Shandong Province
Located on the eastern coast of China. The Yellow River enters the sea from Dongying City, Shandong, forming the famous Yellow River Delta, which is the largest delta in China. Shandong Province has an area of 157,900 square kilometers. The eastern part is the Shandong Peninsula. The terrain is mainly mountainous hills. The western and northern parts belong to the North China Plain.
With a population of 100.7021 million in 2019, it is the second largest province in China after Guangdong Province. The population of Shandong Province in 2009 was 90.82 million. Shandong Province is the birthplace of Lu cuisine in China’s eight major cuisines. There are 16 cities in Shandong Province, the capital of Jinan City, and Qingdao City is located in the easternmost part of the Shandong Peninsula.
Confucius and Mencius, the founders of ancient Chinese Confucianism, were born in Shandong. Confucian culture originated in Shandong and gradually became the official and mainstream culture of China.
The Economy & Industries
The province’s GDP in 2019 was 7106.75 billion yuan, ranking third in the country. In 2009, the GDP of Shandong Province was 3.3805 trillion yuan. Shandong Province has developed traffic and dense railway and highway networks. Shandong is a major province of industry and agriculture and part of the Bohai Rim Economic Circle.
The Qingdao Beer produced is well-known in the world.
There are many types of mineral resources in Shandong, including natural sulfur (accounting for more than 90% of China’s reserves) and gypsum (accounting for 70% of China’s reserves). The Jiaodong area is China’s Largest Gold Production base and the third largest gold mining area in the world.
There are many large-scale enterprises in Shandong, known as the “group economy“. In the list of 2,692 large enterprise groups nationwide released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2003, 292 companies in Shandong Province made the list, ranking first in the country.
Two companies were included in the Fortune Global 500 list for the first time in 2012.
Other large enterprises include
Shandong is an important producer of grain, cotton, oil, meat, egg and milk in China, and its agricultural products export ranks first in the country for 16 consecutive years.
Shandong Industry has long relied on the advantages of natural resources, mainly in the chemical industry, based on oil, salt and petrochemical industries. The proportion of medium and high-end industries is relatively low.
At six international airports, Shandong’s air passenger throughput exceeded 30 million for the first time in 2014, of which Qingdao Airport’s passenger throughput exceeded 10 million.
There are many ports in Shandong Province, among which Qingdao Port is China’s important international trade port and maritime transportation hub, the seventh largest port in the world (2017), the seventh largest container port (2019), and China’s second largest foreign trade port with a throughput of 100 million tons. In 2017, the throughput was 520 million tons.
There are more than 2,000 foreign-funded enterprises investing in Shandong in 2019, and 214 Fortune 500 companies have established 741 enterprises in Shandong.
