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Future developments of Qingdao

Did you know that China´s economy is currently growing by 9% every year? In comparison countries like Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, or the USA have only been growing by approximately 1% during the same time. China´s economy has in fact been developing extremely fast for the past 25 years. It is estimated that by 2020 the Chinese economy is going to dominate the world market. So what effect does this effect have on Chinese cities?

InternChina – World´s longest bridge (1)

Let´s take Qingdao as an example; a city located at China´s east coast and with more than 6 million inhabitants the biggest city of Shandong province. Once a German colony, Qingdao has come a long way from oppression to playing an important role in international business, which is not least thanks to its favorable position at the East China Sea.

Today, Qingdao has a major international seaport as well as a naval base, the world´s longest bridge and several high tech industrial areas.In 2008 it proudly hosted the Beijing Olympic Games for sailing, as well as the 2013 and 2014 Sailing World Cup.

InternChina – Qingdao Industrial Area (2)

All these developments have made Qingdao a popular trading and investment partner during the past decade. The city´s international exhibition centre frequently hosts international conferences like the 2014 APEC trade ministers’ conference, the International Conference on Desalination and Water Reuse in July 2015 or the 2016 International Conference on Biological Information and Biomedical Engineering.

At the Global Ocean Summit held in Qingdao in February 2014, Qingdao Consensus on Sustainable Development of Future Oceans was declared, which demonstrates the city´s aspiration to achieve an environmental friendly status and also underlines its aim to play a leading role in marine economic development. Every year the city also attracts students from all over the world to study at one of the more than 28 colleges and universities, the biggest of which are Ocean University of China, Qingdao University including International Business College and University Medical College, Qingdao University of Science and Technology and Qingdao Agricultural University. During the past couple of yearsmore than 10,000 top professionals from overseas have been drawn to the city.

InternChina – Qingdao Port (3)

Qingdao´s industrial areas do much in supporting the city´s export output and development. The West Coast New Economic Zone hosts several important technological parks like the State-level Economic and Technological Development Zone, the Sino-German Ecological Park and the China-Japan-ROK Innovation Industrial Demonstration Park. The government aim is to reach a GDP of 500 billion yuan ($81 billion) in 2015 alone; by 2020, they expect it to exceed as much as 1 trillion yuan. Another industrial zone, the Hongdao Economic Zone, aims to become a major investment centre for high-tech companies.
But Qingdao not only attracts professionals and business investors but also tourists from all over the world, many of which come to the city during the summer months, the best season to enjoy sailing, swimming,  sunbathing and to taste the delicious seafood.Events such as the Qingdao International Beer Festival held every summer, which is hosted by the Tsingtao Brewery, the second largest brewery in China,also help much in promoting the city´s status as tourist destination.
In light of this fast paced development, it is almost certain that the city has a very promising future ahead and can expect further growth and investments in the coming years.

InternChina – Sailing in Qingdao (4)
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PRIMER VIAJE POR CHINA

Nihao!!!
 

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Si, ya he hecho mi primer viaje por Asia, y la verdad que en este viaje hemos tenido de todo.

Hemos pasado por todas las fases posibles, desde ilusión, porque lo organizábamos mi compañera y yo, estrés porque salían imprevistos por todos sitios y queríamos que todo fuese perfecto, felicidad porque nos gusto a todos el viaje, y cansancio porque para algunos de nuestros compañeros la vuelta fue eterna.

Como ya he dicho, este viaje al haberlo organizado nosotras, he experimentado las tres fases de un viaje: pre-viaje, viaje y post viaje, pero si tuviera que calificarlo en una sola palabra sería, imprevisto. En todas las etapas hemos tenido alguno. El mayor de todos…los vuelos. Y el ser aún una novata en las aerolíneas chinas esta provocando que tenga a mi compañera Amber loquita perdida.

La verdad es que me llevé una grata sorpresa con Shanghai, porque pensé que ya no quedaría mucho de las antiguas casa chinas, esas que vemos en las películas o en los libros de historia, pero no. A pesar de ser una ciudad enorme, y una de las más visitadas…sigue manteniendo su raíz y lo mejor de todo es que tanto las casas antiguas como modernas conviven y se combinan entre sí, junto con su barrio Francés.

InternChina - Shanghai
InternChina – Shanghai

Uno de mis sitios favoritos fue el puente “The Bund” con unas vistas preciosas y prácticamente cantamos bajo la lluvia y nos quedaron unas fotos muy bonitas. El otro sitio que me gustó mucho fue el Bazar de los jardines Yuyuan, dentro de sus galerías estaba la casa del té y para quienes adoramos las tiendas de souvenires, es el paraíso, y más si sabes regatear precios. Y una de las nuevas experiencias adquiridas ha sido encontrar un taxi y coger un vuelo a su hora. Allí que estábamos nosotros, 16 europeos con ganas de conocer la noche en Shanghai e intentado encontrar un taxista disponible junto a “The Bund” haha ¡Sólo se nos ocurre a nosotros! Pero creo que parte de mis compañeros aprendieron a llevar las situaciones con más filosofía después de que le cancelaran el vuelo. Pero no perdieron la sonrisa porque se hicieron fotos con niños bajo el agua.

InternChina - Shanghai
InternChina – Shanghai

Tras este viaje, baidu maps app se ha convertido en mi guía, siempre que no quiera reírse de mí y me mande en dirección contraria. Y he aprendido que cuando vas a coger un avión en China, tienes que llevarte un libro para leer durante las horas de retraso o tomártelo con mucha filosofía.

Aquí puedes encontrar más experiencias.