Qingdao is situated on the Yellow Sea, in the east of Shandong province.
The town boasts one of China's major sea ports, which is free of ice all the year round, and it is also the chief industrial center of Shandong province.
Qingdao is known for its
mineral water from Mount Laoshan (Laoshan Kuanghuanshui).
Qingdao's mild climate and beautiful, clean beaches attract both Chinese and foreign tourists.
Qingdao (''Green Island'') was a small trading port as long ago as the Song era (960-1279). From 1874 onwards it grew in strategic importance as first fortifications and then military harbor installations were built. After 1898, when Germany enforced a 99-year lease for the Jiazhou region, Qingdao soon developed into a German town. Houses built in the contemporary turn-of-the-century style still characterize large parts of the town today. The town was occupied by the Japanese during the First World War and was promised to them when the war ended; this led to the formation of the May 4th Protest Movement in 1919. It was 1922 before Qingdao was returned to China.
Since the 1950s Qingdao has shown rapid industrial development.
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