The original name of Qingdao area was Jiao'ao. As early as the New Stone Age, there were primitive people who lived here and created flourishing culture by their hard work.

In 1891 (the 17th year of Emperor Guangxu), the government of the Qing Dynasty set up defenses in Jiao'ao, which signified the establishment of Qingdao as an administrative division. In the next year, the Qing government assigned the General-commander of Dengzhou Town, Gao Yuan, to be stationed with his troops in Jiao'ao.

In November 1897, Germany took the area by force with the excuse of "Juye Jiao Case", and made the Qing government sign the "Jiao'ao Concession Treaty" on March 6, 1898. From then on, Jiao'ao was humiliated to be a colony and Shandong Province was put within the sphere of influence of Germany as well. Germany set up the Residence of Governor to force iron-hand colonial ruling upon the locals and attached great importance to the building of the military facilities and the infrastructures such as ports and railways in hope of expanding its invasion of china with Jiao'ao as the bridge head of its political ruling, economic aggression and culture enslavement.

In 1914, the Japanese troops attacked Qingdao and in 1922 China took back this area: in 1937 Japan invaded Qingdao for the second time, but on June 2, 1949 Qingdao was liberated at last. Nowadays Qingdao is one of the important opening-up coastal cities in China and is a well-known historical and cultural city with trade, light industry, tourism and oceanography research as its main industries.