China's sailing capital and beer city

Population: 10,071,722(2020)

Area: 11,282 square kilometers

Location: southeast part of Shandong province on the east coast of China

Economy      

Qingdao, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province, is a regional hub for transportation, trade and finance with a diversified industrial base that includes manufacturing of household appliances, consumer electronics, marine equipment, apparel and textiles and automobiles and locomotives as well as petrochemicals and offshore engineering.

The city government is also seeking to build Qingdao into a heavyweight in wealth management, exhibitions, and high-tech industries and marine-related industries.

Thanks to advanced industrial expansion driven by internet technologies and infrastructure spending, the city's annual GDP broke 1 trillion yuan ($144.9 billion) in 2016 for the first time. Qingdao is the 12th city to achieve this nationwide and the third in northern China after Beijing and Tianjin, joining the ranks of the "trillion-yuan club".

In 2018, Qingdao's GDP was predicted to rise by 7.5 percent year-on-year to 1.2 trillion yuan ($173.93 billion) while the per capita disposable income of the city's residents grew by more than 8 percent.

The general public budget revenue reached 123.19 billion yuan, a yearly increase of 6.5 percent. The total retail sales of consumer goods in 2018 rose by around 9.8 percent while the fixed-asset investment increased by about 7.9 percent.

Qingdao received a total of more than 100 million domestic and foreign tourists in 2018, a year-on-year increase of more than 13 percent. Its total volume of foreign trade rose by 10 percent to $127 billion, while the actual use of foreign capital reached $8.69 billion yuan, with a yearly growth rate of 10 percent and accounting for 43 percent of the province's total.

One of China's most important port cities, Qingdao is a major trade hub along the new Eurasian Continental Bridge economic corridor and is set to become a first-rank component in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Administrative divisions  

Qingdao city governs three county-level cities - Jiaozhou, Pingdu and Laixi -- and seven districts -- Shinan, Shibei, Licang, Laoshan, Huangdao, Chengyang and Jimo.

Sister cities