Qingdao Port is a famous natural port. It is an important gateway for international trade and a key transportation hub in the Yellow Sea region and along the west coast of the Pacific. It has a container dock, an ore dock, an oil dock and a coal dock with 97 international shipping routes linking more than 450 ports around the world. Every month, 419 international voyages are available to ports worldwide. In 2004, the throughput of the port reached 163 million tons, ranking first in China. Of this figure, mineral ores accounted for 53 million tons, imported crude oil 23 million tons, ranking first respectively in China; foreign trade goods 120 million tons and containers 5.14 million TEUs, ranking 2nd and 3rd respectively across the country. This placed the Port at the 15th in the world in terms of throughput. Qingdao Port No.1 in China in terms of resources utilized for foreign trade, which totals .75 percent.

The air transport industry experienced rapid growth. In 2004, Qingdao Airport accomplished a throughput of 4,808,400 passengers /times and 104,500 tons of cargoes, an increase of 37.9 percent and 38.29 percent respectively over the previous year. Currently Qingdao Airport operates 47 domestic lines and 19 international (regional) routes, connecting Qingdao with Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Paris (via Shanghai), Europe (via Beijing), Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Macao. The Qingdao-Frankfurt line is to be launched. Every week, there are 158 scheduled international flights from Qingdao to almost all major cities in the world via the five key international airports of Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul.  There are over 800 domestic flights linking Qingdao with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other major Chinese cities.

Qingdao lies within a well-developed motorway network formed by nine expressways including Jinan-Qingdao, Jiaozhou Bay, Xiliu, Xiazhuang-Shuangbu, Weifang-Laiyang, Tongjiang-Sanya, Qingdao-Yinchuan, 206 National Highway and Qianwan. The total expressway mileage in Qingdao has reached 524 kilometers, accounting for one sixtieth of the country's total and one sixth of the total expressway mileage in Shandong Province. At present the city leads the country in terms of expressway traffic mileage, density and percentage in all kinds of trafficways and has attained a level equal to the developed countries.

The construction of the Coastal highway plays a significant role in Qingdao's traffic system. It begins at Fengcheng in Jimo, runs past Laoshan Mountains, Shinan District and Huangdao District, and ends at Boli in Jiaonan City near the No. 204 National Highway. The whole length of highway runs about 282.1 kilometers and will need an investment of about 3 billion yuan. It will be completed in 2006 after three years of construction.

Qingdao's telecommunication system developed rapidly. The total post and telecom business turnover was 7.38 billion yuan in 2004, an increase of 27.7 percent over the previous year. The network information technology was further improved and popularized. At the end of the year, there were 664,500 Internet subscribers in Qingdao, an increase of 67.5 percent year-on-year, with a total Internet usage time of 780 million minutes. The telecom system was further expanded. The telephone exchange capacity reached 2,997,500 phones, an increase of 24.2 percent; there were 2,049,000 local phone subscribers and 3,763,200 mobile phone users in Qingdao.