The 9th Qingdao International Sailing Week ·Marine Festival 2017 will be held in the Qingdao Olympics Sailing Center from the 11th to 20thof August. Sailors from all over the world will gather in Qingdao to enjoy sailing. A series of cultural and entertainment activities will be held for residents and visitors. The International Elite Sailing Competition for College Students as a key part of the festival will be held on the 1st day. Sailing teams from world-renowned colleges, including Cambridge University, Oxford University, Imperial College London of UK, UC Berkeley of the US, Moscow University of Russia, The University of Melbourne of Australia, Hogeschool in Holland, Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University of China will come to Qingdao to participate in the competition.

    The festival, themed with Sailing City Helps the City to achieve Blue Overleap, is an internationalized event for ordinary urban residents. Besides three local brand competitions, including City Mayor Round the Island International Game, Qingdao International Yacht Game, Qingdao International OP Sailing Camp & Sailing Competition, the festival also introduced Qingdao International Sailing Training Camp, International Sailing Competition for Famous College Students (Qingdao, China), Shandong Kayak Game Qingdao Leg, Ship-owner Cup Sailing Competition. During the competition, the city will hold sailing promotion events in the West Coast New Area, Blue Silicon Valley, Joy Coastal City, Red Island Economic Development Zone. (Sun Fei) Ji’nan-Qingdao railway: super major bridge over Dagu River closed in advance As the on-site conductor blew the whistle on morning of the11thof July, 128 meters long spanned continuous beam, the last part of the 72+128+72m long super major bridge over Dagu River, the longest spanned continuous beam and the key controlled project of Ji’nan-Qingdao Express Railway, closed for 5 days before the plan, marking dual-lane high-rise beam from Qingdao to Ji’nan established, laid a foundation for opening to traffic in the end of 2018.

    Ji’nan-Qingdao express railway, the 1st express railway invested by the local government approved by central government, is 307.8 kilometers long. Running across the whole Shandong Peninsula, the railway starts from New Ji’nan East Railway Station and ends at the Qingdao Railway Hub Red Island Station. Integrated test and commissioningis expected to be conducted in the 1st half of 2018. After being built the passenger will take just 1 hour to travel between Ji’nan and Qingdao.(Zhou Jianliang) [Magnificent super major bridge over Dagu River of Ji’nan-Qingdao express railway emerged. By Fu Xuejun] US College Students in Qingdao Series Report US college students and Qingdao friends talked about cultural difference “Can Chinese accept transnational marriage?””I feel that the concept is accepted, but marriage is about many things in life, problems will occur if differences are too big.” “I’ve heard in the US, 18-year-old or above students need to do part-time jobs to earn tuition fee and alimony, the parents will stop financial support, is that real?”“Parents generally will support their children in college with money. After 18-years-old, Americans usually will do part-time jobs for alimony.” Recently, the Sino-US Cultural Belt project, jointly sponsored by the Qingdao Daily multimedia platform and the US South Florida University (SFU), held Is That Real？Q&A Meeting for Chinese and US Friends. In the meeting both Chinese and US students answered questions raised by students from the other country. 13 Chinese and US students answered over 20 questions in more than two hours.

    The project started to collect questions from both Chinese and US people one week before the meeting. In a WeChat group organized by Qingdao Daily, Chinese people raised over 40 questions, involving family education and school education in US; while US students raised over 80 questions, involving Chinese culture, life and social development. The communication went well with many splendid answers presented.

    Mr. Shepherd, vice-professor in SFU Chinese College and the project director said, the communication is not enough due to time limit, he is expecting to hold communication events on more topics for further communication. He also mentioned that a parent of Chinese student said in the meeting Generalization is not encouraged in dealing with problems.

    For US students, it will be growth if they can think in an un-generalized way. (Wang Muyuan) [Communication meeting.] 70,000 couples come to Shinan of Qingdao for wedding shooting Shi’nan District of Qingdao, the most famous wedding photography destination in Northern China, expects to attract almost 70,000 couples, 70% of whom are from other places, in 2017. In recent years, Shinan District makes full use of rich wedding tourism resources in Ba Da Guan and Taiping Square areas to attract business, mid-and-high wedding products based on cultural preservation units and historical buildings, yards and mansions are introduced. In this September, Shinan District will invite 999 newly married couples from both home and abroad to Qingdao Olympics Sailing Center foe setting world record. A large harbor real view runway will also be built. (Wang Meng) [Qingdao Ba Da Guan is one of most favorite wedding photographing destinations of new couples. By Wang Lei]