A Snapshot
Qingdao is one of China's most dynamic, and possibly livable costal cities. An important international trade port located along the western coast of the Pacific Ocean in the south of the Shandong Peninsula, it is a main transportation hub for Northeast Asia. The original port built in 1892, then know as Tsingtao, now connects with 450 ports in 150 countries. The city currently boast numerous development and trade zone including: National Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone, Qingdao High and New-Tech Development Zone, Qingdao Qianwan Bonded Port Area, Qingdao Export Processing Zone, Qingdao West Coast Export Processing Zone, Sino-Germany Ecological Park, and Jiaozhou Economic and Technological Development Zone.
With a population of just under 8 million, Qingdao is also a major National Tourism city, know for it`s restored European buildings, beaches and International Conference venues. The city hosts the China International Consumer Electronics Show (SINOCES), the China International Marine Fair, Qingdao International Fashion Week, and the Qingdao International Beer Festival annually.
In recent years, Qingdao has been positively promoting the construction of a blue economic zone (for marine sciences) and a high-end industrial cluster, to build a advanced manufacturing base lead by companies such as Haier and Hisense.
Industries:
Logistics.
Valued at 412 Billion USD in 2011 the modern logistics industry in Qingdao has developed quickly in recent years: 6 major logistics parks, including Qianwan International Bonded Port. Four logistic centers, including the west coast export processing area, and six distribution centers, including Jiaozhou and Fu’an. Qingdao is now home to over 30 domestic and international logistics companies. Small and medium-sized logistics companies, in particular, are being actively encouraged to strengthen resource integration to meet the demands of national diversified logistics.
Tourism.
More than 50 million tourists visited Qingdao in 2013 catered to by over 155 star-rated hotels, including the international: Intercontinental, Hyatt, Kempinski, Accor chains. The city is currently focused on developing resort and vacation facilities and accelerating the development of Shi Laoren Resort, Phoenix Island, Langyatai, Tianheng Island, Lingshan Bay and Aoshan Mountain Hot Spring areas.
The municipal government is currently implementing plans to expand it`s port facilities to allow the city to become the `Home Port’ for a domestic cruise industry with an annual capacity of over 1 million passengers. Cruise operator Carnival expects to carry 500,000 Chinese cruise passengers in 2015, up from 350,000 this year.
Service Outsourcing.
The city currently has 167 outsourcing companies registered, employing around 30,000 university graduates, the largest seven companies accumulated accounting for over $10 million USD in revenue, including Lucent Technologies, Caterpillar, Qingdao Risong, and Unihub.
The city's Preferential Policy on Developing Service Outsourcing in Qingdao was launched in 2008, to provide financial support for the service-outsourcing sector. A supplemental policy on Service Outsourcing came out the following year to provide financial incentives to pay income and business taxes. It put more than 40 million RMB into the development of service outsourcing, a major force behind development in the city.
The city has a number of service outsourcing parks, with a total area of 1 million square meters, and more than 500 companies focusing on: software development, digital animation, data processing, integrated circuitry design and industrial engineering.
New Energy Companies.
Currently, there are five companies specializing in producing solar photovoltaic devices in Qingdao: Qingdao GIGA Solar New Energy Co (specializes in producing single crystal silicon, polysilicon, film solar cells and components). Abo New Energy Co. NESI Solar Co (solar film batteries). China Creative Wind Energy Co (on-grid wind power generation apparatus). Shandong Datang Corporation (wind power generation apparatus).
Established Industries.
Electric appliances- The leading companies, such as Haier, Hisense, and AUCMA are developing quickly and developing support companies so that, now the city has almost 1,000 supporting manufacturers, producing a range of goods.
Petrochemicals- As one of China`s major ports a whole range of companies have established industrial facilities in the city including: Sinopec Qingdao Refining & Chemical Co, Anbang Petrochemical, Huanhai Oil Technology, Yellow Sea Rubber Group, Guangming Tire, Huntsman Textile & Dying and BASF Pigment.
Automobiles - The city has 20 automobile manufacturers (18 for special models) and 260 spare-parts manufacturers, 82 of them large-scale.
Textiles and garments- The textile and garments industry has been evolving from traditional textiles to garments, household textiles, materials for fabric, dying and textile machinery which are all done in large scale production plants.
Ship and marine engineering- A ship and marine engineering area has been established on Huang Island at Haixi Bay, and at Jimo and Jiaonan. The Haixi Bay site is a production base for large barges, offshore platforms, low speed diesel machinery, large rollers, decks, ship electrical systems, and water loading. The Jimo and Jiaonan areas are bases for R&D centers for high value-added oil tanks with a 100,000-ton capacity, special ships, high-tech barge equipment, and support products. Companies, such as the China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, Branch Five, CNOOC Offshore Engineering, PetroChina Offshore Engineering, Yangfan Shipbuilding, and Harbin Engineering University research center all have facilities here.