| With a long history and splendid culture, Qingdao is a cradle of Chinese Taoism.
Qingdao is one of the main places where the Dongyi People lived and procreated in the Neolithic Age over 5,000~6,000 years ago, leaving rich and colorful Dawenkou Culture, Longshan Culture and Yueshi Culture.
In the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Qingdao became the birthplace of Chinese sea salt, ranking among China’s “Four Ancient Salt Zones” and “Five Ancient Harbors”.
During Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, Jimo, the second biggest town in Shandong provinc, was established here. The ancient city of Jimo ( located in today’s Pingdu City) is the earliest of its kind so far extant in China. King Goujian of the Yue State established capital in Langya and became the overlord of the state.
After unifying China, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty made five inspection tours in his country and personally climbed onto Langya Terrace three times. According to historical records, Xu Fu set sail from Qingdao to Korea and Japan when he made the earliest pverseas voyage in China.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once stayed in Buqi as the King of Jiaodong when he was young. He was the emperor who made the most frequnent inspections to Qingdao in historical records.
In the Tang and Song Dynasties, as a transfer station linking the south and north shipping, Qingdao became the most important transport hub and trading port in north coastal region in china. In the Song Dynasty, Shibosi department was especially established to manage foreign trade in Banqiao Town.
In the Yuan Dynasty, China’s only sea canal, Jiaolai Canal, which ran across Shandong Peninsula, was dug for the purpose of convenient sea transportation.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Qingdao was an important fortress for coastal defense in northern China and called Jiao’ao by the people then.
On June 14, 1891, the Qing government established 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.
After world warⅠbroke out in 1914, Japan replaced Germany to occupy Qingdao.
In 1919, the famous “May Fourth Movement” was triggered by the calls for the recovery of Qingdao, which was the watershed of china’s contemporary and 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 Qingdao City in 1930.
In January 1938, Japan reoccupied Qingdao.
In September 1945，Kuomintang government took over Qingdao and designated it as a special city again.
On june 2,1949, Qingdao was liberrted as the last city in North China and designated under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province.
In 1981, Qingdao was designated among China’s 15 economic center cities.
In 1984, Qingdao was designated among China’s 14 coastal open cities.
In 1986, Qingdao was listed in the five cities specifically designated in the state plan.
In 1994, Qingdao became one of china’s 15 sub-provincial cities。
In 2011，Qingdao became the leading city in the core zone of the Blue Economic Zone of Shandong Peninsula. | 
