It was an odd sight - a half-dressed man scurrying round a corner carrying a clear polythene bag of amber liquid. Maybe it was someone on the run from the local hospital, catheter in hand.

If so, the hospital had a mass breakout on its hands, because there was another one further along the street. Then another, this time a woman, all in a hurry and all clutching bags of what?

I was traveling through Qingdao, having just arrived for the opening of the city's two-week international beer festival. I hadn't touched a drop yet, and my finely honed investigative journalistic talents pointed to the guess that this had more to do with beer and the sweltering heat rather than, say, billing problems at the local clinic.