The siege of Tsingtao (or Tsingtau) was the attack on the German port of Tsingtao (now
Qingdao) in China during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
by
Japan and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. The siege was waged against
Imperial Germany
The German Empire (), Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditar ...
between 27 August and 7 November 1914. The siege was the first encounter between Japanese and German forces, the first Anglo-Japanese operation of the war, and the only major land battle in the
Asian and Pacific theatre during World War I.
Background
Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Germany joined other
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an powers in a scramble for colonial possessions. As with the other
world power
A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power inf ...
s (including the United States and Japan), Germany began to interfere in Chinese local affairs. After two German missionaries were killed in the
Juye Incident
The Juye Incident (, german: Juye Vorfall) refers to the killing of two German Catholic missionaries, Richard Henle and Franz Xaver Nies, of the Society of the Divine Word, in Juye County Shandong Province, China in the night of 1–2 Nov ...
in 1897, China was forced to agree to the
Kiautschou Bay concession in
Shantung
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
(now
Shandong) to Germany in 1898 on a 99-year lease. Germany then began to assert its influence across the rest of the province and built the city and port of Tsingtao, which became the base of the
German East Asiatic Squadron
The German East Asia Squadron (german: Kreuzergeschwader / Ostasiengeschwader) was an Imperial German Navy cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the mid-1890s until 1914, when it was destroyed at the Battle of the F ...
of the ''
Kaiserliche Marine
{{italic title
The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control.
The term wa ...
'' (German Navy), which operated in support of the German colonies in the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
. Britain viewed the German presence in China with suspicion and leased
Weihaiwei
Weihai (), formerly called Weihaiwei (), is a prefecture-level city and major seaport in easternmost Shandong province. It borders Yantai to the west and the Yellow Sea to the east, and is the closest Chinese city to South Korea.
Weihai's popu ...
, also in Shantung, as a naval port and coaling station. Russia
leased
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
its own station at Port Arthur (now
Lüshunkou) and France at
Kwang-Chou-Wan
The Leased Territory of Guangzhouwan, officially the , was a territory on the coast of Zhanjiang in China leased to France and administered by French Indochina. The capital of the territory was Fort-Bayard, present-day Zhanjiang.
The Japan ...
. Britain also began to forge close ties with Japan, and diplomatic relations became closer, with the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance being signed on 30 January 1902. Japan saw the alliance as a necessary deterrent to its main rival, Russia. Japan demonstrated its potential by its victory in the 1904–1905
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, and the alliance continued into World War I.
When the war in Europe began in August 1914, Britain promptly requested Japanese assistance. On 15 August, Japan issued an ultimatum, stating that Germany must withdraw her warships from Chinese and Japanese waters and transfer control of its port of Tsingtao to Japan. The next day, Major-General
Mitsuomi Kamio,
General Officer Commanding (GOC),
18th Infantry Division, was ordered to prepare to take Tsingtao by force. The ultimatum expired on 23 August, and Japan declared war on Germany. At the beginning of hostilities, the ships of the East Asia Squadron under Vice Admiral
Maximilian von Spee
Maximilian Johannes Maria Hubert Reichsgraf von Spee (22 June 1861 – 8 December 1914) was a naval officer of the German ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy), who commanded the East Asia Squadron during World War I. Spee entered the navy in ...
were dispersed at various Pacific colonies on routine missions. Spee's ships rendezvoused in the
Northern Mariana Islands
The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonw ...
for coaling. then headed for the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
, while the rest of the squadron made their way to the west coast of
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
. The squadron engaged and destroyed two obsolescent ships of a small
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
squadron at the
Battle of Coronel
The Battle of Coronel was a First World War Imperial German Navy victory over the Royal Navy on 1 November 1914, off the coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. The East Asia Squadron (''Ostasiengeschwader'' or ''Kreuzergeschwader'') ...
, before itself being destroyed at the
Battle of the Falkland Islands
The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a First World War naval action between the British Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 in the South Atlantic. The British, after their defeat at the Battle of Coronel on 1 November, s ...
in the South Atlantic.
German defences
The
Boxer Rebellion, at the beginning of the century, had led Germany to consider the defence of Tsingtao. The port and the town were divided from the rest of the peninsula by steep hills. The main line of defense lay along three hills, Mount Moltke, Mount Bismarck, and Mount Iltis, from the ''Kaiserstuhl'' to ''Litsuner'' Heights. Guarding the left wing was Fort Moltke, on the hill of the same name, with two 9.4 in. (240 mm) guns. The heaviest firepower was concentrated in the four 11 in. (280 mm) howitzers of Fort Bismarck. On the right wing, Fort Iltis contained two 9.4 in. guns at the hill's summit. A second line of defense was set up along a closer line of steep hills. The final line of defense was along hills above the town. A network of trenches, batteries, and other fortifications had been built in preparation for the coming siege. Germany had strengthened the defenses from the sea by laying mines in the approaches to the harbor and building four batteries and five redoubts. The fortifications were well equipped (though some with obsolete Chinese artillery) and were well manned.
Prelude
![Russian battleship Pobeda on the Kronstadt roadstead 1901](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Russian_battleship_Pobeda_on_the_Kronstadt_roadstead_1901.jpg)
On 27 August the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
(IJN) sent ships under Vice-Admiral
Sadakichi Kato, flying his flag in the
pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, protec ...
, to blockade the coast of Kiaochow. The British
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
(RN) strengthened the Japanese fleet by sending the
China Station
The Commander-in-Chief, China was the admiral in command of what was usually known as the China Station, at once both a British Royal Navy naval formation and its admiral in command. It was created in 1865 and deactivated in 1941.
From 1831 to 18 ...
's pre-dreadnought and the
destroyer . On October 14, the ''Triumph'' was slightly damaged by a German shore battery, killing one member of its crew and injuring two others. The blockading fleet consisted mainly of nearly obsolete warships, though it did at times include a few modern vessels. These included the
dreadnoughts
The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...
, , the
battlecruiser , her sister
''Hiei'', and the
seaplane carrier
A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are rega ...
, whose airplanes became the first of its kind in the world to attack sea and land targets. These Japanese airplanes would also take part in another military first, a night-time bombing raid.
The
18th Infantry Division was the primary Japanese Army formation that took part in the initial landings, numbering some 23,000 soldiers with support from 142
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
pieces. They began to land on 2 September at
Lungkow, which was experiencing heavy floods at the time, and later at
Lau Schan Bay on 18 September, about east of Tsingtao. China protested against the Japanese violation of her neutrality but did not interfere in the operations.
The British Government and the other European great powers were concerned about Japanese intentions in the region and decided to send a small symbolic British contingent from
Tientsin
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...
in an effort to allay their fears. The 1,500-man contingent was commanded by Brigadier-General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston and consisted of 1,000 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion,
The South Wales Borderers
The South Wales Borderers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for 280 years.
It came into existence in England in 1689, as Sir Edward Dering's Regiment of Foot, and afterwards had a variety of names and headquarters. I ...
; later followed by 500 soldiers of the
36th Sikhs
The 36th Sikhs was an infantry regiment in the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1887, when they were the 36th (Sikh) Bengal Infantry. Composed of Jat Sikhs, it was created by Colonel Jim Cooke and Captain H. R. Holmes. They ...
. Following a friendly fire incident, British troops were given Japanese raincoats to wear so they would be more easily identifiable to the Japanese.
The Germans responded to the threat against Tsingtao by concentrating all of their available East Asian troops in the city.
Kaiser Wilhelm II
, house = Hohenzollern
, father = Frederick III, German Emperor
, mother = Victoria, Princess Royal
, religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United)
, signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...
made the defense of Tsingtao a top priority, saying that "... it would shame me more to surrender Tsingtao to the Japanese than Berlin to the Russians". The German garrison, commanded by naval Captain and Governor
Alfred Meyer-Waldeck
Alfred Meyer-Waldeck (27 November 1864 – 25 August 1928) was a vice admiral in the Imperial German Navy from 1909 to 1914. He was most notable as the lead naval commander in the Siege of Tsingtao during World War I
World War I (28 ...
, consisted of the marines of ''III
Seebataillon
''Seebataillon'' (plural ''Seebataillone''), literally "sea battalion", is a German term for certain troops of naval infantry or marines. It was used by the Prussian Navy, the North German Federal Navy, the Imperial German Navy, the Austro-Hungari ...
'', naval personnel, Chinese colonial troops, and Austro-Hungarian sailors, for a total strength of 3,625 men. He also had a modest complement of vessels, including the torpedo boat ; the decommissioned unprotected cruiser ; the auxiliary cruiser , former captured Russian steamer Ryazan manned with the crew of cruiser Cormoran; four small gunboats: the , , , and ; and the Austro-Hungarian
protected cruiser
Protected cruisers, a type of naval cruiser of the late-19th century, gained their description because an armoured deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers re ...
, whose crew was initially divided in two: half to man the ship, and half to fight with the German land forces.
On 22 August of the China squadron, under the command of Lieutenant Commander F. A. Russell, while routinely monitoring the naval trade routes, encountered and was damaged in action by the German torpedo boat , the German gunboat SMS ''Lauting'' and a 4-inch shore battery off Tsingtao. She was hit twice from the retreating ''S90''.
Siege
![Imperial Japanese Sailors Coming Ashore at the Siege of Tsingtao 1914](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Imperial_Japanese_Sailors_Coming_Ashore_at_the_Siege_of_Tsingtao_1914.png)
As the Japanese approached their positions, Meyer-Waldeck withdrew his forces from the two outer defensive lines and concentrated his troops on the innermost line of defense along the hills closest to the town. The Austro-Hungarian cruiser, SMS ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'', was stationed in Tsingtao at the start of the war. On 2 September 1914 the German gunboat ''Jaguar'' sank the stranded Japanese destroyer ''Shirotaye''. On 5 September a Japanese reconnaissance airplane scouted the port and reported that the Asian German fleet had departed, the Japanese ordered the dreadnought, pre-dreadnought, and cruiser to leave the blockade. The next day the second air-sea battle in history took place (the first air-sea battle in history was at the Balkan wars in 1913) when a Farman seaplane launched by the ''Wakamiya'' unsuccessfully attacked the ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' and the ''Jaguar'' in Qiaozhou Bay with bombs. Early in the siege, the ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' and German gunboat ''Jaguar'' made an unsuccessful sortie against Japanese vessels blockading Tsingtao. Later, the cruiser's 15cm and 4.7cm guns were removed from the ship and mounted onshore, creating the ''Batterie Elisabeth''. The ship's crew took part in the defense of Tsingtao. On 13 September the Japanese land forces launched a cavalry raid on the German rear guard at Tsimo, which the Germans gave up and retreated. Subsequently, the Japanese took control of
Kiautschou
The Jiaozhou Bay (; german: Kiautschou Bucht, ) is a bay located in the prefecture-level city of Qingdao (Tsingtau), China.
The bay has historically been romanized as Kiaochow, Kiauchau or Kiao-Chau in English and Kiautschou in German.
Geogra ...
and the
Santung railway. Lt. Gen. Kamio considered this the point of no return for his land forces and as the weather became extremely harsh he took no risk and fortified the troops at the town, returned the reinforcements that were on the way, re-embarked and landed at
Lau Schan Bay.
On 26 September, Kamio resumed his advance, and the Germans were forced to retreat beyond the river Litsun. The Japanese made good time, crossing the river Paisha early in the day, swiftly crossing the seven-mile lowland plain and reaching the northern bank of the Litsun.
[Joseph Trainor (1976). ''War Monthly – Issue 37: Tsingtao 1914'', p. 11. .]
On September 27, Kamio tried to take Prince Heinrich Hill by a frontal assault and was caught in a murderous crossfire. From the summit, the Germans rained down bullets from four
Maxim gun
The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world.
The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian ...
s. Out in the harbor, ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' and ''Leopard'' shelled the exposed slopes, nearly routing the Japanese right flank. The Japanese assault was saved by the allied fleet.
As the siege progressed, the naval vessels trapped in the harbor, ''Cormoran'', ''Iltis'' and ''Luchs'', were
scuttled
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...
on 28 September. On 17 October, the torpedo boat ''S-90'' slipped out of Tsingtao harbor and fired a torpedo which sank the Japanese cruiser with the loss of 271 officers and men. ''S-90'' was unable to run the blockade back to Tsingtao and was scuttled in Chinese waters when the ship ran low on fuel. ''Tiger'' was scuttled on 29 October, ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' on 2 November, followed finally by ''Jaguar'' on 7 November, the day the fortress surrendered to the Japanese forces.
The Japanese started shelling the fort and the city on 31 October and began digging parallel lines of trenches, just as they had done at the
siege of Port Arthur
The siege of Port Arthur ( ja, 旅順攻囲戦, ''Ryojun Kōisen''; russian: link=no, Оборона Порт-Артура, ''Oborona Port-Artura'', August 1, 1904 – January 2, 1905) was the longest and most violent land battle of the Russ ...
nine years earlier. Very large 11inch howitzers from land, in addition to the firing of the Japanese naval guns, brought the German defenses under constant bombardment during the night, the Japanese moving their own trenches further forward under the cover of their artillery. The bombardment continued for seven days, employing around 100 siege guns with 1,200 shells each on the Japanese side. While the Germans were able to use the heavy guns of the port fortifications to bombard the landward positions of the Allies, they soon ran out of ammunition. When the artillery ran out of ammunition on 6 November, surrender was inevitable.
The German garrison was able to field only a single
Etrich Taube
The Etrich ''Taube'', also known by the names of the various later manufacturers who built versions of the type, such as the Rumpler ''Taube'', was a pre-World War I monoplane aircraft. It was the first military aeroplane to be mass-produced in ...
airplane during the siege flown by Lieutenant
Gunther Plüschow
Gunther Plüschow (February 8, 1886 – January 28, 1931) was a German aviator, aerial explorer and author from Munich, Bavaria. His feats include the only escape by a German prisoner of war in World War I from Britain back to Germany; he was ...
. (A second Etrich Taube piloted by Lt. Friedrich Müllerskowsky crashed early in the campaign). That airplane was used for frequent reconnaissance flights and Plüschow made several nuisance attacks on the blockading squadron dropping improvised munitions and other ordnance on them. Plüschow claimed the downing of a Japanese
Farman MF.VII with his pistol, the first aerial victory in aviation history. Plüschow flew from Tsingtao on 6 November 1914 carrying the governor's last dispatches, which were forwarded to Berlin through neutral diplomatic channels.
On the night of 6 November, waves of Japanese infantry attacked the third line of defense and overwhelmed the defenders. The next morning, the German forces, along with their Austro-Hungarian allies, asked for terms. The Allies took formal possession of the colony on 16 November 1914.
File:BritishTroopsArriveTsingtao1914.jpg, British troops arriving at Tsingtao in 1914
File:British, Indian and Japanese soldiers in Tsingtao (Qingdao), China, 1914.jpg, British, Indian and Japanese soldiers in Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
, 1914.
File:Siege of Tsingtao, soldiers of IJA 18th division took over german trench Kopie.jpg, Soldiers of the 18th division, Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
occupy an abandoned german trench during the Siege of Tsingtao, 1914
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 134-C1299, Tsingtau, Vorderste deutsche Frontlinie.jpg, German front line at Tsingtao 1914; the head cover identifies these men as members of III ''Seebataillon
''Seebataillon'' (plural ''Seebataillone''), literally "sea battalion", is a German term for certain troops of naval infantry or marines. It was used by the Prussian Navy, the North German Federal Navy, the Imperial German Navy, the Austro-Hungari ...
'' (III Sea Battalion) of Marines.
File:Battle of Tsingtao German Gun.jpg, German gun in the Bismarck Fortress, Tsing-Tau, crumpled by Japanese naval bombardment.
Aftermath
![Bundesarchiv Bild 137-030555, Wilhelmshaven, Rückkehr von Kriegsgefangenen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Bundesarchiv_Bild_137-030555%2C_Wilhelmshaven%2C_R%C3%BCckkehr_von_Kriegsgefangenen.jpg)
As the German garrison was able to hold out for nearly two months despite the naval blockade with sustained artillery bombardment and being outnumbered 6 to 1, the defeat nevertheless temporarily served as a morale booster. The German defenders watched the Japanese with curiosity as they marched into Tsingtao but turned their backs on the British when they entered into town.
[''Adelaide Advertiser'', Page 8, "The War" section, subparagrap]
"The China Fight – Australian who was wounded."
summary of interview with Captain M. J. G. Colyer, December 28, 1914 So deep was their anger that some German officers spat in the faces of their British counterparts.
Japanese casualties numbered 733 killed and 1,282 wounded; the British had 12 killed and 53 wounded. The German defenders lost 199 dead and 504 wounded. The German dead were buried at Tsingtao, while the remaining soldiers were transported to prisoner of war camps in Japan. During the march to Tsingtao and the subsequent siege, Japanese forces killed 98 Chinese civilians and wounded 30; there were also countless incidents of rape against Chinese women committed by Japanese soldiers. The 4,700 German prisoners were treated well and with respect in Japan, such as in
Bandō prisoner-of-war camp
The was a prisoner-of-war camp during World War I in the western suburbs of what is now Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, Japan. From April 1917 until January 1920, just under a thousand of the 3,900 soldiers of the Imp ...
. The German troops were interned in Japan until the formal signature of the Versailles peace treaty in 1919, but due to technical questions, the troops were not repatriated before 1920. 170 prisoners chose to remain in Japan after the end of the war.
See also
*
Japan during World War I
Japan participated in World War I from 1914 to 1918 in an alliance with Entente Powers and played an important role in securing the sea lanes in the West Pacific and Indian Oceans against the Imperial German Navy as a member of the Allies. Poli ...
*
Kiautschou Bay concession
*
U-boat Campaign (World War I)
The U-boat Campaign from 1914 to 1918 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U-boats against the trade routes of the Allies. It took place largely in the seas around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean.
The German Empire r ...
Notes
References
Sources
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Further reading
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External links
German Colonial Uniforms
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siege Of Tsingtao
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
German Empire in World War I
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Japan in World War I
1914 in Japan
China in World War I
1914 in China
History of Qingdao
Last stands