Shandong is a province sitting on China’s east coast. As home to a population of 100.05 million, Shandong covers a land area of 158,000 square kilometers, with 17 prefecture-level cities and 137 counties (county-level cities and districts) under its jurisdiction, and 3345 kilometers’ coastline. The capital of Shandong is Jinan.
Shandong, as an important cradle of Chinese civilization, is the birthplace to China’s earliest characters, the first academy for philosophic debate, the most ancient city-state and the oldest great wall, the origin of pottery and silk, as well as home to 4 World Heritage sites (Mount Tai, the Confucian Compound, the Great Wall of Qi, and Shandong section of the Grand Canal). Extraordinary thinkers such as Confucius, Sun Tzu, Mencius and Mo Tse were born in Shandong. The distinctive culture of Qi and Lu states has secured Shandong a unique place in China’s cultural landscape. The Confucianism represented by Confucius, in particular, has important influence on the world even today.
Beautiful landscape, time-honored history and rich culture, as well as distinctive local features, jointly contribute to the unique characteristic of tourism in Shandong, hence the brand of Friendly Shandong. Top ten cultural tourism destination brands of the province include: Sacred Land of Confucianism, Fairyland Coast, Peaceful Mt. Tai, the City of Springs, Capital of the Ancient Qi State, the Grand Canal in Shandong, Hometown of Water Margin Heroes, Yellow River Estuary, Affectionate Yimeng and Capital of Kite.
Shandong is an economic powerhouse in China. The GDP of Shandong grew by 7.4% to 7.267818 trillion yuan in 2017, ranking third in the country. Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Shandong is studying and implementing the guiding principles of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, pursuing the supply-side structural reform as the main task, and carrying out the great project of shifting economic growth drivers. The province is putting quality first and giving priority to performance, and working hard for better quality, higher efficiency and more robust drivers of economic growth through reform. With these efforts, Shandong strives to develop a modernized economy.
Shandong has cultivated 437 sister relationships and friendly cooperative relationships with 73 countries from 5 continents, including 66 pairs at the provincial level. In 2017, Shandong’s foreign trade gathered pace, reporting a total foreign trade volume of 1.78239 trillion yuan, up by 15.2%, as well as paid-in foreign investment of 121.05 billion yuan and outbound investment of 37.75 billion yuan.