Qingdao

The pier dates from 1892 and an octagonal pavilion, Huilan, stands at the seaward end of it. On rough days the water comes over the deck and the pier is shut. Winter brings the gulls in close enough to take food out of a hand.

Read the street names as you walk. Ten roads each took a different tree, so they turn in different weeks: peach blossom on one in April, ginkgo yellow on another in autumn. Where it meets the sea, Huashilou is a villa of granite and cobble, open inside.

The museum occupies the brewery buildings put up in 1903. The route past the old plant ends with a glass drawn unfiltered, which does not taste like what the shops in town sell. A working factory sits next door and the smell of malt follows you round.

The granite rises straight off the sea, so the water stays in sight the whole way to the 1,132-metre top. Taiqing Palace on the southern slope is a Daoist house, and a few trees in its yard are labelled as centuries old. An hour and a half by bus from town.

Finished in 1934, its twin towers going up 56 metres, with a plaza at the foot of the steps so well known for photographs that wedding crews queue for it at weekends.

Three red cylinders stand on the hilltop and one of them turns. A full rotation carries the red-tiled roofs past and then the sea behind them, which settles the question of why every roof in this city is the same colour.

The red spiral put up in 1997 is what the square goes by. The reclaimed ground running east is the marina that held the 2008 Olympic sailing, and the masts are still lined up in it. Twenty minutes along the shore joins the two.

The sand is fine and the bay shallow enough that you rarely meet a large wave. Fog does sit on it through July and August mornings, though, which pushes swimming back to the afternoon when it lifts.

The cherry avenue opens around the middle of April. The trees went in during the Japanese period and grew into this, so on weekends in that fortnight the road outside the main gate stops moving.

A causeway runs out to this small island, and a white lighthouse of 1900 sits on top of it. Twenty minutes covers the circuit, which faces Zhanqiao across the water and tends to get walked with it.

Finished in 1907 for the German governor, a castle-like pile of granite base, tower and red roof. It stands below Signal Hill on its south side, so the park and the house go together, and inside stand the furniture and piano brought in at the time.

A little over 3km of sand on the Huangdao side across Jiaozhou Bay. The undersea tunnel opened in 2011, so a car reaches it from town in about 40 minutes, and the fine sand suits bare feet. Wider than the city beaches, it has room even on summer weekends.

Named for a rock pillar standing in the sea like a seated old man. It lies east of the centre on the road to Laoshan district, and the long sweep of sand draws many people for a walk at sunset.

A seaside park whose paths trace red shoreline rocks. Next door, the Qingdao Aquarium opened in 1932 as China's first. Wet rock turns slick, so keep inside the railing when waves are breaking.