From IEEE Spectrum:

This year, a somewhat startling experiment in digital television transmission has been unfolding in Qingdao, the seaside town in northeastern China best known to outsiders as the place where Tsingtao beer is brewed. The town is completing a government-supported project to convert 600 000 of its downtown households to digital cable television, making it one of the first areas in China to cease delivering cable television in analog format.

With the Beijing Olympics coming up in 2008, Beijing has made it a priority for digital television to be available nationwide by then. The Qingdao trial is a significant stepping-stone.