Brief introduction to Qingdao

Qingdao is a major coastal city in east China, an economic center in China, among the first coastal open cities, a specifically designated city at the sub-provincial level in the state plan, and a marine research center.

Qingdao, cited as China's "capital of sailing" and Asia's best nautical city, hosted the sailing events of the 29th Olympic Games and the 13th Paralympic Games in 2008.

Qingdao Profile

Total area

Qingdao has a total area of 11,282 square kilometers, including 1,471 square kilometers of urban area.

Total population

Qingdao has a total household registered population of 7.66 million, in particular, urban population is 2.77 million.

Climate

Qingdao has a temperate monsoon climate with distinctive characteristics of marine climate, featuring neither very hot summer nor cold winter. The average annual rainfall is 662mm; average temperature in summer is 24℃, and average temperature in winter is above 0℃.

City Tree & City Flower

Qingdao's city tree is cedar, and its city flowers are camellia japonica and China rose.

Economy & Development

Over the past three decades since the beginning of the reform and opening up, Qingdao has gradually formed distinctive characteristics of port, openness, brand, tourism, marine science and technology and Olympic city. In recent years, Qingdao has quickened the pace of promoting the strategy of "protection along the bay, development around the bay" and promoting the construction of a blue economic zone and a high-end industrial cluster, and made great efforts to build advanced manufacturing base, hi-tech industrial base, modern service base, regional economic center, Northeast Asia international shipping center and national marine research center, ensuring stable and fast social and economic development. In 2012, the new CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee and Qingdao Municipal Government will continue to plan for the future with world view, improve work efficiency to reach international standards, and highlight features with local strengths. And they have established goals of leading the country in blue economy through scientific development and accelerating the pace of building an inhabitable, happy and modern international city.

Qingdao comes atop in Chinese mainland in terms of economic aggregate. All its five county-level cities ranked among China's top 100 counties in terms of overall economic strength.

Qingdao abounds with grain, peanut, fruits, animal products and aquatic products, and is the northernmost tea-planting base in China.

Qingdao has basically established seven industrial bases of household electric appliances and electronics, petrochemicals, automobiles and locomotives, ship and ocean engineering, textile and clothing, foods and beverages, and machinery and steel. In 2011, the total industrial output value of industrial enterprises above the designated scale in the city was 1266.3 billion yuan, and the pre-tax profit totaled 114.6 billion yuan; the hi-tech industrial output value of enterprises above the designated scale reached 464 billion yuan, taking up 39% of the total industrial output value, and industrial output value of strategic new industries above the designated scale was 219.2 billion yuan, taking up 10.1% of the total industrial output value.

Focusing on modern service industries such as finance, logistics, tourism, conference & exhibition, science & technology and information, Qingdao accelerates its steps to build an industrial structure based on economic service, and becomes a pilot city of the state's comprehensive reform of the service industry. In 2011, the added value of the service industry accounted for 47.8% of Qingdao's GDP, and its total economic output and its ratio exceeded those of the secondary industry for the first time. The added value of the modern service industry accounted for 48.5% of that of the service industry. The retail sales of consumer goods totaled 223.3 billion yuan, an annual growth of 17.4%.

Qingdao is the most foreign bank-intensive city with complete varieties of financial institutions in Shandong Province, and is building a financial cluster and a regional wealth management center.

Qingdao has gradually developed a group of enterprises and brands, such as Haier, Hisense and Doublestar, which are famous at home or abroad. Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd., founded in 1903, is the earliest brewery in China, with its export amount accounting for over 50% of China's total export of beer. Haier Group has ranked 1st for eight consecutive years among Chinese top brands. Qingdao has five enterprises which have won the national award for quality control, and has 52 nationally-famous trademarks approved by the State Administration for Industry & Commerce. It was successively cited as the "capital of Chinese brands" and "top ten brand cities in China".

Cultural Qingdao

Qingdao tries to build itself into a modern coastal cultural city. Qingdao has made efforts to create the "capital of sailing" in China. The sailing events of 29th Olympic Games and 13th Paralympic Games were held in Qingdao in 2008, with athletes competing for 11 and three gold medals respectively. Chinese sailing team won one gold medal and one bronze medal in the event, realizing the breakthrough of gold medal in sailboard event and the breakthrough of "zero" medal in sailboat event in the history of Olympic Games. The century-old Qingdao closely connected with the century-old Olympic Games, showing a passionate and magnificent picture of thousands of boats setting sailing, and playing a florid movement of "One World, One Dream" to the world. After the Games, Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center has become a marine sport center to popularize sailboat and sailboard sports in the whole country and a training base of teenager sailboat sport. Moreover, it has introduced Volvo Ocean Race, Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and other international sailing races. In every August, it holds the activity of Qingdao International Sailboat Week, enlarging the brand effect of the "capital of sailing" in China.

Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center

Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center is located on the former site of the Beihai Shipyard by Qingdao's Fushan Bay in the eastern new zone, neighboring on May 4th Square and Donghai Road and covering an area of about 45 hectares.