English weekly newspapers The Observer lately published contemporary famous author Lawrence Osborne’s travel note Chateau Changyu: A Growing Taste for Chinese Wine, which described his knowledge and experience from Chateau Changyu Rena Shaanxi to Yantai Changyu International Wine City. The introduction said: “The Chinese wine industry is getting into its stride and among the huge vineyards and endless empty towerblocks, there are some rare finds to be enjoyed.”

Arriving in Yantai from Xi’an, Lawrence Osborne wrote down his first impression: “When as I sat in my 17th-floor room in the Yantai Hilton looking down at the misted sea, I had a feeling China’s original wine town might be more charming than I had anticipated.” When walking into Changyu International Wine City located in YEDA for a visit, Lawrence Osborne was shocked by the grand dimension of its wine production center, he described: “It was like the Wine City itself, a sprawling viticultural Willy Wonka factory (note: quoted from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) with roofs taller than Amiens cathedral and endless conveyor belts, bottling machines and probably the largest fermentation tanks ever seen...” It is learned that Changyu International Wine City covers an area of 6,200 mu (about 4 sq. km.), whose construction started in 2012, with a total investment of 6 Billion Yuan. The first phase project Wine Production Center had been put into production last year, the exterior decoration of Grape and Wine Institute, Chateau Tinlot and Chateau Koyac Brandy has been completed and other projects also proceed smoothly. Among the wine industry around the world at present, Yantai Changyu International Wine City gathers the most investment, the largest scale, the most advanced equipment and the most cutting-edge process and is called “wine aircraft carrier”.

Founded in 1791, The Observer is the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world and was incorporated into The Guardian media group in 1993, its mainstream reader group is intellectuals, and the information in aspects such as good wine, good food and travel accounts for a large proportion in this newspaper. (Chen Zhuang)