The Port of Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province handled more than 1.5 million TEUs (twenty-feet equivalent unit) of containers in 1999, making it the largest container transfer port on China's mainland.

The port's container handling capacity has been increasing at an annual rate of about 30 percent in the past few years, with the capacity standing at only 80,000 TEUs a decade ago, port authorities said.

The increase is attributed to the upgrading of berths and the use of advanced loading and unloading facilities. Now the port's deep-water berth can accommodate 5,250-TEU container vessels.

At present, the Port of Qingdao has more than 30 international navigation routes, and all of the world's top ten container shipping companies are doing business with the port.