During the Asia stage of the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup, which concluded last month, Qingdao, the Olympic sailing city in east China's Shandong province, once again displayed its charms as one of the world's top water sports destinations. Leveraging its Olympic legacy, Qingdao has had the wind in its sails as a sailing center in recent years.

In return the sport has spurred on growth in other fields and helped chart a course for the city to become an international metropolis. "Qingdao is a perfect sailing city with high-level venue and amazing sailing conditions," said Wei Mengxi, champion of the Women's 470 at the Qingdao World Cup event.

The Sailing World Cup, launched in 2008 and featuring the Olympic sailing events, attracted nearly 200 sailors from 21 countries and regions to participate in Qingdao.

To date the city has hosted more international sailing events than any other Asian city. The Volvo Ocean Race, known as the "Mount Everest of sailing", visited in 2009 and the Clipper Round the World Race, the longest sailing competition in the world, will again stop over in the city for its 2015/2016 season.

The stopover will make Qingdao the only city to host the Clipper race for six seasons.

Qingdao also has its own events and is well on the way to becoming Asia's premier sailing center.

Since 2008, every third Saturday from August to September the Qingdao International Sailing Week takes place in coastal waters around Qingdao and cities in Shandong. From 2009 to 2012, more than 2,000 athletes from 15 countries and regions took part in the Mayor's Cup Yacht Race. Several of China's sailing celebrities were born in Qingdao.

Guo Chuan, a Qingdao native, became the first man to complete a nonstop circumnavigation of the globe in a Class 40 boat. It took him 137 days and 20 hours. While Song Kun, a crew member of The Qingdao which took part in the fifth Clipper Round the World Race, is set to become the first Chinese woman to circumnavigate the globe.

Apart from hosting professional races, Qingdao is also promoting sailing as a sport everyone can enjoy. Since 2006 sailing courses at more than 140 local schools and clubs have opened. With 1,050 sailboats in town, the city has distributed 20,000 books about sailing to young people and more than 10,000 locals have received professional training in the sport.