Qingdao, traditionally romanized as Tsingtao, is a city in eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that connects Continental and East Asia with Europe. It has the highest GDP of any city in the province. Administered at the sub-provincial level, Qingdao has jurisdiction over seven districts and three county-level cities. As of the 2020 census, Qingdao built-up area made of the seven urban districts was home to 7,172,451 inhabitants, making it the 15th largest city in China by population. Lying across the Shandong Peninsula and looking out to the Yellow Sea, it borders the prefecture-level cities of Yantai to the northeast, Weifang to the west and Rizhao to the southwest.

The Yellow Sea, also known as North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour terms, and its name is descriptive of the golden-yellow color of the silt-ridden water discharged from major rivers.