1.1 A Bird’s Eye View of QingdaoCity

Qingdao is located in the south part of ShandongPeninsula along the coast of Yellow Sea. It covers an area of 10,645 square kilometers, with a population of about 7.21 million. The city is combined with mountains and seas, decorated with red tiles, green trees, and the seawater and the sky in the same color. Qingdao is selected as one of the most suitable cities for living all over the world due to its beautiful scenery and favorable climate.

Qingdao is a coastal and opening city characterized with port trade, light industry and chemical industry, financial services, tourism and vacation, along with ocean science and technology. It is listed as the national economic center city and coastal opening city with independent plans at the “deputy-province” level. The city not only has well-known brands at home and abroad such as Haier, Hisense, Aucma, Double Star and Tsingtao Beer, but also attracts investment from Coco Cola, Lucent, Degussa, Nestle, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Walmart, Panasonic and Sumitomo Corp. It successfully inoculated Qingdao International Beer Festival, Qingdao Ocean Festival, Qingdao International Costume Festival and Qingdao International Electronic and Household Appliances Expo to make exchanges with the outside world.

Qingdao has become the only partner city of 2008 Olympic Games Beijing with its beautiful environment and strong economic force. It is becoming an ideal city for international tourism, commerce and living.

1.2 The History of Qingdao Development Zone

Approved by the State Council in October 1984, Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone (Qingdao Development Zone) began construction on March 28 1985. It is a state-level economic and technological development zone that enjoys preferential policies given to coastal economic and technological development zones by the State. In 1992, Qingdao Free Trade Zone was set up within Qingdao Development Zone with the approval of the State Council. And Qingdao Development Zone was combined with Huangdao District of Qingdao City in the same year. In 1995, Xuejiadao Tourism and Vacation Zone was promoted to a province-level tourism and vacation zone by Shandong Provincial Government. Zhushan National Forest Park was established with the approval of the Bureau of Forestry in 2000. With combination of economic and technological zone, tourism and vacation zone and new technological industry experiment zone, Qingdao Development Zone has become a modernized urban area characterized with modern port, advanced technology, international trade, as well as tourism and vacation.

Qingdao Development Zone lies along the west coast of Jiaozhou Bay of Qingdao City with an area of 271.4 square kilometers. It has a permanent population of 260,000 and a floating population of about 150,000. Neighboring Jiaonan and Jiaozhou city with a population of over 1 million respectively, Qingdao Development Zone has a great development potential with its superior location and the broad hinterland.

In April 2001, Qingdao Municipal Government made up the Decisions to Accelerate the Development of Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone. Qingdao Development Zone was targeted to build into the “Future of Qingdao”. The government made a strategic decision to “marching to the west and build up a new economic center of Qingdao” and gave Qingdao Development Zone a series of authorizations for quickening development. Qingdao Development Zone will be built into a modernized and internationalized new urban area following the four strategies of “economic internationalization, growth with sea port, regional urbanization and development with science and technology”.

1.3 Geographic Location of Qingdao Development Zone

China faces Pacific Ocean to the east, the South China Sea to the south, and borders on Eurasia to the west and Russia to the north. She is located in the southwest part of Northeast Asia, one of the most dynamic areas in the world.

ShandongProvince lies along the east coast of China, at lower reach of the Yellow Sea. It is adjacent to BohaiSea and the Yellow Sea and near KoreaPeninsula and JapaneseIslands to the east across the sea. ShandongProvince faces LiaodongPeninsula to the north and neighbors HebeiProvince to the northwest, HenanProvince to the Southwest, Anhui and JiangsuProvince to the south. Qingdao is located in the east part of ShandongProvince and the south part of ShandongPeninsula. It is one of the most competitive central cities alongside the “economic ring along BohaiSea”.