I, too, have a string of these shou-engraved blue glass beads with the little old-fashioned black and white faceted discs.

Most of the ones I've seen since - they also show up in an amber glass - have a simple version of the 2 shou-like circles, but some (like the necklace in this post) also feature the diagonal slashes or scroll work between the circles, similar to the way the Chinese carve these beads.

Again, the Germans occupied Shandong at the turn of the last century. Hence Tsingtao beer, among other things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsingtao_Brewery

Floor's link to the quartz and amber versions in Idar-Oberstein:

http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi?fvp=/openforum/&cmd=get&cG=9343632373&zu=3934353439&v=2&gV=0&p=