Qingdao, also Tsingtao or Ch'ing-tao, city, Shandong Province, eastern China. It is a major naval base, an industrial center, and a port on the Yellow Sea at the entrance to sheltered Jiaozhou Bay. The port, which rarely freezes over, serves the industrialized northern China Plain and was expanded in 1976 to include an oil terminal for large tankers on Huang Island. The leading manufactures of the city include textiles, railroad equipment, rubber goods, fertilizer, and chemicals. Tsingtao beer, brewed here since Germany leased (1898-1914) Kiaochow territory, is marketed internationally. Shandong Oceanography College is located here.
Qingdao was transformed by the Germans from a small fishing village into a modern, European-style industrial port in the early 20th century. It was twice occupied by Japan, during 1914-22 and during 1938-45. The port was an important United States naval base from 1945 to 1949. The development of heavy industry was promoted when the Chinese regained control of the city in 1949, with petroleum-based industries becoming of major importance in the 1970s. Population (1991) 2,638,919.
