On the morning of March 17th, the grand foundation stone laying ceremony of Shandong University Qingdao Campus was held in Aoshanwei town in Jimo.

Liu Yandong, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a State Councilor, telephoned to express congratulations.

Liu extended her warm congratulations on the starting of construction of SDU Qingdao Campus. Liu then said that she hoped through building the SDU Qingdao Campus to construct Shandong University System, Shandong University could make exemplary contribution to the reform of China's institutes of higher learning.

What's more, she thanked Shandong Province and Qingdao City for the support they gave to the construction of SDU Qingdao Campus. She also hoped that Shandong Province and Qingdao City would give more direction, guidance and support to the construction of SDU Qingdao Campus and turn SDU Qingdao Campus into an experimental area for the reform of China's institutes of higher learning.

Jiang Yikang, Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Jiang Daming, Deputy Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Governor of Shandong Province, Xiang Huaicheng, former Minister of Chinese Ministry of Finance, Lu Xin, Vice Minister of Chinese Ministry of Education, Sun Wei, standing member of CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and Vice Governor of Shandong Province, Li Qun, standing member of CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee, Lei Jianguo, Secretary General of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee, Zhang Xinqi, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee and Acting Mayor of Qingdao, Zhang Ruofei, Director of the Standing Committee of Qingdao Municiple People's Congress, Sun Dehan, President of the CPPCC Qingdao Committee, Li Shouxin, Secretary of the CPC Committee of Shandong University, and Xu Xianming, President of Shandong University, all attended the ceremony and laid the foundation of the construction of Qingdao Campus together with delegates of teachers and students.

At the ceremony, Jiang Yikang officially declared the beginning of the construction of SDU Qingdao Campus, and Jiang Daming, Lu Xin, Li Qun and Xu Xianming each delivered a speech. The ceremony was held by Li Shouxin.

Jiang Daming, on behalf of CPC Shandong Provincial Party Committee and Shangdong Provincial Government, expressed warm congratulations on the foundation stone laying of the SDU Qingdao Campus.

Jiang Daming said that the grand foundation stone laying ceremony being held here is a great event for the development of higher education in Shandong Province, marking a new stage of the construction and development of SDU.

"Nowadays, to further the cooperation between Shandong Provincial Government and Ministry of Education, and to improve the educational quality of SDU, is a key task of the higher education in Shandong Province during the Twelfth Five-Year Development Plan time period,” he said.

"Building the SDU Qingdao Campus is of great significance to explore and establish the SDU system, thus making it a world-class university as soon as possible, and the new campus will also have a far-reaching influence on the transition of Shandong becoming an educational powerhouse in China,” he added.

He said that CPC Shandong Provincial Party Committee and Shandong Provincial People's Government attach great importance to the construction of SDU Qingdao Campus, and rank it as the key project of both the Twelfth Five-Year Development Plan in Shandong Province and the Twelfth Five-Year Development Plan for the Higher Education, and also consider it a part of the development of the cooperation between the Shandong Provincial People’s Government and Ministry of Education.

He noted in the speech that the relevant departments directly under the provincial government will provide policy, planning and financial support to the construction of the Qingdao Campus, and CPC Qingdao Municipal Party Committee and Qingdao Municipal People's Government should treat it as an important step to accelerating the development of this city and helping co-ordinate resources. "They will increase efforts to make sure that all support measures are taken effectively," he added.

He also said, for the goal of turning SDU Qingdao Campus into a base of talents, a base of new and high-tech research, a base of new and high-tech incubation and transformation, a base of top international academic exchanges, and one of the most beautiful campuses in China, SDU will spare no efforts to complete the construction of the Qingdao Campus, thus making new contributions to the construction of the economic and cultural development of Shandong Province.

Lu Xin, on behalf of the CPC Leading Group of Ministry of Education and Minister of Education Yuan Guiren, expressed warm congratulations on the construction of SDU Qingdao Campus.

She said the Ministry of Education hoped Shandong University could treat the planning and construction of SDU Qingdao Campus seriously, innovate construction idea, make contributions to the transformation of economic development patterns and develop the emerging industry in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, and our country.

She also said, at the same time, with the construction of SDU Qingdao Campus, the Ministry of Education hoped Shandong University could further implement the National Program for Medium- and Long-term Talent Development (2010-20), actively explore reform and innovation, such as the reformation and innovation of talent cultivation, management operation, scientific research organization and industrial transformation pattern, continually improve the level of talent cultivation, the level scientific research, the level of serving society and the level of inheriting and innovating culture.

Lu noted that the Ministry of Education would be concerned with the construction and development of Shandong University as before and support SDU’s great career to construct it into a world-class university with modern university’s characteristics.

On behalf of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee and Qingdao Municipal People's Government, Li Qun expressed his warm congratulation to the groundbreaking of the campus.

He expressed that during the fast changing 20th century, Shandong University stayed in Qingdao for about 30 years. As a renowned higher education school, Shandong University had written a splendid chapter in Qingdao during its centenary development history.

He said the development and splendid achievement of Shandong University have many memories in Qingdao; while the characters and culture of Qingdao is inseparable with Shandong University, and now 100-year-old Shandong University and Qingdao City once again choose each other.

He expressed belief that Shandong University in any case will hold onto the principle of modern education, inherit excellent tradition and learn from advanced international experiences, sharpen academic features and geographic characters, and attract first class scholars, first class faculties and first class research institution to build itself into a world- class higher education campus.

"SDU and Qingdao City will surely realize win-win development, and make bigger contributions to building a strong province economically and culturally and realize a great-leap-forward development of building a stronger province,” Li said.

Xu Xianming said in the address that the preliminary preparation for the construction of SDU Qingdao Campus had been completed on schedule with the care of the State Council leaders, the right leadership and strong support from Ministry of Education, CPC Shandong Provincial Party Committee, Shandong Provincial People's Government, CPC Qingdao Municipal Party Committee and Qingdao Municipal People's Government.

He also said that Shandong University is dedicated to two important goals. One was to build SDU into a world-class university. The other was to run the university again in Qingdao, build SDU Qingdao Campus and construct Shandong University System. The former was supported by the latter and the latter was the premise of the former.

"The reason for constructing the Shandong University System was to explore California Mode in China and help implement the Blue Shandong Peninsula Economic Zone and the Yellow River Delta High-Efficiency Economic Zone, to play a role of providing power and supporting technology in the economic development of Shandong and Qingdao, the construction of Qingdao's marine economy area and the formation of marine silicon valley which mainly developed marine science and technology,” he said.

On behalf of SDU, he expressed his gratitude for the government and business leaders, relevant departments, schoolfellows, directors of the Board of Regents of Shandong University and friends from various sectors, who have given support to the construction of Qingdao Campus. He also felt grateful for the efforts and contributions made by the leaders of Aoshanwei town of Jimo and people of Aoshanwei town.

"The blueprint had been drawn and SDU were converging powers from students and staffs of SDU to make the dream become reality," Xu said. "In three years time, Qingdao Campus will become one of the most beautiful university campuses in China."

Those attending the ceremony were people from National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, National Council for Social Security Fund, some departments directly under the Shandong provincial government and relevant departments of Qingdao municipal government, representatives of SDU's international sister universities, and representatives of the Board of Regents of Shandong University. Meanwhile, the entire leadership of SDU, some alumni, directors of all departments and schools at SDU, some academic leaders, and representatives of students and teachers attended the ceremony.

SDU Qingdao Campus is being built close to the Aoshan Bay Coast in the east of Jimo City, Qingdao. It was to east of Binhai Road and north of Chaidao Road. It is located in the core area of Qingdao blue silicon valley, and its construction process is estimated to last for 5 years.

Written by: Liu Yakun, Zhao Huan, Lu Yichen, Yu Jialiu, Liu Yuehan

Photo by: Yang Yunlei

Edited by: Ben Hammer, Jing Zizhao

Source:www.en.sdu.edu.cn,www.view.sdu.edu.cn