Jiaozhou Shandong Literarily Famous For Jiaozhou Bay

Jiaozhou is earlier known as Jiao or Jiaoxian County. It is a county level city that is in the Qingdao sub provincial city in province of Shandong in land of China. It has attained the present designation of county level city in the year 1987. It covers a total area of one thousand three hundred and thirteen square kilometres and has a population of just seven thousand eight hundred thousand four hundred and seventy eight as per 2000 census report. One of the greatest attractive features of Jiaozhou is Jiaozhou Bay. This bay is a sea gulf which was a German colonial concession in the period 1898 to 1914.

The bay is getting reclamated every year!

The Jiaozhou bay is exactly in southern coast of Shandong peninsula in eastern part of China. It divides the district of Hunagdao from the city of Qingdao and also borders in the Jiaozhou city. The length of the bay us thirty two kilometres and its width is twenty seven kilometres. The surface area amounts to three hundred and sixty two square kilometres, which is nearly two thirds of area of hundred years back. As per the official data, the bay’s surface area has reduced from five hundred and sixty square kilometres in year 1928 to three hundred and sixty two square kilometres in the year 2003 because of the sustained reclamation activities on land in the recent decades. The number of marine species has also lowered by about sixty six percent in the past fifty years. The main reason for this is the industrial cum urban development and advancement of nearby regions around Jiaozhou bay. This bay is in fact a natural inlet of sea with ten to fifteen meters depth to bed of sea and is deeper. It has dredged channels specifically to the chief ports near Jiaozhou bay such as Hongdao, Qingdao and Huangdao. They are all ice free in the winter season.

Jiaozhou bay bridge

Another attraction is Jiaozhou bay bridge also known as the Qingdao Haiwan Bridge. It is nearly twenty seven kilometres in terms of length. This is in fact a potion of the 41.58 kilometres Jiaozhou bay connection project. It has been listed in Guinness world records as the longest bridge over water. It transects the bay by reducing road distance by thirty kilometres between Huangdao and Qingdao, when compared o expressway in coast of bay. It lowers the time of travel by twenty to thirty minutes. The bridge has got a special design, a shape of T with main entry in Jiaozhou and points of exit at Licang district as well as Huangdao. Even one branch of beautiful Hongdao Island is well linked to semi directional T interchange to chief span. In order to construct this bridge, four hundred and fifty thousand tons of steel as well as 81 x 10⁶ cubic feet concrete were used. It is made such that it can withstand severe typhoons, ship collisions, earthquakes, and more. It possesses over five thousand concrete piles for support. 

Travel Tips

Jiaozhou can be visited any time of the year. The bay is open for visitors too.