The seaside city of Qingdao, Shandong province has been working hard to implement the innovation-driven development strategy since the 12th CPC Qingdao Municipal Congress, in order to foster new driving forces for economic growth and raise people's living conditions.

Employees inspect new energy vehicles as they roll off a carmaker's assembly line in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo by Yu Fangping/for China Daily]

Over the past five years, Qingdao has continuously strengthened the construction of the national strategic scientific and technological force. The city has been ramping up efforts to build itself into a leader in science and technology by gathering global high-level talents and undertaking major national strategic scientific and technological tasks and making breakthroughs in key and core technologies.

In 2021, Qingdao promoted the construction of Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, which has completed the upgrade project of a supercomputer system and was approved as a Shandong provincial smart ocean big data platform. 

Last year, the world's first high-speed maglev train rolled off the production line in Qingdao, reaching a top speed of 600 kilometers per hour. It displays, according to experts, China's proficiency in high-speed maglev technologies and engineering approaches.

The eastern coastal city of Qingdao looks magnificent at night when all the lights are turned on. [Photo/VCG]

The city has been approved to establish a salt-alkali resistant rice technology innovation center and build a salt-alkali resistant rice industrialization innovation platform.

The China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization technology transfer center has been launched in Qingdao, which has built an international technology achievement bank with approximately 1,400 high-end projects.

The city is home to 21 provincial technological innovation centers, accounting for a quarter of the province's total.

Qingdao has issued management measures for top industrial talents and teams, built offshore innovation and entrepreneurship bases, encouraged reform to attract more international talent to live and work in China, and reinforced support for high-end scientific research talents.

For 10 years in a row, the city has been named among the top 10 most appealing Chinese cities by international talents.