Aerial_view_813

Aerial photography of Qingdao Fushan Bay architectural landscape.

Qingdao, archaicly known as Tsingtao, is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Lying across the Shandong Peninsula and looking out to the Yellow Sea, it borders the prefecture-level cities of Yantai to the northeast, Weifang to the west and Rizhao to the southwest. The Jiaozhou Bay Bridge links the main urban area of Qingdao with Huangdao district, straddling the Jiaozhou Bay sea areas.

Qingdao was an important fortress, and is currently a major seaport and naval base, as well as a commercial and financial center. It is a major nodal city of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that connects Continental and East Asia with Europe.

Administered at the sub-provincial level, Qingdao has jurisdiction over seven districts and three county-level cities (Jiaozhou, Pingdu, Laixi). As of the 2020 census, Qingdao built-up (or metro) area made of the seven urban districts (Shinan, Shibei, Huangdao, Laoshan, Licang, Chengyang and Jimo) was home to 7,172,451 inhabitants, making it the 15th largest city in China by population. It has the highest GDP of any city in the province.