Contemporary Relics Awaken Qingdao

The history of Qingdao as a city on Jiaozhou Bay can only be traced back to 1891， when the Qing Dynasty（1644-1911） established a military base there. Compared to the countless millennia-old cities in China， Qingdao is definitely young. However， it was chosen as one of four pilot units of China’s first nationwide census on state-owned moveable cultural relics despite its youth.

Qingdao was consecutively colonized by Germany and Japan for half a century. This background has left the city a tremendous contemporary industrial legacy. In fact， the cultural relics census is illuminating the city’s intimacy with modern industrial civilization.

Astronomy at Qingdao Observatory

Atop Guanxiang Hill in Qingdao is a domed building. It is the Qingdao Observatory under the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The astronomical observatory was first built by Germans in 1898， and handed over to Chinese in 1924. As the cradle of modern Chinese astronomy， it was the first observatory ever managed by Chinese.

Inside the observatory is a refractive astronomical telescope imported from Germany in 1932. It was one of the earliest photographic telescopes ever used in China. The observatory also houses a 16cm-aperture German-made telescope， which had been used to observe sunspots and celestial bodies since 1905. It was with this telescope that Chinese astronomer Kao Ping-Tse， then head of the observatory’s Astronomical Magnetics Department， drew China’s first sunspot drawing in 1925.

The observatory’s collection also includes a German-made chronometer dating back to 1919 and an electric clock and a theodolite – both over a century old. The antique astronomical devices and observational records were all included in the cultural relics survey. It has been confirmed that more than 20 of the observatory’s items， including the refractive telescope and the 1925 sunspot drawing， have been added to the list of national moveable cultural relics.

Tsingtao Beer

When speaking of Qingdao， many instantly think of Tsingtao Beer. Indeed， as China’s most renowned beer brand dating back to 1903， Tsingtao Beer has become an icon of the city.

Inside Tsingtao Brewery Co.， Ltd. at 56 Dengzhou Road are two red-brick European-style buildings. They are where the brewery was first established by German settlers. Despite a century of weath-ering， the two old buildings have remained unchanged， becoming the city’s only existing century-old industrial structures. Now， they house the Tsingtao Beer Museum， the only of its kind in China.

The best-known “treasure” in the museum’s collection is a Siemens electric motor produced in 1896. The motor served in the brewery from 1903， when Tsingtao Brewery was founded， all the way until 1995. It is also the oldest surviving Siemens electric motor in the world. A rumor circulated that Siemens Corporation once offered a modern production line in exchange for the vintage machine， but Tsingtao Brewery refused because of how much the motor means to the brand’s history.

Prior to the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949， Tsingtao Brewery successively endured the German colonial period， the Japanese colonial period， and the Republic of China（1912-1949） period， leaving behind plentiful cultural relics. Most of them are now housed in Tsingtao Beer Museum， including a factory blueprint and a hand-made red copper kettle left by Germans， a huge 6-liter beer bottle and posters dating back to the Japanese colonial period， as well as China’s earliest trademark registration certificate and advertising film.

Because of the cultural relics census， the museum carefully inventoried its collection. “Communicating with experts has helped us renew our awareness of the historical value of cultural relics in our museum，” remarked curator Dong Fang. “The census has confirmed 21 antiquities in our collection are national cultural relics above Grade-3， including six Grade-1 pieces.”

Historic Plumbing

Few are aware that Qingdao was one of the earliest Chinese cities to use indoor plumbing， which can be traced back more than 110 years in the city.

In 1898， Germany forced the Qing government to sign an unfair treaty which deemed Qingdao its colony. In an attempt to make it a “model colony，” German settlers carried out urban construction in Qingdao following the most advanced city planning ideas in Europe at the end of the 19th Century， including the plumbing system. In 1899， they dug 50 wells in the lower reaches of the Haibo River as the tap water source. Water drained from those wells was first transmitted to a storage tank atop Guanxiang Hill with the assistance of steam pumps， and then to urban residences through pipes. In 1901， tap water was available in Qingdao.

The city still preserves many industrial relics reminiscent of the plumbing history. Han Shaojiang， former Party chief of Qingdao Waterworks Corporation （renamed Qingdao Hairun Waterworks Group Co.， Ltd. in 2002）， has collected a large amount of historical documents and relics related to the city’s water supply history. His most cherished item is a DN350 water valve that was installed in the water tower atop Guanxiang Hill in 1899 and wasn’t removed until 2010. Although rusty inside， the German inscriptions on its shell remain visible. His collection also includes an iron manhole cover cast by Germany’s Halberg Foundry Company in 1906 and a Mitsubishi electric motor from the Japanese colonial period.

“Every cultural relic related to Qingdao’s plumbing history is worth preserving forever，” remarks Han. “Qingdao Hairun Waterworks Group is planning to establish a plumbing museum， and the project is scheduled to start this year.”