Qingdao Sailing History & Current Events:
The 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta was successfully held August 9th through the 21st at the Qingdao International Marina & Olympic Sailing Center with China winning its first gold medal in sailing.  The opening ceremony of the Sailing Regatta of the 29th Olympic Games was held at the Olympic Sailing Center located at the former Beihai dockyard in FuShan Bay adjoining Wusi (May 4th) Square and DongHai West Rd.  The 13th Paralympic Sailing Regatta was also held at the Qingdao International Marina & Olympic Sailing Center from September 8th through the 13th, 2008.  For details contact the Qingdao International Yacht Club.

The Olympic flame was kindled in Olympia at 11:00 a.m. (GMT +2), 24 March 2008, and after a global journey through Almaty, Istanbul, St. Petersburg, London, Paris, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Dar es Salaam, Muscat, Islamabad, New Delhi, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Canberra, Nagano, Seoul, Pyongyang, and Ho Chi Minh City, it arrived back in Hong Kong, China for its domestic route.  Qingdao citizens and travelers witnessed the Beijing Olympic torch “XiangYun” and the Olympic flame at various locations throughout Qingdao on July 21st, 2008.  A grand welcoming ceremony was held for the arrival of the Olympic flame & torch in Qingdao.  After the starting ceremony, in the morning, 138 Qingdao torchbearers and 34 guide-runners passed the torch across Qingdao city and then finally to LinYi (originally scheduled for RiZhao) in the afternoon.

The Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) 2008-2009 in which racers from around the world faced one of the hardest tasks in the sport of sailing, to sail around the world and make it to the finish alive, stopped at Qingdao's International Marina & Sailing Center on leg 4 from Singapore.  The fleet of eight boats set sail from Alicante, Spain on the first offshore leg to Cape Town, South Africa on October 11th, 2008.  Telefonica Blue took first place in leg 4, the race to Qingdao, in one of the toughest race legs, after which boats got less than a month to make any repairs, compete in In-Port (IP) races, and plan for the next leg of their journey around South America to Rio De Janeiro which is the longest of the race at 12,300 nautical miles.

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race will return to Qingdao for a third time during February-March 2010.  The Clipper 09-10 is the third time Qingdao has participated in this Clipper Ventures international sailing event, the first being Clipper 05-06.  Godspeed to all and best of luck to Qingdao's skipper Chris Stanmore-Major and crew of 41.