As of now, the economic data for the first three quarters of cities in the national GDP trillion-dollar club has been gradually released, except for Wuxi which is yet to be announced.

Among the 26 cities, 7 cities including Guangzhou, Ningbo, Tianjin, Changsha, Foshan, Xi'an, and Dongguan failed to surpass the national average growth rate of 5.2%. 19 cities exceeded or reached the national average. Yantai, the strongest city in th

Actually, this is the third consecutive quarter that Yantai has led the country's trillion-dollar cities. Yantai's strong performance has once again sparked competition for the status of Shandong's second city. Whether it can continue its current gro

Furthermore, by 2025, Shandong is expected to exceed the 10 trillion yuan mark in terms of its annual GDP. At this critical juncture, Shandong is also facing pressure from the fact that its pacesetters are becoming increasingly distant while its comp

01

Growth Champion

Benefiting from industrial development, Yantai has made a strong presence this year. In the first three quarters, the added value of its secondary industry increased by 8.8%, which was 3.9% higher than the national average and significantly higher th

Industry is the main driver of growth. In the first three quarters, the industrial added value of Yantai increased by 13.9%, which was higher than the national and provincial levels by 7.7 and 6.1 percentage points, respectively. It ranks second amon

In-depth analysis, several major industrial transformation projects in Yantai have completed their construction cycles in recent years and will enter the mass production phase in 2025. For example, the Longkou Yulong Petrochemical Industrial Park and

On a larger time scale, Yantai has maintained a high growth trend since it ascended to a GDP trillion-dollar city in 2023. This momentum also comes from industrial transformation.

Industry has long been the foundation and strength of Yantai's economy, but there have been issues of high proportions of traditional industries and insufficient support for emerging industries. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, Yantai has focused on ne

In August 2022, the State Council issued specific opinions to support Shandong in building a green and low-carbon high-quality development pilot zone. In early December 2023, Shandong clearly stated its support for Yantai to build a green and low-car

Taking Yantai's leading industry of petrochemistry as an example, from the south bank of the Bohai Sea to the west, the Yantai Chemical Industry Park, Wanhua New Material Low-carbon Industry Park, and Yulong Petrochemical Industry Park are sequential

Industrial transformation and upgrading drive high economic growth.

Data shows that the number of above-scale enterprises in Yantai's petrochemical and chemical new material industry chain has grown from 248 at the end of 2021 to 328 in 2024, with production value increasing from 95.3 billion yuan to 185.4 billion yu

In the first three quarters of this year, the top ten industries of Yantai's above-scale industrial added value showed a trend of '9 rising and 1 falling'. Among them, the chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing industry had the st

Behind the impressive economic data, Yantai is not entirely worry-free as well.

In the first three quarters of this year, the value-added growth rate of Yantai's tertiary industry was 4.7%, which was lower than the national and provincial rates by 0.7% and 1.4% respectively. At the same time, the growth rate of fixed asset inves

Yantai has awakened to its own shortcomings. At the Yantai 2025 Economic and Social Development Scheduling and Promotion Conference, Jiang Cheng, the secretary of the Yantai Municipal Committee, pointed out that it is necessary to resolutely correct

02

Close Racing

As the data for the first three quarters of 2025 is released for the three leading cities in Shandong, discussions on the city ranking battle are heating up again.

In the first three quarters, Qingdao firmly sits in the first position with a total of 1337.347 billion yuan, followed closely by Jinan with 1043.37 billion yuan. Both cities have exceeded the one trillion yuan threshold simultaneously.

Yantai ranks third in economic aggregate with 822.352 billion yuan, but its GDP growth rate is 1% higher than that of Qingdao and Jinan (both at 5.4%), showing a strong catching-up trend.

This economic competition is particularly fierce between Jinan and Yantai. Looking back at history, the two cities' economic battle of taking up positions has a long history.

In 2004, the economic aggregate of Yantai surpassed that of Jinan for the first time and maintained its advantage for 14 years. However, a turnaround occurred in 2018 when Jinan regained the upper hand. The following year, the integration of Laiwu in

Size represents the "current strength", but growth rate signifies the "future potential". Will the competition between the two cities continue in the future?

From the perspective of industrial layout, Chen Yao, vice president and secretary general of the China Regional Economic Society, told Urban Evolution that there are significant differences in the industrial structures of the two cities, each with it

In the first three quarters, the industrial added value of Yantai increased by 13.9% year-on-year, which was higher than Jinan's growth rate of 8%. Specifically, while Yantai's main growth driver was the chemical industry, Jinan's industrial growth w

Jinan's industrial layout is biased towards high-tech, with a good momentum in the development of AI and other industries. It has also made early investments in frontier technologies such as quantum technology. Yantai, on the other hand, focuses on d

In addition, from the perspective of policy effects, Jinan, as the capital city, has advantages in obtaining policy resources and needs to continue to improve its GDP ranking to promote the strategy of strengthening the capital city. Of course, Yanta

It is expected that the economic competition between the two cities will continue in the future. Although the current gap in economic aggregate between them is significant, in Chen Yao's view, if Yantai continues to maintain high economic growth, the

03

Triple-core Leadership

From a national perspective, as the third-largest economic province, Shandong has a pacesetter from Guangdong and Soviet countries in front of it, and a pursuer from Zhejiang is pressing forward step by step. The pressure is self-evident.

There are generally gaps in industrial structure, economic vitality, institutional mechanisms, and technological innovation between northern and southern provinces, which are highlighted by the high proportion of traditional industries, insufficient

In this context, Jinan, Qingdao, and Yantai, as the three engines of Shandong's economic growth, bear great expectations to lead the province's transformation and upgrading and accelerate development.

Picture Source: Shandong Provincial Spatial Planning (2021-2035)

Chen Yao believes that since Shandong's three-core structure has already been established, the key lies in avoiding homogenized competition and clarifying their respective differentiated functional positioning.

As the political and cultural center and highland of scientific innovation in Jinan, it should focus on cultural education, financial and scientific innovation, digital economy, and modern services, and build the source and hub of cutting-edge applic

As one of the shipping centers in northern China, the leading marine economy in Shandong Province, and an advanced manufacturing base, Qingdao has advantages in internationalization, brand effects, and advanced manufacturing. In the future, it needs

Yantai is strong in industry and manufacturing. In the future, it should consolidate its position as a new energy and heavy chemical industry base in Shandong, and make its petrochemical, high-end equipment, biopharmaceutical, offshore wind power and

Regional coordination is also crucial. Chen Yao emphasized the need to further promote the integration of the Jiaodong urban agglomeration. An hour-long economic circle should be built with the three cores as the center to drive the development of ur

The competition among regions now depends on technological innovation, and enhancing the value-added of industries by increasing the proportion of high-tech industries. Chen Yao specifically mentioned that Shandong must make up for the core weakness

According to statistics released in the 2024 National Science and Technology Funding Bulletin, there are seven provinces (municipalities) with research and development (R&D) funding intensity exceeding the national average in 2024. These provinces ar

Picture Source: National Bureau of Statistics

Therefore, Shandong must intensify its efforts in innovation, increase research and development investment, and pay attention to enhancing the innovative role of enterprises.

Under this framework, the innovation path of the three cores should also focus on different aspects. As the provincial capital, Jinan focuses on frontier applied technology, while Qingdao and Yantai focus on technological innovation and value chain e

This article is from the WeChat public account Urban Evolution Theory.