Introduction
Geographical Advantages
Qingdao is located on the Shandong Peninsula on China's East coast, north of Shanghai and southeast of Beijing, with the Yellow Sea to the east and south. The city covers an area of 10,654 square kilometers and is situated in a temperate, semi-humid, continental climate zone. Qingdao is one of China's most well-known summer resort communities.
The planned control targets for the overall discharge of major pollutants have been met and standardized discharge has been implemented. All the annual average indices of main pollutants in the urban surface water areas and atmosphere meet relevant standards.
In 2006, the number of days which experienced fine air quality in the urban areas reached 332, or more than 90% of the time. The average regional noise level was 53.3 decibels, while the average noise level from vehicular traffic was 68.2 decibels. There are 47 parks in the city and the ratio of green-space to developed areas reached 36.6%, with per capita green-space at 13.53sqm.
Culture, Entertainment and Healthcare
Qingdao is noted for its thriving cultural industry. The city has 29 cinemas with more than 200 film screens, 172 cultural venues including 8 museums, 13 public libraries, 12 performing art troupes, a radio station with 5 different channels and a television station with 6 different channels. There are about 1.8 million cable TV subscribers and 600,000 digital TV subscribers. The city's publishing industry publishes over 17 million copies of various magazines and over 548 million newspaper copies each year.
The healthcare system has been integrated and modernized as part of the city's designation as a national experimental city for the reform of urban medical and health services. The city has over 120 hospitals, 98 healthcare centers, 10 mental healthcare facilities, 5 centers for disease control, 20 sanitation and anti-epidemic institutions, 12 health monitoring stations and 9 maternity and child care centers. Citywide, the healthcare sector employs over 39,300 professionals and has more than 25,400 beds. With an innovative rural cooperative medical system being introduced in a comprehensive new program, over 4,039,000 people now have access to cooperative medical services, covering 89.4% of the rural population and 100% of regional villages. The average life expectancy is 77.1 years, or 74.13 years for males and 80.34 years for females.
There are 11 colleges and universities, including the Qingdao Ocean University, a key university of the Ministry of Education, and the only one of its kind in China. Qingdao has 56 independent research institutes, 88 key laboratories, and 10 state-level privately-operated technical centers. In 2006, 548 key scientific research projects, 9 of which won national awards, were completed in Qingdao; 1707 contracts for technology transfer were signed, with total contract value amounting to 610 million RMB; 7831 patents were applied for and 3124 patents were granted. Qingdao is China's research center for marine science and home to almost half of China's marine scientists and marine science research institutions.
Qingdao International School, located in the State Tourist Resort area, operates training programs for international students, whose parents are working in Qingdao. There are also 11 schools funded by domestic and overseas investment. Every year, many professionals in the fields of education and academia are employed by the schools or participate in academic exchanges. More than 300 international students are studying in Qingdao.
There are nine foreign banks in Qingdao including the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Co., Ltd., the Yamaguchi Bank, Korea International Bank, the Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered Bank PLC. The main insurance companies are the People's Insurance Company of China (PICC), China Life Insurance Company, the Pacific Insurance Company and the Peace Insurance Company.
Qingdao's financial and insurance industries are developing rapidly. At the end of 2005, the financial sector employed over 35,000 people. It had 20 Chinese-funded banking institutions, with over 1,180 service outlets. It also had 9 foreign-funded banking institutions, of which 6 were operational entities and 3 were representative offices. The city's assets management, trust company and finance company sectors are in their infancy and are seeking new partnerships and opportunities. Deposits in Chinese and foreign currencies exceed 284.9 billion RMB, 42.8 billion RMB higher than the previous year. Loan balances in Chinese and foreign currencies stood at 223.28 billion RMB, or 31.9 billion RMB higher than the previous year.
Qingdao is home to one major securities company and has 39 securities branches from firms across the country, 3 securities service outlets and 2 futures trading brokerage offices. The city has 10 domestically listed companies and 2 overseas listed companies. These 12 listed companies have raised a total of 12.4 billion RMB in capital.
Qingdao has 18 Chinese-invested insurance company branches, 64 insurance sub-branches and 82 operational and service outlets. It also has 21 insurance brokerages, 45 insurance agencies, 12 insurance assessment companies, 2 foreign insurance company branches and 3 representative offices of foreign insurance companies. In 2005, the insurance industry realized premium revenue of 4.96 billion RMB, up 4.2% over 2004.
Urban Improvement Projects
As the host for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games sailing events, Qingdao has implemented plans in order to improve the ecological environment, highlighting the policies of holding a "Green Olympics", a "High-tech Olympics" and a "Humanistic Olympics", and building the city into an environmentally-conscious Olympic metropolis with the best sailing facilities in Asia.
The Qingdao municipal government efficiency rating of 5th in the country is higher than that of other cities on the same level in China, according to the "Report on the Investment Environment" of 120 Chinese Cities released by the World Bank in November 2006. According to the Chinese Cities Comprehensive Competitiveness Report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2007, the management competitiveness of the Qingdao Municipal Government ranks 11th while government innovation ranks 7th in the country. The Qingdao Municipal Government provides free consulting services as well as one-stop administrative service for foreign investors. As a result, Qingdao was dubbed as one of China’s Gold Medal Cities for Investment by the World Bank in November 2006.
Qingdao is a well-known summer resort city with unique coastal scenery, sandy beaches and a mild climate, which will play host to the sailing and sail boarding events of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The city provides a lively atmosphere and plays host to the annual Qingdao International Beer Festival which draws huge crowds of loyal expatriate and domestic fans from all over the country and region. Billed as China's most environmentally-friendly city, Qingdao is a multiple award winning city including, the "China Cities Award for Habitable Environment", the "Entrepreneurial Satisfaction Award" and the 2005 "Most Popular City Award".
The city sits right in the bulls-eye between world economic powerhouses Beijing and Shanghai on the mainland, and Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan to the east; all within a one hour flight. With such close proximity, the city has become the preferred confluence for transactions between these major centers of trade and commerce, as well as an epicenter for leisure-time pursuits.
In recent years, Qingdao has experienced a sustained period of rapid economic growth, with a GDP reaching 320.66 billion RMB in 2006. Qingdao enjoys the most diversified economy of any city/region in China, ranking first in comprehensive competitiveness compared to all other cities in Shandong Province and 11th overall among all mainland Chinese cities. Total investment in fixed assets reached 148.57 billion RMB in 2006.