1. Brief Introduction to Qingdao

　1.1 Geographic Location and Climate (see the attached sketch map for Qingdao's position)

　Qingdao is located in the middle of Shandong Peninsula (120°22′E, 36°4′N), with the Yellow Sea to the east and south, and the mainland to the west and north. Qingdao covers an area of 10,654sq km. Lying in the temperate semi-humid continental climate zone, it is a well-known summer resort. The average summer and winter temperatures are 25 ℃ and 1.3℃ respectively.

　1.2 Administrative Division (see the attached map of the administrative divisions of Qingdao)

　The 7 districts of Shinan, Shibei, Sifang, Licang, Chengyang, Huangdao, and Laoshan, and the 5 county-level cities of Jiaozhou, Jiaonan, Jimo, Pingdu, and Laixi, with a total population of 7.1049 million come under the jurisdiction of Qingdao.

　1.3 Main Resources

　Product Resources

　The area has a total of 870 km of coastline and 375sq km of shallows. The main marine products include salt, shrimp, sea cucumber, abalone, scallops, and seaweed, and natural resources such as gold, graphite, bentonite, marble, granite, diamonds, magnesite, mineral oil, coal, and iron are abundant.

　Tourism Resources

　Shilaoren National Holiday Resort, Mount Lao National-level Scenic Area, and Mashan National-level Natural Reserve are located here. The Seaside Scenic Area has beautiful scenery and a variety of well-preserved classical European style structures. The seaside Sculpture Garden and Sculpture Street in the eastern part of the city are now established tourist attractions. There are 2 golf courses and 39 hotels rated above three-stars which accommodated 15.5144 million visitors in 2001.

　Scientific and Technical Personnel

　Qingdao is a famous marine science and technology city, boasting 680,000 scientific and technical personnel. This means that 1,039 per ten thousand people are scientific and technical personnel, accounting for 7.5% of the total population of the city. There are 24 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering working here. The city has advantages in the IT industry, new material technology, biological technology, and agricultural science. There are 58 independent research institutions, 34 national key laboratories, 54 college or university-run research institutes, 80 municipal-level enterprise technological centres, 234 enterprise-run research institutes and 425 hi-tech enterprises located in this area.

　1.4 Infrastructure

　Port

　Qingdao Port is one of China's major trading ports and one of the top seven hundred-million-ton ports in China. It consists of docks for containers, mineral ore, petroleum, and coal, and manages over 30 international shipping routes linking more than 450 ports in more than 130 countries and regions. The annual cargo handling capacity in 2001 reached 104.229 million tons and 2.639 million TEUs, which helped the port join the top 20 in the world.

(See the attached sketch map of international container shipping routes of Qingdao Port and the map of Qingdao Port)

　Airport

　There are over 300 flights a week for 42 national and international air routes from Qingdao, including 10 international and regional routes involving a weekly 49 flights.

　(See the attached sketch map of national and international airlines of Qingdao Airport)

　Railway

　There are freight and passenger trains to many large cities in the North, East, South, Mid South, Northwest, and Northeast of China.

　Highway

　Main highways include the Jinan-Qingdao Expressway, Jiaozhouwan Expressway, and the Qingdao-Yinchuan Expressway. As a vice-provincial-level city, Qingdao ranks first in terms of expressway traffic mileage in China.

　Telecommunications

　There are 1.402 million telephones, 1.4141 million mobile phones, and 485,300 pagers in Qingdao.

　Public Utilities

　Water supply capacity: 259 million tons
　Urban gas supply rate: 99%
　Daily electricity consumption: 35.898 million kWh
　Power-line max. load: 1.848 million kW
　Urban heat supply area: 13.05sq m

　Environmental Protection

　The planned control targets for the overall discharge of the main pollutants have been met, and standardized discharge has been realized. All the annual average indices of main pollutants in the urban surface water areas and atmosphere meet the relevant standards.

　Education

　There are 11 colleges and universities, including Qingdao Ocean University, a key university of the Ministry of Education, and the only one of its kind in China. Children of foreign business people can study at Qingdao International School and Qingdao Nanyang School.

　Medicare and Health

　The 217 hospitals in the city form a complete medicare system, encompassing medical treatment, disease prevention, convalescence, education, and scientific research.

　Leisure

　The International Golf Club has an 18-hole international standard course in the Shilaoren National Holiday Resort, covering 1,500Mu of land. Qingdao Huashan International Golf and Country Club is located at the foot of Mount Wanhua in Huashan Town, Jimo City, covering 3,000Mu of land. There will be a 36-hole international standard course and a swimming pool (see the attached picture).