On October 15, the Chinese national football team secured their first win in the 2026 World Cup Asian qualifiers as they won 2-1 over Indonesia in Qingdao Youth Football Field in the fourth round of the qualifiers.

This is the first time for Shandong Province to host a home game of the Chinese national football team in the World Cup Asian qualifiers. It also marks the first time for Qingdao to hold a grade A FIFA game. Qingdao’s performance in organizing and providing services to the game epitomizes China’s characteristics. As many as 37,133 fans were drawn to watch the high-profile game, and mostly spoke highly of comfortable experience when watching the live match.

Qingdao is working hard to build the brand “Touring around Qingdao While Watching Games” and facilitate in-depth integration between sports and tourism in an effort to unleash huge potential of its sports tourism market. In 2024, Qingdao has held 221 municipal level above sports events, including 54 competitive sport items such as sailing, skating, UAVs, marine modelling, athletics, swimming, basketball, football and fencing, etc., as well as more than mass sports activities in more than ten categories.  (Xu Nuo)

The 2026 World Cup Asian qualifier in Qingdao Youth Football Field.