Qingdao, Shandong Province, China

Economy | Industrial zones | Road | Marine | Aviation | Intercity rail | Public transport | Metro | Tramway

🇨🇳 Qingdao is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt, One Road Initiative that connects Asia with Europe. It has the highest GDP of any city in the province. Administered at the sub-provincial level, Qingdao has jurisdiction over six districts and four county-level cities. It is situated across the Shandong Peninsula and looking out to the Yellow Sea.

Qingdao is a major seaport and naval base, as well as a commercial and financial center. It is home to electronics multinationals such as Haier and Hisense. The Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, links the main urban area of Qingdao with Huangdao district, straddling the Jiaozhou Bay sea areas. Its historic, German-style architecture and Tsingtao Brewery, the second largest brewery in China are legacies of the German occupation (1898-1914).

In 2007, Qingdao was named as one of China's top ten cities by the Chinese Cities Brand Value Report, which was released at the 2007 Beijing Summit of China Cities Forum. In 2009, Qingdao was named China's most livable city by the Chinese Institute of City Competitiveness. In 2018, Qingdao held the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.

Qingdao is also one of the world's top 100 cities for global scientific research as tracked by the Nature Index. The city is home to several notable universities, including the Ocean University of China, China University of Petroleum, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao University, Qingdao University of Science and Technology Qingdao University of Technology, and Qingdao Agricultural University.

Economy In recent years, an important region in Eastern China, Shandong Province has seen substantial change in its economic landscape. Much of this development has been concentrated in Qingdao. Qingdao has seen rapid development. With an annual growth rate of 18.9 percent in 2006, the city's GDP reached 42.3 billion, ranking first in Shandong Province and tenth out of China's top 20 cities. GDP per capita comprised CN¥52,895 (US$7,616) in 2008. The GDP has grown steadily at an average pace of 16% annually. In 2006, Qingdao was ranked one of six "golden cities" by the World Bank, out of 120 Chinese cities assessed on factors including investment climate and government effectiveness. In 2018, Qingdao's GDP reached CN¥1200.15 billion, though it shrank a little in 2019.

Internationally, Qingdao is perhaps best known for its Tsingtao Brewery, founded by a German-British joint venture in 1903 that produces Tsingtao beer, the best-known Chinese export beer. It is also home to Haier, a large white goods manufacturer, and Hisense, a major electronics company. In 2002 guitar manufacturers Epiphone opened a factory in Qingdao. In 1984 the Chinese government named a district of Qingdao a Special Economic and Technology Development Zone (SETDZ). Along with this district, the entire city had gone through amazing development of secondary and tertiary industries. Qingdao flourishes with foreign investment and international trade as an important trading port in the province. South Korea and Japan in particular made extensive investments in the city. Approximately 80,000 South Korean citizens reside there.

In terms of primary sector industries, Qingdao has an estimated 50,000 acres (200 km2) of arable land. Qingdao has a zigzagging pattern coastline, and thus possesses an invaluable stock of fish, shrimp, and other sea resources.

Qingdao's wind power electricity generation performs at among the highest levels in the region.

Industrial zones • Qingdao West Coast New District • Qingdao Special Economic and Technological Development Area • Qingdao Free Trade Zone • Qingdao High-tech Industrial Zone • Qingdao University Industrial Zone.

Road There are a total of 1,145 km (711 mi) of roads in the Qingdao area, with nearly 500 km (310 mi) of expressways. These National Trunk Highway System (NTHS) Expressways begin or pass through in Qingdao. Expressways that begin in Qingdao are in Bold: • G15 Shenhai Expressway (Shenyang, Liaoning-Haikou, Hainan) • G18 Rongwu Expressway (Rongcheng, Shandong-Wuhai, Inner Mongolia) • G20 Qingyin Expressway (Qingdao-Yinchuan, Ningxia) Spur Route: G2011 Qingxin Expressway (Qingdao-Xinhe, Pingdu, Shandong) • G22 Qinglan Expressway (Qingdao-Lanzhou, Gansu) These provincial expressways begin in or pass through Qingdao. Expressways that begin in Qingdao are in Bold: • S16 Rongwei Expressway (Rongcheng-Weifang) • S19 Longqing Expressway (Longkou-Qingdao) • S21 Xinwei Expressway (Xinhe-Weifang) • S24 Weiqing Expressway (Weihai-Qingdao) Other than Expressways, there are also National Highways that pass through or begin in Qingdao. National Highways that begin in Qingdao are in bold: • G204 (Yantai-shanghai_sh) • G206 (Yantai-Shantou) • G308 (Qingdao-Shijiazhuang) • G309 (Rongcheng-Lanzhou).

On 30 June 2011, the longest bridge over water opened in Qingdao. The bridge, Haiwan Bridge, is 26.4 miles (42.5 km) long and connects Qingdao to Huangdao and Hongdao. It would easily cross the English Channel and is almost three miles (4.8 km) longer than the previous record-holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the American state of Louisiana. Haiwan Bridge is supported by more than 5,000 pillars and costs about 10 billion yuan which is about 1.5 billion dollars. The bridge was designed by the Shandong Gausu Group and the construction lasted for four years. Haiwan Bridge cut the commute between the city of Qingdao and the sprawling suburb of Huangdao by 30 minutes. At least 10,000 workers toiled in two teams around the clock to build the bridge, which was constructed from opposite ends. On the same day, the Jiaozhou Bay Tunnel opened. The tunnel brought much convenience to people by supporting public buses and making transport between the two areas more convenient.

Marine Qingdao (official name: Qingdao port international co. ltd.) hosts one of the world's busiest seaports. Cooperative relations have been established with 450 ports in 130 countries worldwide. The port of Qingdao is part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. In 2003, the annual cargo handling capacity exceeded 100 million tons for the first time. The number of containers reached 3.41 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of cargoes. By 2011, the port had become the world’s sixth-busiest by Total Cargo Volume, having handled 372,000,000 metric tons (366,000,000 long tons; 410,000,000 short tons) of cargo in that year. As of 2016, it was the 8th in the world in terms of TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent Units).

The Orient Ferry connects Qingdao with Shimonoseki, Japan. There are two ferry lines connecting Qingdao with South Korea. The New Golden Bridge II operates between Qingdao and Incheon, and the Blue Sea Ferry operates between Qingdao and Gunsan. Qingdao port also includes a number of large adjacent ports including Dongjiakou.

Aviation Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport, located 39 km (24 mi) away from the city centre, is served by 13 domestic and international airlines that operate 94 routes, 12 of which are international and regional. The airport opened on August 12, 2021 as a replacement for Qingdao Liuting International Airport.

Intercity raill Qingdao's railway development picked up during the late 1990s. It is at the start of the Jiaoji Railway. Qingdao's city proper has some major railway stations, including Qingdao railway station, Cangkou railway station, Dagang railway station and Qingdao North railway station. Sifang railway station is now closed to passengers.

D and G series high-speed trains travel on the Jiaoji High Speed Railway and reach speeds of 300 km/h (190 mph) on the Jinan-Qingdao Section. Services go to Beijing, Shanghai, Hefei, Jinan and Tianjin. The fastest train between Qingdao and Beijing is G206 / G205, which takes 2 hours and 58 minutes.

Domestic rail lines connect Qingdao with many cities in China, including Beijing, Lanzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Jinan and Jining.

Public transport Qingdao's public traffic owns 5283 large and medium-sized buses, CNG buses as of 2012.There are also 136 trolleybuses as of 2012. All of the buses and trolleybuses can be accessed using the Qingdao Public Traffic IC Card (青岛卡), which uses radio frequencies so the card does not have to physically touch the scanner. After that, all public transportation companies use Qingdaotong Card, the last company that started to use this card is the Zhenqing bus company located in The West Coast New Area of Qingdao (original Huangdao Distinct) in 2019.

Non air-conditioned buses cost 1 yuan (excluding the tunnel bus), The volume of road passenger transport approaches 737 million per year. The Public Transport Brand of 'Ri-Xin Bus (日新巴士)' is also known in China.

There are several taxi companies in Qingdao including Yiqing Company, Zhongqing Company, Jiaoyun Company, and, Huaqing Company.

Metro After getting the approval from the State Council, the government announced on 18 August 2009 that Qingdao is ready to spend more than 29 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) before 2016 on its subway construction. Construction of 54.7 km (34.0 mi) of subway line 3 was completed before 2016 with a total investment of 29.2 billion yuan ($4.3 billion). Metro Line 3 is the first line in function and opened on 16 December 2015. In the long term, the city plans to build eight subway lines in downtown and some suburban districts, which account for 231.5 km (143.8 mi) in future. The system has an operating length of 243 km (151 mi), lines in operation including Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 8, Line 11, and Line 13.

Tramway The Qingdao Tram (official name: Modern tram demonstration line) of Chengyang District, Qingdao, is a tram system operating in Chengyang District, Qingdao, China. It opened in 2016. The Qingdao Public Transport Group Rail Bus Co., Ltd. is responsible for operation and management. The system is only composed of 1 tram line.

Qingdao, Shandong Province, China 
<b>Qingdao, Shandong Province, China</b>
Image: Adobe Stock 昊 周 #395326627

Qingdao is rated Gamma + by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) which evaluates and ranks the relationships between world cities in the context of globalisation. Gamma level cities are cities that link smaller economic regions into the world economy.

Qingdao is the #38 city in the world according to the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) which evaluates and ranks the competitiveness of the major financial centres of the world according to a wide range of criteria – Human Capital, Business, Finance, Infrastructure and Reputation.

Qingdao is ranked #76 and rated C by the Global Urban Competitiveness Report (GUCR) which evaluates and ranks world cities in the context of economic competitiveness. C cities are international gateway cities. Qingdao was ranked #921 by the Nomad List which evaluates and ranks remote work hubs by cost, internet, fun and safety. Qingdao has a population of over 2,755,500 people. Qingdao also forms the centre of the wider Qingdao metropolitan area which has a population of over 9,046,000 people. Qingdao is ranked #290 for startups with a score of 1.028.

To set up a UBI Lab for Qingdao see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Qingdao is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Film see: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Qingdao has links with:

🇲🇽 Acapulco, Mexico 🇦🇺 Adelaide, Australia 🇹🇷 Antalya, Turkey 🇳🇿 Auckland, New Zealand 🇪🇸 Bilbao, Spain 🇫🇷 Brest, France 🇰🇷 Buk, South Korea 🇻🇳 Da Nang City, Vietnam 🇰🇷 Daegu, South Korea 🇺🇸 Dallas, USA 🇹🇷 Denizli, Turkey 🇹🇯 Dushanbe, Tajikistan 🇩🇪 Essen, Germany 🇵🇰 Faisalabad, Pakistan 🇩🇰 Frederikshavn, Denmark 🇯🇵 Fukuoka, Japan 🇮🇪 Galway, Ireland 🇦🇺 Grange, Australia 🇵🇭 Iloilo City, Philippines 🇱🇹 Klaipėda, Lithuania 🇵🇹 Lisbon, Portugal 🇺🇸 Long Beach, USA 🇮🇩 Makassar, Indonesia 🇮🇩 Manado, Indonesia 🇩🇪 Mannheim, Germany 🇨🇦 Markham, Canada 🇺🇸 Miami, USA 🇺🇾 Montevideo, Uruguay 🇫🇷 Nantes, France 🇯🇵 Naruto, Japan 🇮🇱 Nes Ziyyona, Israel 🇮🇱 Ness Ziona, Israel 🇳🇿 North Shore City, New Zealand 🇺🇦 Odesa, Ukraine 🇩🇪 Oldenburg, Germany 🇧🇾 Orsha, Belarus 🇩🇪 Paderborn, Germany 🇹🇭 Pattaya, Thailand 🇷🇺 Perm, Russia 🇨🇱 Puerto Montt, Chile 🇮🇱 Ramat Gan, Israel 🇩🇪 Regensburg, Germany 🇨🇦 Richmond, Canada 🇭🇷 Rijeka, Croatia 🇷🇺 Saint Petersburg, Russia 🇯🇵 Shimonoseki, Japan 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Southampton, England 🇳🇱 Velsen, Netherlands 🇧🇷 Vila Velha, Brazil 🇧🇷 Vitória, Brazil 🇩🇪 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | GFCI | GaWC | GUCR | Nomad | StartupBlink

North of: 36.111

🇰🇷 Gumi 36.111

🇯🇵 Shiojiri 36.116

🇪🇸 Algeciras 36.128

🇯🇵 Kazo 36.129

🇯🇵 Gyōda 36.133

🇬🇮 Gibraltar 36.133

🇯🇵 Kumagaya 36.145

🇯🇵 Takayama 36.148

🇨🇳 Laiwu 36.15

🇩🇿 El Eulma 36.15

East of: 120.356

🇨🇳 Zhangjiagang 120.366

🇵🇭 Vigan 120.381

🇨🇳 Jiaozhou 120.383

🇨🇳 Xinwu 120.383

🇨🇳 Zhaoyuan 120.383

🇵🇭 Mangaldan 120.4

🇨🇳 Wuzhong 120.411

🇵🇭 Camiling 120.413

🇵🇭 La Union 120.42

🇹🇼 Chiayi 120.433

West of: 120.356

🇵🇭 Bayambang 120.35

🇵🇭 San Carlos 120.349

🇵🇭 San Carlos City 120.349

🇵🇭 Dagupan 120.343

🇵🇭 San Fernando 120.315

🇹🇼 Kaohsiung 120.312

🇹🇼 Kaoshiung 120.312

🇨🇳 Huishan 120.299

🇨🇳 Wuxi 120.296

🇵🇭 Olongapo 120.29

Antipodal to Qingdao is: -59.644,-36.111

Locations Near: Qingdao 120.356,36.1105

🇨🇳 Jiaozhou 120.383,36.067 d: 5.4  

🇨🇳 Laoshan 120.467,36.1 d: 10  

🇨🇳 Jimo 120.467,36.383 d: 31.9  

🇨🇳 Xihai'an 120.046,35.873 d: 38.4  

🇨🇳 Pingdu 119.938,36.782 d: 83.5  

🇨🇳 Zhucheng 119.387,35.988 d: 88.2  

🇨🇳 Rizhao 119.527,35.416 d: 107.5  

🇨🇳 Zhaoyuan 120.383,37.35 d: 137.8  

🇨🇳 Weifang 119.107,36.709 d: 130.1  

🇨🇳 Rushan 121.533,36.9 d: 137  

Antipodal to: Qingdao -59.644,-36.111

🇦🇷 Olavarría -60.333,-36.9 d: 19907.8  

🇦🇷 Chivilcoy -60.017,-34.9 d: 19876.3  

🇦🇷 Tandil -59.133,-37.317 d: 19873.5  

🇦🇷 San Vicente -58.417,-35.017 d: 19850.4  

🇦🇷 General Rodriguez -58.95,-34.617 d: 19837.5  

🇦🇷 Merlo -58.717,-34.65 d: 19832.2  

🇦🇷 Castelar -58.667,-34.667 d: 19831.7  

🇦🇷 Ituzaingo -58.667,-34.667 d: 19831.7  

🇦🇷 Monte Grande -58.467,-34.817 d: 19836  

🇦🇷 Isidro Casanova -58.583,-34.7 d: 19831.1  

Bing Map

Option 1