Science and Education   
 
For some years running, the province has taken a series of measures to reinforce the implementation of the strategy of prospering Shandong with science and education, boosting technological innovation, promoting hi-tech, and speeding up the industrialization of science and technology.

Shandong has always highly recognized the importance of education at different levels and of various types. Within the provincial territory, there are 52 general institutions of higher learning, including those administered by the state ministries, such as Shandong University, Qingdao Marine University and Petroleum University. In 2001, 26 institutions for graduate education enrolled 5,371 students; the total number of students for graduate programs reached 11,877. General institutions of higher learning admitted 184,000 students, the total registered student body reaching 449,000, among which 234,000 were bachelor program students and 216,000 2-3-year program students. Adult students enrolled for diploma education of higher learning amounted to 256,000. Some 106,000 adult students were learning at various secondary specialized schools. A total of 270 entry schools enrolled 54,000 students and 90 percent of their graduates were employed the same year upon graduation. Various technical schools provided training programs for 7.393 million persons/times, including 6.802 million farmers. Also the same year, among over 200,000 people who received vocational assessment or craftsmanship identification, 170,000 were granted qualification certificates. In addition, 185,000 illiterate adults received education.

Scientific or technological innovation and invention are in the ascendancy all over the province. In 2001, there were 3,112 important achievements of scientific and technological value recorded, 19 items of which were honored as State-level achievements of science and technology, including one State Innovation Award, 18 items for the State Award of scientific and technological advancement. A total of 198 spark plan projects and 269 Torch Plan projects above provincial level were undertaken, including 101 items at State Level. Altogether, 11,168 patent applications were processed, indicating an increase of 11.5 percent over the previous year, and 6,724 patent applications were accredited. With the steady improvement of qualified scientists and technicians, the province was blessed with 29 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Science and the Chinese Society for Engineering, of whom 7 were added from the previous year.
 
Technical supervision was given added reinforcement. A total of 223,000 batches of products from 102,000 corporations were supervised and examined, with 74.3 percent of the samples being up to grade; 12 products were honored as China's name brands, and 25 as provincial quality products. Six manufactures were winners of the provincial-leveled quality management award; 123 manufactures were checked and accepted as being up to international standards or meeting advanced foreign criteria; 42 products adopted public bidding symbols.

Culture 

Shandong is one of the birthplaces of the ancient Chinese culture. The Yiyuan ape-man fossil proves there were human beings in the area some 400,000-500,000 years ago. The Beixin Culture, Dawenkou Culture and Longshan Culture found in the province prove that between 7,000 to 4,000 years ago, the Dongyi people had changed from a matrilineal to a patrilineal society and even to a class society. Some other historical finds in Shandong include Dawenkou and Longshan pottery characters, the earliest Chinese characters discovered in China, Chengziya Longshan Ancient Town, one of the earliest cities in China, the old Great Wall of the Qi State, the earliest defense works in China, the tombs of Han Dynasty Kings at Luozhuang, one of China's 10 Most Remarkable Archaeological Discoveries in 2000. Besides, Shandong is one of the birthplaces of ceramics and silks.

Cultural Life

Bringing into full play the advantages of the inherited Qi and Lu cultures, Shandong province goes all out in promoting cultural undertakings. The province owes much to its rich traditional local folk operas, music, drama and dance, including drumming yangko (a popular rural folk dance), Jiaozhou yangko and Haiyang yangko, well known as the three famous yangko in Shandong. Folk arts are represented by a full variety of feature works such as Weifang block printed Spring Festival pictures, folk paper-cuts, and farmer's paintings.

Great progress has also been made in recent years in modern art and culture. There are now 25 national cultural counties, three State-Level cultural centers for rural children, 23 national-level townships of folk art, and 27 provincial-level townships of folk art.
 
Mass Media  
 
Mass media in Shandong, such as news and publishing, has undergone constant development. In 2001, a total of 4,393 books and 268 magazines or journals were published. There are 18 broadcast stations and 18 television stations above prefectural level, and 74 broadcast & television stations at country level. The average daily broadcast time of all the radio stations amounted to 1,225 hours and 38 minutes, and the weekly broadcast time of television stations 8,349 hours and 42 minutes. Radio and television now reach 93.5 percent and 91.0 percent of the population respectively.

Dazhong Daily, launched on January 1,1939, is a newspaper with the longest history and widest influence in the province. With a daily circulation of over 400,000, it also publishes Qilu Evening News, Rural Dazhong, Life Daily and other papers.

Shandong People's Broadcast Station airs everyday on 15 different frequencies. Shandong TV Station, one of the earliest in China to transmit its programs via satellite, broadcast 24 hours a day, covering the whole nation plus 40 more countries and regions around China.

Making use of the most advanced public media, Shandong has set up such sites on the net as Dazhong Net (www.dzwww.com), providing fast convenient means for the entire world to learn about the province.

There are sixteen publishing houses plus three more for audio & video materials. Shandong General Publishing House, as the leading publisher, has under its administration nine specialized publishing houses.
 

Medical Treatment  
 
Medical care and health work have been growing unceasingly. By the end of 2001, there were 17,000 medical and health establishments, including 3,000 hospitals or health stations, 363 sanitation and epidemic prevention setups, 147 health care institutions for women and children, 20 of them being added in 2001. Altogether, there were 218,000 beds in health care establishments of various types. There were 318,000 medical specialists, including 149,000 doctors, 95,000 senior or junior nurses.

The number of sanitation cities in Shandong topped the nationwide list. Along with 87 sanitation cities and county seats at provincial level, there are now eleven state-level sanitation cities: Weihai, Yantai, Laizhou, Binzhou, Tai'an, Jiaozhou, Zibo, Laiwu, Qingdao, Zhaoyuan and Qingzhou.
 
Much has been done to improve family planning so as to keep to a low population growth rate. According to a sample survey of the population, in 2001, the province had a birthrate of 11.12 percent and a death rate of 6.24 percent, for a natural growth rate of 4.88 percent.
 
Vitalized Sport  
 
As a province with a strong tradition of competitive sports, athletics has taken a leading place in the nation, showing great strength in such events as track and field, gymnastics, swimming, weightlifting, shooting, soccer, basketball, boat racing, canoeing and martial arts. Athletes from Shandong won two gold medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. In the 9th National Games, they won 22 gold medals, for that the province finished in sixth place overall. Shandong has professional soccer teams, Luneng Taishan and Qingdao Beilate. Luneng Taishan won the league championship and the F.A. cup in 1999, the first time the double has been achieved. In 2008, the yacht racing events of the Beijing Olympic Games will be held in the beautiful coastal city of Qingdao.

As a province with health mass sports activities, Shandong has been honored for successive years as advanced sports province in China. There are now 66 advanced sports counties, the most in the nation.

Living Standard  
 
Since the 1980s,both urban and rural residents in Shandong have been free of worry about food and clothing, and people in some regions have become well to do.

In 2001, urban residents had an average governable income of 7,101.1 Yuan, an increase of 9.4 percent over the previous year. Annual consumption expenditure averaged 5,252.4 Yuan for urban residents, a gain of 4.6 percent from the previous year. With the obvious improvement of living quality and standards, people tend to diversify their consumption of top grade products when they choose their clothing, food, daily commodities and means of transportation. The food structure has been bettered with increased consumption of meat, eggs, poultry and aquatic products. People also begin to seek clothing in terms of quality, fashionable style and popular trademarks. In 2001, average expenditure on clothing was 700.3 Yuan for every urban and township resident.

Following the improvement of consumption capability is the radical change in purchasing long-term consumer goods in terms of structure and grade. Now rapidly entering households are such entertainment-related products as video cameras, VCD and DVD; kitchen appliances such as microwave ovens and ventilators; communications tools such as mobile telephones; such vehicles as cars, motorcycles and electrical-powered bicycles.

In 2001,for every 100 households, there were 116.9 color TV sets, 87.9 refrigerators, 90.8 washing machines, 51.0 cameras, 0.3 car, 35.1 motorcycles, 37.0 VCD, 32.0 air-conditioners, 19.6 microwave ovens, 13.4 PCs, 55.3 bath water heaters, and 31.7 mobile telephones.

Farmers' income is steadily rising. In 2001, the average income for a farmer was 2,804.5 Yuan, a 5.5 percent increase over the previous year. The average living consumption expenditure per farmer was 1,905 Yuan, an increase of 7.6 percent. The residential area per rural resident was 24.6 square meters. For every 100 rural households there were 56.3 color TV sets, 17.7 refrigerators, 58.3 telephones, 18.9 tape-recorders, 17.1 washing machines, 155.6 electric fans, 5 cameras and 42.8 motorcycles.