive venues are left vacant once the Olympic Games are over. This concern was taken into account from the moment Qingdao began planning for the Sailing Center.

“We are going to develop the area into a tourist resort, as well as a base for sailing training and competitions,” a local official said at the time. The densely wooded Yan’erdao Mountain was meticulously saved from damage by digging a tunnel through it, while vestiges of the Beihai Dockyard, such as the archaic tower crane and bollard, were preserved as reminders of the busy industrial port it once was. All of these, plus the splendid ocean views, will hold enormous appeal for tourists.

The center will remain busy after the 2008 Olympics, with a number of sailing events scheduled, including youth competitions, a China Cup Regatta and the Volvo Ocean Race 2009, and the center’s Olympic Village will be turned into a five-star hotel. Its Administrative Center will become a training base for water sports and the seat of the National Ocean Navigation School. Its Athlete Center will be transformed into an Olympic Sailing Museum and a fitness center, while the Media Center will house a yachting club. The Logistics Center will become a recreation locale, and the Surveying Dock will open to luxury cruise ships.

The glory of Qingdao and its Olympic Sailing Center will not end with the 2008 Olympics, but will open a new chapter in the city’s history as a premier coastal resort and marine sporting venue.