Profile of Qingdao

( Qingdao is marked on the map of People`s Republic of China with a red star. )

Qingdao, situated in the south of Shandong Peninsula (35°35'-37°09'

north latitude, 119°30'-121°00' east longitude) and lying on the shore of

the Yellow Sea, is one of the 70 large and medium-sized cities of China

and one of five cities specifically designated in the state plan. Located in

the south-east of Shandong Peninsula, it neighbours on the Yellow Sea in

the east and south, Yantai in the northeast, Weifang in the west and

Rizhao in the southwest. Qingdao leads the economic development of

Shandong Province. In February 1994, it was designated one of the 15

deputy provincial cities of China. By the end of 2012, the total registered

population of Qingdao was 7,695,600 with 3,639,000 people from

downtown (former Jiaonan City included) and 4,056,600 people from

four county-level cities. In 2012, its constructed area was 374.64 km2.

Besides being a city specifically designated in the state plan and a deputy

provincial city, Qingdao, this central place on the eastern coast, belongs

to the first lot of coastal cities opened up as well as to the historically and

culturally famous cities of the nation.

(Aerial View of Qingdao)

It is a civilized and sanitary city, one of eight international conference

cities, and ranks among the top 10 of economically dynamic and excellent

business cities in China. It is also the Chinese center for marine research,

the first city for national technology innovation pilot projects, a national

model city for environment protection and a national garden city. It has

won the “Chinese Habitat’s Best Practice Prize” as well as “China

Investment Environment Gold Medal City”.

Thanks to numerous brand-name enterprises, Qingdao is honored as

“Chinese Brand Capital” and “World Beer City”. Its four satellite cities

Jimo, Jiaozhou, Pingdu and Laixi all hit the Top 100 Chinese Counties.

2005 saw Qingdao winning the first prize of “the most desirable Chinese

cities in public opinion” and Chinese National Geography selecting

Badaguan as one of China’s five most beautiful urban areas. In 2007,

Qingdao became the only Chinese city chosen for “The Most Beautiful

Bay of the World” and then known as the “World’s Sailing Capital”, it

organized the Sailing Competition of the 29th Olympic Games.

(Architectures of Qingdao )

On January 7th of 2011, the State Council approved the planning of the

Marine Economic Zone of Shandong Peninsula of which Qingdao is the

core. In 2012, Qingdao ranked 9th on the list of Chinese competitive cities.

Some more nationwide rankings and titles from the same year include

“Best leisure city”, “Top 10 tourist city” and “Happiest city”. As for the

future, the World Leisure Games will be held in Qingdao in 2015.

( Aerial view of Qingdao )

Population

By the end of 2012, Qingdao's total registered population was 7,695,600

people increasing by 0.42% year on year. Of the total, 3,639,000

represented the urban population, up 0.74%; while 4,056,600 resided in

the four county-level cities, increasing by 0.13%. There were 74,910

newborns over the year with a birth rate of 9.75‰. 62,830 persons

deceased over the year with a mortality rate of 8.18‰. The natural

growth rate of population was 1.57‰.

By the end of 2012, Qingdao had 52 ethnic minorities with a total

population of 76,696 people, including 40,015 ethnic Koreans, 13,511

Manchus, 5,986 Hui people, 4,466 Mongolians, 2,401 Uigurs, 1,860

Miao People, 1,498 Yi Peole, 1,379 Zhuang People, 1,258 Tujia People

and 4,322 people of the other 43 ethnic groups.

Economic development

( Qingdao Port )

Qingdao is an important economic center on the eastern coast of China.

The economic aggregate of Shandong Peninsula Economic Area, which

includes Qingdao and other seven cities of Shandong Province, is as high

as RMB 2,600 billion Yuan, ranking 4th immediately after the Yangtze

River Deltas, the Pearl River Deltas and the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan

Economic Area in China. 19 counties surrounding Qingdao are on the list

of the Top 100 Counties of China. Being the center of Shandong

Peninsula urban agglomeration, Qingdao is striving to develop

headquarters economy, R&D centers, brand economy, convention and

exhibition economy, IT service industry, trading and distribution and all

kinds of productive service industries to build a high-end platform for the

economic development of Shandong Province.

( The Industry of Fast Speed Train in Qingdao)

In terms of conventional industries, Qingdao has advantages in

locomotive and rolling stock, shipbuilding and maritime engineering,

electronics and household appliances, petrochemical industry, automobile

manufacturing, machinery, rubber, steel, food & beverage and light

industry. Emerging industries also operate in Qingdao to a certain extent;

software, animation and creativity, marine industry, biomedicine,

helicopter manufacturing, new energies and materials are examples.

Finally, IT, construction, education, finance and entertainment also

deserve to be mentioned.

From 2008 to 2011, the GDP of Qingdao grew in yearly steps of RMB

100 billion Yuan to reach RMB 661.56 billion Yuan in 2011 with an

average annual increase of 12.5%. The general budget revenue of local

public finance reached RMB 56.6 billion Yuan with an average annual

increase of 17.9%. The total investment in fixed assets amounted to RMB

350.25 billion Yuan with an average annual increase of 23.5%, whereas

the total retail sales of consumer goods reached RMB 223.3 billion Yuan

with an average annual increase of 16.4%. The per capita disposable

income of urban residents was RMB 28,567 Yuan with an average annual

increase of 12.5%. The per capita net income of peasants reached RMB

12,370 Yuan with an average annual increase of 13.3%.

According to the preliminary calculation, Qingdao has realized a GDP of

RMB 798.011 billion Yuan in 2012, with an increase of 10.6% in terms

of comparable prices. That year, the first, second and third sectors

increased by RMB 32.441 billion Yuan, RMB 340.223 billion Yuan and

RMB 357.547 billion Yuan, respectively. The per capita disposable

annual income of urban residents was RMB 32,145 Yuan (RMB 15,753

Yuan for the low income group and RMB 61,840 Yuan for the high

income group) and the per capita annual consumption expenditure was

RMB 20,391 Yuan.

The Natural resources

( Qingdao Aquarium)

By the end of 2012, the grain planting area of Qingdao was 540,800

hectares reduced by 0.9% year on year; the forest coverage is 38.6%

increased by 0.8%; the area of coastal beach is about 375 km2 and the sea

area within 30m isobaths is about 9,165 km2.

There’re numerous bays in the sea area of Qingdao with winding

coastline, broad beaches and fertile water quality. It is a place for living

and reproduction of various aquatic lives and has high economic value

and potential of development and use. The sea area at the mouths of

Jiaozhou Bay, Laoshan Bay and Dingzi Bay has high content of nutritive

salt with sufficient supplementary source. The quantity of heterotrophic

bacterium here is several times to thousands of times higher than that in

continental shelf zones and oceanic zones and the content of organics in

water is higher here. Especially the section with sand and silt bottom

substrate around Jiaozhou Bay is an excellent sea area to develop the

aquaculture of shellfish and algae. The sea area has also profound

resources of plankton, benthos, economic invertebrates and intertidal

desmids.

( The longest cross-sea bridge of the world is in Jiaozhou Bay, Qingdao)

The plants in Qingdao are diversified and lush. It’s the region with the

most categories of plants and the most constructive species of vegetation

among the same regions at the same latitude. There’re 152 families, 654

genus and 1237 species and variants of plant resources (excluding the

species cultivated in greenhouse and types of flower culture). There’re 66

families, 136 genus and 332 species of primary woody plant fauna which

represent 93% of total families, 84% of total genus and 80.2% of total

species respectively of woody plant fauna of Shandong Province.

Qingdao belongs to sub-region of Huang-Huai Plain of North China

region of pale arctic realm in terms of the regionalization of geographical

distribution of vertebrates. Influenced by the marine monsoon of warm

temperate zone, the climate here is warm and humid, which is favorable

for growth of plants and for habitation and reproduction of animals, but

there’re few big wild beasts. The wild vertebrates of Qingdao in the

modern period are mostly small animals with no big beasts of prey or big

herbivores.

The mammals include sciuridae, cricetidae, muridae, leporidae, canidae,

mustelidae, vespertilionidae, erinaceidae, etc. The amphibians include

ranidae, bufonidae, discoglossidae, microhylidae, etc. The reptiles include

lacertide, colubridae, viperidae, tortoises, trionyxes, etc. There’re 66

species of national first-grade and second-grade protected rare animals of

which 52 species are first-grade protected animals. There’re special

animals such as Xiantai fish produced in Baisha River. There’re many

species of wild invertebrates within the region, approximately divided

into forest insects and agricultural insects. Domesticated animals include

livestock such as cattle, horse, goat, pig and dog and poultry such as

chicken, duck and goose.

(Shell carvings in Qingdao)

Qingdao area has rich bird resources. During more than 10 years of bird

banding protection in Qingdao, more than 2000 specimens have been

collected including 19 orders, 58 families, 159 genus and 355 species

representing 29.6% of the 1200 bird species of the country and 87.4% of

the 406 bird species of Shandong Province. There’re 11 species of

national first-grade protected rare birds and 55 species of national

second-grade protected birds. The birds in Qingdao are mainly divided

into 6 categories: swimming birds, wading birds, terrestrial birds, raptors,

climbing birds and songbirds.

The mineral resources in Qingdao are mostly nonmetal mines. By the end

of 2007, 66 varieties of mines (including sub-mines) were discovered,

representing 44% of the total varieties of Shandong Province. Among

them, 50 varieties were proven reserves (resource quantity) representing

64.1% of the total reserve of Shandong Province and the reserves of the

other 16 mines were not yet proven. There’re also 730 different mineral

producing areas explored or proven through investigation in which 39 are

large and middle-sized deposits, 129 small-sized deposits and 562

mineral occurrences. The advantageous mineral resources include

graphite, decorative granite, decorative marble, mineral water, diopside,

gold, talc and zeolite. The potential advantageous mineral resources

include barite, dolomite, bentonite, potash feldspar, quartzite, perlite,

fluorite and terrestrial heat. The graphite, gold and diopside are mainly

distributed in Pingdu and Laixi; the decorative granite is mainly

distributed in Laoshan district, Pingdu and Huangdao district; the

decorative marble is mainly distributed in Pingdu; the mineral water is

distributed in all districts of Qingdao, but mainly centralized in

Chengyang district, Laoshan district, three downtown districts and Jimo;

the talc is mainly distributed in Pingdu; the zeolite, perlite and bentonite

are mainly distributed in Laixi, Jiaozhou, Jimo and Chengyang district;

the barite and fluorite are mainly distributed in Jiaozhou, Jimo, Pingdu

and Huangdao district; the terrestrial heat is mainly distributed in Jimo.

The reserves of graphite and stone mines of Qingdao are No.1 in

Shandong Province, the reserves of talc and diopside are No.2 and the

reserves of zeolite and mineral water are also in leading positions. Except

aranium, thorium, terrestrial heat, natural brine, sand for construction and

clay for bricks, the potential total value of the reserves of mineral

resources is up to RMB 27 billion Yuan.

(Solar - Wind - Lights at a street in Qingdao. )

Qingdao has rich resource of wind energy. According to measurement,

the effective wind energy density is 240.3 W/m2 and the average annual

duration of effective wind energy is 6,485 hours. The light energy is also

good. The annual total solar radiation is 120 kilocalories / cm2 and the

average annual sunshine duration is 2,550.7 hours at a sunshine

percentage of 58%.

Sister Cities

The sister cities and friendly cooperation cities of Qingdao in Asia

No. Country City Relationship Date of

establishment

1 Japan Shimonoseki

Sister City

1979.10.03

2 ROK Daegu 1993.12.4

3 Israel Ness Ziona 1997.12.2

4 Thailand Chiang Mai 2008.4.1

5 ROK Incheon

Friendly

Cooperation

City

1995.9.27

6 ROK Pyeongtaek 1999.8.11

7 Vietnam Da Nang 2000.6.9

8 Cyprus Nicosia 2001.2.5

9 Japan Fukuoka 2003.2.1

10 ROK Busan 2003.3.23

11 ROK Gunsan 2003.9.21

12 the

Philippines Iloilo 2003.10.15

13 Japan Kitakyushu 2005.5.14

14 ROK Ulsan 2009.8.3

15 Japan Kyoto 2012.8.26