After China's defeat in the
First Opium War, the country was forcibly opened to foreign trade by a number of treaties collectively referred to as the
Unequal Treaties. Following the
Treaty of Nanjing (1842), the British established the first
treaty ports. Following China's
concession to the British Empire, other foreign powers including France, the United States, Portugal, Germany, Japan, and Russia won concessions as well. Foreigners, who were centered in foreign sections of the cities, enjoyed legal
extraterritoriality as stipulated in the Unequal Treaties. Foreign clubs, racecourses, and churches were established in major treaty ports. Some of these port areas were directly leased by foreign powers, such as the
concessions in China, effectively removing them from the control of local governments. In 1891 the
Qing government decided to make Qingdao (commonly spelled "Tsingtao" until well into the 20th century) defensible against naval attack and began to improve the existing fortifications of the town. German naval officials observed and reported on this Chinese activity during a formal survey of Jiaozhou Bay in May 1897. In November 1897, the German Navy seized Jiaozhou Bay under the pretext of ensuring that reparations were paid for the
murder of two German Catholic missionaries in the province. In the spring of 1898, the German government signed a treaty that allowed the Germans to lease an area of for 99 years, to construct a railway to
Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, and to exploit coalfields along the railroad. On gaining control of the area, the Germans outfitted the impoverished fishing village of Tsingtao with wide streets, solid housing areas, government buildings, electrification throughout, a sewer system and a safe drinking water supply. The buildings were built in a European style. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to
Allied forces, officially ending
World War II, and forces of the
Kuomintang entered the city in September, restoring the government of the Republic of China.
Under Mao Soon after the
Chinese Communist Revolution, a combination of assertive nationalism and socialist ideology led to the eradication of the Western presence in China, including Western culture and products. "The denunciation of anything Western as 'capitalist,' '
bourgeois' and representative of the '
imperialist world' reached a peak during the ideological extremism of the
Korean War (1950–1953) when the final vestiges of the Western economic and cultural presence were eradicated." This took the form of expulsion of foreigners and destruction or defacement of foreign property. An example of this in Shinan District was
St. Michael's Cathedral, which was badly damaged during the
Cultural Revolution which lasted from 1966 to 1971. During this time St. Michael's Cathedral was defaced by the
Red Guards. The crosses topping the twin
steeples were removed, with two Red Guards falling to their deaths during the removal.
After Mao Since the 1984 inauguration of China's open-door policy to foreign trade and investment, Qingdao has developed quickly as a modern port city. In 1986, Qingdao became one of five cities specifically designated in the state plan and granted with provincial level authority over economic administration. In 1994, Qingdao was elevated to one of China's 15
sub-provincial cities. ==Geography and climate==