Qingdao hit $73.2 billion in foreign trade last year, a 5.5 percent increase from 2011. To date, Qingdao's actually utilized foreign capital has reached a cumulative amount of $47 billion.

The coastal city is home to many renowned brands, and it is a popular investor destination. Provided to China Daily

Today, 11,000 foreign-invested companies are now operating in Qingdao, which provide 40 percent of Qingdao's overall exports and contribute to 43 percent of the city's tax revenue.

Qingdao is also famed for its homegrown global brands, such as electronic giants Haier and Hisense as well as Tsingtao Beer and CSR Sifang, which produced half of China's currently operating high-speed trains.

In a sense, the fame of a city's brands collectively represent the brand of the city.

The most unique feature of Qingdao's landscape is its integration of mountains and sea. Rising from the sea, Laoshan Mountain, a Taoism shrine, attracts millions of tourists each year to marvel at its natural beauty.

As a popular tourist destination, Qingdao is even named the Asian Riviera, featuring beaches, yachts, sailing clubs and every other thing travelers associate with sea leisure.

It is a young and beautiful city full of passion and dynamics. With the new era's ocean development strategy, the city is expanding fast to its west and north.

Across the Jiaozhou Bay, the Blue Silicon Valley, West Coast Economic New Zone and Hongdao Economic Zone are emerging to become the city's new drivers of marine economy.

City planners view Qingdao's future with a global perspective, and their work is measured by international standards. Together with all the people living and working in the city, they integrate all those elements with local resources to build Qingdao into a modern international metropolis.

The author is the Party chief of Qingdao.

For China Daily

 

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