Qingdao Port is a famous natural port. It is an important gateway for international trade and a key transportation hub in the Yellow Sea region and along the west coast of the Pacific. It has a container dock, an ore dock, an oil dock and a coal dock with 97 international shipping routes linking more than 450 ports around the world. Every month, 419 international voyages are available to ports worldwide. In 2004, the throughput of the port reached 163 million tons, ranking first in China. Of this figure, mineral ores accounted for 53 million tons, imported crude oil 23 million tons, ranking first respectively in China; foreign trade goods 120 million tons and containers 5.14 million TEUs, ranking 2nd and 3rd respectively across the country. This placed the Port at the 15th in the world in terms of throughput. Qingdao Port No.1 in China in terms of resources utilized for foreign trade, which totals 75 percent.
The air transport industry experienced rapid growth. In 2004, Qingdao Airport accomplished a throughput of 4,808,400 passengers /times and 104,500 tons of cargoes, an increase of 37.9 percent and 38.29 percent respectively over the previous year. Currently Qingdao Airport operates 47 domestic lines and 19 international (regional) routes, connecting Qingdao with Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Paris (via Shanghai), Europe (via Beijing), Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Macao. The Qingdao-Frankfurt line is to be launched. Every week, there are 158 scheduled international flights from Qingdao to almost all major cities in the world via the five key international airports of Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul. There are over 800 domestic flights linking Qingdao with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other major Chinese cities.
Qingdao lies within a well-developed motorway network formed by nine expressways including Jinan-Qingdao, Jiaozhou Bay, Xiliu, Xiazhuang-Shuangbu, Weifang-Laiyang, Tongjiang-Sanya, Qingdao-Yinchuan, 206 National Highway and Qianwan. The total expressway mileage in Qingdao has reached 524 kilometers, accounting for one sixtieth of the country's total and one sixth of the total expressway mileage in Shandong Province. At present the city leads the country in terms of expressway traffic mileage, density and percentage in all kinds of trafficways and has attained a level equal to the developed countries.
Road The lengths of highways on operation are 14,326 km, including 700km Expressways. At the present, the traffic mileage is more than 6.02 billion km per year.
Marine The Orient Ferry connects Qingdao with Shimonoseki, Japan. There are two ferry lines connecting Qingdao with South Korea. The New Golden Bridge II operates between Qingdao and Incheon, and the Blue Sea Ferry operates between Qingdao and Gunsan.Qingdao hosts one of China's largest seaports. Cooperative relations have been established with 450 ports in 130 countries worldwide. The 1999 annual cargo handling capacity was 72 million tons. Exported commodities amounted to more than 35 million tons and 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of cargo.
The Qingdao Liuting International Airport, 36 kilometres away from city centre, is served by 13 domestic and international airlines, operating 94 routes of which 12 are international and regional. It is estimated that in 2007 that 7.868 million people, including 1,082,000 international travellers, were transported through the airport.
Intercity Rail Qingdao's railway development was picked up during the late 1990s. It is at the beginning of the Jiaoji Railway. Qingdao's city proper has some major railway stations, Qingdao Station, Sifang Station, Cangkou Station, Great-Seaport Station, etc. At the present, domestic rail lines connect Qingdao with Beijing, Lanzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Jinan, Jining and so on. There are a total of 1,145km of roads in the Qingdao area, with nearly 500km of expressways. Expressways connect Qingdao with Jinan. The specially designed high-altitude railcars required for the Qingzang railway, the highest railway in the world, are also built in Qingdao.
Public transport Qingdao's public traffic owns about 4,500 large and medium-sized diesel buses, CNG buses and trolleybuses, operating 193 routes.[citation needed] All of these buses and trolleybuses can be accessed using the Qingdao Public Traffic IC Card, which uses radio frequencies so the card does not have to physically touch the scanner. The volume of road passenger transport approaches 0.8 billion per year. The Public Transport Brand of 'Ri-Xin Bus ' is also known in China.There are a number of taxi companies in Qingdao including Yiqing Company, Zhongqing Company, Jiaoyun Company and, Huaqing Company.
