With a length of more than 300 meters and a width around 74 meters, and a deck area which is equivalent to three football fields. Steel used in the entire project are available for 30,000 cars... At the Haixiwan Ship and Offshore Engineering Industrial Base in Qingdao West Coast New Area, the reporters witnessed this giant. "This is an Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO), which is able to carry out preliminary processing, storage and export of offshore crude oil and gas. This P70 under construction, with the world's largest displacement and production capacity, will be completed and delivered in October." Zhang Jinbao, deputy general manager of Offshore Oil Engineering (Qingdao) Co., Ltd., proudly told reporters. The world's most label is the true portrayal of the rapid growth of the marine economy in the five years since the approval of the Qingdao West Coast New Area.

"Building a New Strategic Fulcrum of a Strong Marine Country" is the historical mission entrusted by the state to the New Area. "The New Area is born by the sea, with blue as its largest characteristic, the only way to develop is achieving a bigger and stronger marine economy." Wang Jianxiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee, Secretary of the Party Working Committee of the West Coast New Area, deeply aware of it.

And "developing its marine industry to world-class" is regarded by the West Coast as the proper meaning of fulfilling the national mission.

At the eastern end of the New Area, the Xuejiadao Bay which shaped like a W, with 12-kilometer-long coastline, located with various beams and factories, is the Haixiwan Ship and Offshore Engineering Industrial Base that breeds P70. The base occupies 8sqm and is one of the three major shipbuilding bases planned and constructed by the state, as well as a national-level new industrialized shipbuilding industry demonstration base and a national-level ship export base.

Over the past five years, with the in-depth advancement of the "Building a New Strategic Fulcrum of a Strong Marine Country", a series of "The Pillars of a Great Power-Managing the Ocean" have show up here:

In June 2017, the world's largest deep-sea aquaculture equipment--world's first semi-submersible deep-sea fishing ground "OCEAN FARM 1" was delivered;

In September 2017, the world's largest bulk carrier-a new generation ultra-large 400,000-ton ore carrier “Ore Tianjin” was successfully docked;

In May 2018, first national independently integrated world-class "offshore oil plant"--"FPSO P67" was delivered to Brazil; According to incomplete statistics, in the past five years, a dozen of world-class marine offshore heavy equipment have been delivered from Haixiwan.

World-class pillars must be matched with world-class equipment manufacturing process. Under the tide of new and old kinetic energy conversion, independent innovation is undoubtedly the primiary driving force. To build a world-class offshore equipment industry, West Coast explores potential in independent development in various stuck issues. The Yamal is one of the largest LNG plant construction projects in the world, located in the Arctic Circle. In 2014, Offshore Oil Engineering (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. signed an order for its core process modules. This is the first time that a Chinese company has contracted to construct a core process module for LNG projects. The challenge is obvious. In the words of Han Shaoning, deputy general manager of the Yamal Project of Offshore Oil Engineering (Qingdao) Co., Ltd., "it has taken a road no one has traveled." With three years’ trial, the company has achieved 9 patents, 2 sets of process packages, and 1 enterprise standard and specification, breaking the long-term monopoly and technical blockade of international peers in the field of LNG core process module construction, and "Made in China" finally entered the Arctic.

The West Coast realizes that in the long run, the ability to explore in marine depends on the basis of scientific research and originality. The gathering of marine scientific research of National companies has become another vivid manifestation of the "world-class" blue economy on the West Coast.

"In 2019, we will accelerate the construction of 16 key marine science and technology projects with a total investment of 30 billion yuan." Wu Jifa, deputy director of the Qingdao West Coast New Area Marine Development Bureau, told reporters, that this includes the Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Marine GeneBank project.

The Center for Ocean Mega-Science, CAS is established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, integrating 13 research institutes with superior sea-related scientific research strength, covering an area of 2,000 mu and a planned construction area of 950,000 square meters. After completion, the center will focus on three areas: offshore environment, deep ocean and marine life; realize the gathering of marine innovation platform, innovation team, and innovation achievements of the CAS in Shandong, provide scientific and technological support for high-quality development of the marine economy and accelerateing construction of a strong marine country.

The Center for Ocean Mega-Science, CAS has a very promising future, while the BGI Northern Center is already on the way. "It is building the world's largest national marine gene bank, an international marine life big data center, and gradually realizing the digitization of the lives of hundreds of thousands of known marine species worldwide." Liu Xin, executive dean of BGI-Qingdao, told reporters "At present, the institute has led the establishment of the International Ocean Genomics Alliance, and has carried out more than 120 scientific research cooperation with more than 60 scientific research institutes at home and abroad, has collected more than 26,000 samples, and carried out sequencing work for more than 270 species. ."

The publication of the world's first White Paper on Marine Genomics is a staged achievement in the construction of marine gene bank. It covers 7 major classifications, nearly 8,000 marine genomes, more than 100,000 copies of marine metagenomic data and 130TB of genome data, making up for the long-time lack of authoritative in the field of marine genomics of China.

The rapid gathering of marine scientific research institutes and high-end sea-related talents has also become an important measure for the West Coast to occupy the commanding heights of the marine economy.

In the past five years, the West Coast has gathered 520 innovation platforms including key laboratories, engineering technology research centers and others, and 11 state-level innovation and entrepreneurship carriers. The number of applications and authorizations for invention patents ranks first in Shandong province; the total talents in the area reached 530,000, including 53 academicians.

For water fresh comes from its source. The world-class marine scientific research strength is beginning to transform into a huge marine industry advantage.

Last year, when General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Shandong, he had a conversation with Academician Guan Huashi about the "Dream of Blue Medicine". Today, the blue medicine storehouse has taken root on the West Coast. As China's first manufacturer of marine drugs, CP Pharmaceutical (Qingdao) and Academician Guan Huashi jointly developed Poly Saccharide Sulphate (PSS), which is the first in China and fifth in world marine original drug recognized by international academia and medicine. The construction of the CP Pharmaceutical Blue Medicine Project was officially launched in June 2018. After completion, it will achieve an output value of 1.5 billion yuan, a tax of 250 million yuan and a net profit of 200 million yuan.

"World-class" gathering and leading the accelerated growth of the West Coast marine industry. With the 5 years after approval, the New Area's marine production value increased from 49.1 billion yuan to 118.2 billion yuan, accounting for 7.4% of the province's marine production value and 1.4% of the country. The proportion of GDP increased from 21.8% to 33.6%, which is more than 20 percentage higher than the national marine economic GDP in 2018. A world-class "City Cross Oceans" is on the way.

Reported by Zhang Zhongde, Hu Wei, Song Tao, Dazhong Daily