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What You Need To Know

Qingdao is a city in eastern Shandong Province on the east coast of China. It is the largest city in its province. Administered at the sub-provincial level, Qingdao has jurisdiction over six districts and four county-level cities. As of 2014 Qingdao had a population of 9,046,200 with an urban population of 6,188,100. Lying across the Shandong Peninsula and looking out to the Yellow Sea, it borders Yantai to the northeast, Weifang to the west and Rizhao to the southwest. Qīng (青) in Chinese means “cyan” or “greenish-blue”, while dǎo (岛) means “island”. Qingdao is a major seaport, naval base, and industrial centre. The world’s longest sea bridge, the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, links the main urban area of Qingdao with Huangdao district, straddling the Jiaozhou Bay sea areas. It is also the site of the Tsingtao Brewery, the second largest brewery in China. In 2016, Qingdao ranks 79th in the Global Financial Centres Index published by the Z/Yen Group and Qatar Financial Centre Authority, the other Chinese cities on the list being Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing and Dalian. In 2007, Qingdao was named as among 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.

Area: 11,067 km²

Population: Estimate 9.1 million

Currency

  •  Shenyang Currency Exchange. Chinese Yuan (also known as Renminbi, rmb for short) is the official and legal currency in circulation. Use of foreign currencies is generally not allowed.

Culture

There is a large number of German-style buildings in Qingdao city centre, remarkable considering the German colonial period only lasted 16 years (1898–1914). The unique combination of German and Chinese architecture in the city centre, combined with German demographic roots and a large Korean expatriate population, gives Qingdao a distinct atmosphere. An old saying described Qingdao as a city of “red tiles green trees, blue sky and blue sea.” This saying indeed gives a picture of birdview of Qingdao. A larger number of areas in former foreign styles are well preserved. Although the new city area is under large-scale reconstruction, the old city area (especially the western part of Shinan District) still retains many traditional buildings.

Economy

An important region in Eastern China, Shandong Province has seen substantial change in its economic landscape in recent years. 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 ¥52,895 (US$7,616) in 2008. The GDP has grown steadily at an average pace of 16{6316cdddb519a7510758521f009d2dcbf5d936c42bfe06361e6b3a8e81c9fca7} 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. 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. As an important trading port in the province, Qingdao flourishes with foreign investment and international trade. South Korea and Japan in particular made extensive investment in the city. Approximately 80,000 South Korean citizens reside there. Construction proceeds at a relatively fast pace in Qingdao. In terms of primary industry, 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.

Health systems

The healthcare system reform in China refers to the healthcare system transition in modern China. China’s government, specifically the Ministry of Health of the State Council oversees the health services system, which includes a substantial rural collective sector but little private sector.

Language

During the city’s colonial days, German was the official language and rigorously taught and promoted. Since the demise of Germany’s colonial empire during World War I, the German language is virtually dead here and left little impact on the local languages. A local accent known as Qingdao dialect (青岛话, pinyin qingdao hua) distinguishes the residents of the city from those of the surrounding Shandong province. Due to the efforts by the city government to promote standard Mandarin, most educated people can speak that dialect in addition to their native dialect. With reform policies and English teaching, some young citizens have been taught English and many can converse with English-speaking foreigners. Business and traffic signs in English are becoming more and more common.

Tourism

Qingdao attracts many tourists due to its seaside setting and temperate weather. Parks, beaches, sculptures and unique German and modern architecture line the shore. The central tourist information, the Qingdao Information Centre for International Visitors, is located on Middle Hong Kong Road (香港中路).

Transport

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.

Aviation

The Qingdao Liuting International Airport, 23 km (14 mi) away from city centre, is served by 13 domestic and international airlines, operating 94 routes, 12 of which are international and regional. In 2011, Qingdao Liuting International Airport was the 16th busiest airport in the People’s Republic of China with 11,716,361 passengers. A new civil aviation airport with much larger capacities will be built in Jiaozhou District.

Intercity rail

Qingdao’s railway development was picked up during the late 1990s. It is at the beginning of the Jiaoji Railway. Qingdao’s city proper has some major railway stations, Qingdao Station, Sifang Station, Cangkou Station, Great-Seaport Station, etc. D and G series High speed trains travel on the Jiaoji High Speed Railway and reach speeds of 200 km/h (120 mph) on the Jinan-Qingdao Section. Services go to Beijing, Shanghai, Hefei, Jinan and Tianjin. 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. There are 260 bus routes and 3 trolleybus routes as of 2012. All of these buses and trolleybuses can be accessed using the Qingdao Public Traffic IC Card (Qin dao Card 琴岛卡), which uses radio frequencies so the card does not have to physically touch the scanner. Non air-conditioned busses cost 1 yuan, The volume of road passenger transport approaches 0.8 billion per year.  The Public Transport Brand of ‘Ri-Xin Bus (日新巴士)’ is also known in China. There are a number of taxi companies in Qingdao including Yiqing Company, Zhongqing Company, Jiaoyun Company and, Huaqing Company.

Subway

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 will be 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.