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Wherefore art thou, QINGDAO(nese)
You can be QINGDAO(nese) no matter how you are connected to Qingdao. It doesn’t matter if you are in Qingdao long term or short term, for whatever reason fate brought you here, regardless of whether you were born here, lived here in the past, present, or are coming here in the future. If your life includes a part of Qingdao, then be proud and call yourself QINGDAO(nese).
QINGDAO(nese): a medium for everyone with an interest in Qingdao.
To contribute, please contact info@qingdaonese.com.
Qingdao
More Information on the City of Qingdao, China
Qingdao is a great place to visit, work, live, vacation, make friends, fall in love, shop, go to the beach, swim in the sea, go sailing, and much, much more. Consistently called one of the best places in China, Qingdao is renowned for its mild climate, well known for its international history and architectural heritage, and recognized as the hometown of the world famous Tsingtao Beer, still produced in the original Tsingtao Brewery that was founded in 1903. The international legacy of Qingdao mainly stems from its German colonial past but also involves the effects of Japanese control and influence from 1914 to 1945, and the impact of being host to a large number of foreign nationals including American, Russian, British, Danish and Canadian tourists, missionaries and business people, as well as US soldiers such as the Marines shortly after WWII and prior to Liberation on June 2, 1949. Located on the eastern shores of the Shandong Peninsula on the Yellow Sea, Qingdao itself is a peninsula hooking west from the Laoshan mountains to Jiaozhou Bay where the westernmost tip of the city (an area known as Tuandao) looks out on Huangdao and Xuejiadao, also called the Qingdao Economic Development Technology Zone, or just Kaifaqu (Development Zone). Tuandao itself is the point where the undersea tunnel to Xuejiadao in the Kaifaqu will commence on the Qingdao side.
Qingdao and surrounding waters such as Fushan Bay was the site of the Sailing Regatta of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Informally called the Sailing City, Qingdao is one of richest cities in China, a member of the exclusive original Special Economic Zones designated by the late Deng Xiaoping as areas open to the world for trade and commerce after the Reform and Open Door Policy began in 1978. The Port of Qingdao is one of the largest in China, and the city’s economy is inextricably connected to shipping, shipbuilding, logistics,container yards, and warehouses.
Qingdao has an intriguing yet relatively short history as a municipality. According to the Qingdao City Official Government Website:
“On June 14, 1891, the Qing government established a garrison in Jiao’ao, which represented the beginning of Qingdao as an administrative division in China. On November 14, 1897, German troops occupied Qingdao under the pretext of the “Juye Religious Incident” and turned Qingdao into a colony, which caused the “Reform Movement of 1898″ by reformers in the Qing Dynasty. After World War I broke out in 1914, Japan replaced Germany to occupy Qingdao. The famous “May Fourth Movement” was triggered by the calls for the recovery of Qingdao, which was the watershed of China’s contemporary history and China’s modern history. On December 10, 1922, Chinese Beiyang government took back Qingdao and transformed it into a commercial port. The Kuomintang government designated Qingdao as a special city in July 1929 and renamed it as Qingdao city in 1930. In January 1938, Japan reoccupied Qingdao. In September 1945, the Kuomintang government took over Qingdao and designated it as a special city again. On June 2, 1949, Qingdao was the last city liberated in North China and placed under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province.”
There are many travel websites like Mutztagh Travel Service and Asia-Planet that contain the following information:
“The original name of Qingdao area was Jiao’ao. As early as the New Stone Age, there were primitive people who lived here and created flourishing culture by their hard work.
In 1891 (the 17th year of Emperor Guangxu), the government of the Qing Dynasty set up defenses in Jiao’ao, which signified the establishment of Qingdao as an administrative division. In the next year, the Qing government assigned the General-commander of Dengzhou Town, Gao Yuan, to be stationed with his troops in Jiao’ao.
In November 1897, Germany took the area by force with the excuse of “Juye Jiao Case”, and made the Qing government sign the “Jiao’ao Concession Treaty” on March 6, 1898. From then on, Jiao’ao was humiliated to be a colony and Shandong Province was put within the sphere of influence of Germany as well. Germany set up the Residence of Governor to force iron-hand colonial ruling upon the locals and attached great importance to the building of the military facilities and the infrastructures such as ports and railways in hope of expanding its invasion of china with Jiao’ao as the bridge head of its political ruling, economic aggression and culture enslavement.
In 1914, the Japanese troops attacked Qingdao and in 1922 China took back this area: in 1937 Japan invaded Qingdao for the second time, but on June 2, 1949 Qingdao was liberated at last. Nowadays Qingdao is one of the important opening-up coastal cities in China and is a well-known historical and cultural city with trade, light industry, tourism and oceanography research as its main industries.”
Administratively, there are seven districts in Qingdao: Shinan, Shibei, Sifang, Licang, Laoshan, Huangdao and Chengyang. The greater Qingdao county includes the cities of Jiaonan, Jiaozhou, Jimo, Pingdu and Laixi. Popular areas in Qingdao include the commercial and residential district known as Taidong, the shopping and entertainment area called Hong Kong Gardens, and the downtown concentration of the government, shopping and high profile apartments and condos in the areas around May 4th Square, Xin Gui Du, and the Olympic Sailing Center.
Qingdao is home to one of China’s earliest Taoism centers, with Laoshan housing monks in temples such as Taiqinggong, and Buddhist worshippers pack the Zhan Shan Temple each Chinese New Year’s to ask for fortune and blessings. It must work because Qingdao truly is a blessed city.
