The border control of the Qingdao airport will have processed nearly 1.62 million people by the end of 2011. According to the airport's Frontier Inspection Station, this breaks the record of 1.6 million for the first time.

In the year, Qingdao has witnessed an increased number of out bound tourists and students going abroad for further education. In 2011, the most popular destinations were the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Taiwan. More than 120,000 Chinese people went to ROK through Qingdao airport.

There are 20 flights between Taiwan and Qingdao every week to facilitate bi-lateral business and the investment systems from Taiwan in Qingdao. In the year 2011, over 37,000 mainland citizens traveled to Taiwan from the Qingdao airport and more than 53,000 Taiwan residents came to the Chinese mainland via the port.

Qingdao airport possesses nine direct international airlines including two to Inchon and Pusan of ROK, four to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka of Japan, two to Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan, and one to Hong Kong.

By Huang Yaning (chinadaily.com.cn)

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Rakhee