There are four districts in the city: Shinan District, Shibei District, sifang district District and Licang District.
Shinan District is the tourist and commercial district of Qingdao, and also the political, economic and cultural center of Qingdao.
Shibei District is the commercial district of Qingdao, belonging to the old city.
Sifang district is an old industrial zone and an old city in Qingdao.
Licang District is a heavy industrial area in the west of Qingdao, a commercial center in the east and a gateway and transportation hub in the north of Qingdao.
There are three suburbs: Laoshan District, Chengyang District and Huangdao District.
The center of Laoshan District is a new business district, which governs four sub-district offices in Laoshan and is adjacent to four districts in the city, focusing on tourism and business.
Chengyang District is a new industrial area. The newly planned Qingdao High-tech Zone is located in the west of Chengyang District. It is planned to separate the High-tech Zone from Chengyang District and set up Hongdao District.
Huangdao District, located in the west of Jiaozhou Bay, is the earliest economic and technological development zone in Qingdao.
There are five municipalities directly under the Central Government: jimo city, jiaozhou city, Jiaonan, pingdu city and Laixi.
These five municipalities are all sub-prefecture-level cities (because Qingdao is a sub-provincial city), and their economies are relatively developed.