Club history Qingdao Hainiu F.C. was established on 29 January 2013 by former players and coaches from Shandong that included
Qi Wusheng as chairman,
Hao Haidong as managerial director and
Su Maozhen as general manager. With the financial backing of 20 million Yuan from Qingdao Central Plaza Business Management Co., Ltd the club would choose the name Hainiu (), which means "The Sea Bulls" despite it once being used by
Qingdao Jonoon, another football club in Qingdao between 1994 and 2004, hoping to inspire the golden era of Qingdao football. On the field the team would show their dominance within the league and go through the divisions group stage undefeated, while also beating
Meixian Super-X and
Shenzhen Fengpeng F.C. to reach the play-off final. In the final the club would defeat
Hebei Zhongji F.C. 3–1 to gain promotion to the second tier and win a million Yuan in prize money for the game with a further 3 million won throughout the season. On 31 January 2015, Qingdao Huanghai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. purchased a 51% stake of the club. On 3 July 2015, Serbian player
Goran Gogić collapsed and lost consciousness after a training session with the club. He died later on the same day. Qingdao Hainiu finished 11th place in the 2015 season. On 30 December 2015,
Qingdao Hainiu F.C. changed their name to
Qingdao Huanghai F.C. after Qingdao Huanghai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. took full charge of the club. Qingdao Huanghai finished level on 59 points with
Tianjin Quanjian and
Guizhou Zhicheng under Spanish manager
Jordi Vinyals in the 2016 season, but their head-to-head points was worse than the other two clubs, thus failing to promote to the
Chinese Super League. In the following two years, the club came close to promotion each time but fell short, earning fourth place in the League One. In the
2019 China League One the club earned first place and gained promotion. Ahead of the 2021 season, Qingdao Huanghai changed their name to Qingdao F.C. The club dissolved after the 2021 season.
Ownership and naming history ==Retired numbers==