Qingdao is the English name of the Chinese city written as 青岛in Chinese.

The name of the city is written as Qīngdǎo in pinyin.

The 2 characters (青岛) that make up the name for Qingdao can be translated into English as “Green Island”, even though Qingdao is technically a peninsula.

Qingdao is green though.

There is a green belt that more or less serves as a mid point between what is considered Old Town and the areas of Qingdao that were developed post 1990.

Zhongshan Park and Badaguan meld into Taiping Jiao, occupying a large swath of green space before the city becomes flat from the Haitian Hotel area (basically from Yan An San Lu going east all the way to Ningxia Lu, where the main campus of Qingdao University leads down to Mai Dao).

Behind Qingdao University is the bolder heavy mountain chain called Fushan, which run parallel to the coastline all the way out to Laoshan in the far east of Qingdao.

Qingdao is also greened by the presence of many hills throughout the city, such as Signal Hill, covered in pines and elm trees.

Qingdao Boat in Qingdao Sailing Center Marina