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About Qingdao
Qingdao is a famous open harbor city with an expansive ocean research program, foreign trade, and tourist industry. Qingdao is the home of the famous Qingdao Beer Company, the most popular brand of beer in China. Qingdao beer has an excellent reputation both domestically and internationally. Qingdao beer factory was established in 1908 when Qingdao was occupied by Germany. One of the city breweries has been completely restored and displays the rich history of beer in Qingdao and makes for a wonderful day of sightseeing.
Qingdao’s tourism is a rapidly growing industry with a coast line that stretches from Yantai in the north to Rizhao in the south of the Shandong province. Qingdao is smack in the middle and lined with golden sand beaches. Shandong whose name means “East Mountains” is also the home town of Confucius, about a three hour drive from Qingdao you can visit the historical town of Qufu where Confucius was born and lived in 500 BC. Shandong is also home to some of the top Chinese temples like Mount Tai in Taian City and several beautiful temples in the local Qingdao area of Laoshan. Qingdao has the largest industrial base in Shandong Province which ranks as the second largest provincial economy in China. (More information about Shandong province visit Bili International’s tourism website www.tourismshandong.com)
Shandong Facts: (Source: China Business Handbook 2008)
Area: 156,700 sq/km
Population: 93.1 million
GDP: 2207.7 RMB/bn
Exports: 60.34 USD/bn
Imports: 50.29 USD/bn
Total # of Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprises (WOFE): 20,909
Shandong is important for the lighting industry including solar throughout the province, textiles, industrial, automotive, high technology, and agricultural industrial base. Machine building has also grown in importance. The output value of the rubber industry ranks second in the country and its profit margins rank third. In the field of electronics and household electrical appliances, a series of high quality brand names like Haier, Hisense and Aucma all make Qingdao their home base. Qingdao’s Development Zone (QDZ) formed a strong investment environment with its six pillars including the Petrochemical industry, Household appliance and IT industry, Machinery & Automotive Industry, New Construction Material industry, Bio-pharmaceutical industry, and Logistics and International Trade form the foundation of Qingdao investment environment.
In Qingdao by the end of 1996, a total of 5,950 investment projects had been approved with a contract volume of USD $7.87 billion and an actual investment of USD $35 billion in value. The number of individually foreign-owned enterprises, cooperation enterprises, and joint ventures in operation reached 2,023. Forty-eight countries and more than forty globally-recognized companies are invested in Qingdao. The Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal (Qingdao Port) is said to be the third largest in the country and one of the most high tech. News from the QQTC website claims the port recent milestone is “Accumulative throughput of 300 million tons and container throughput 10 million TEUs in 2008” making another major gain for the province and the city.
With the fast growth of the brand name economy, Qingdao won the “nation’s most economically energetic city” award and the “entrepreneurs’ most favorite city” award in 2004. Companies such as Haier, Qingdao Beer, Hisense, Double Star, and Aucma aimed at making new breakthroughs in this energetic economy while local authorities were calling for the development of new name brands at national and local levels. Since 2000, Qingdao has had 6 famous brands, 44 of China’s name-brand products, ranking higher than other cities in China. Meanwhile, new name brand enterprises, especially individual enterprises, quickly developed. Their industrial output last year amounted to 50% of Qingdao’s overall industrial output.
Qingdao Facts: (Source: Wikipedia)
Area: 10, 654 sq/km
Population: About 8 million inhabitants in seven districts and five county level cities, of which around 3 million reside in the Qingdao urban area. Another estimated 5 million live in the county level cities. (Cities under Qingdao include: Pingdu, Laixi, Jiaozhou, Jiaonan, Jimo)
Climate: The annual mean temperature is 12.6 °C (54.7 °F). January average of−0.5 °C (31.1 °F). August average of 25.3 °C (77.5 °F).
Qingdao continues to shine with its social, economic and political stability and continually ranks as one of the top cities to live in China. The Chinese Institute of City Competitiveness issued a list on Wednesday, July 8 in Hong Kong, ranking the top 10 most livable cities in China for 2009, Chinanews.com reports. This year, Qingdao was ranked the country's most livable city.
Come and visit Qingdao and see for yourself.
Sincerely,
Daniel A. Janssen
General Manager: Qingdao Bili International Consulting Co., Ltd
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