On day one, we held a breakfast meeting with OUC Vice President Prof Rui Chen and Director of OUC Blue Economy Office Prof Zhanwei Fan. VP Chen on behalf of OUC has expressed his full support of UNSW’s research collaboration with OUC. Then we travelled from Qingdao to Rizhao and were hosted for lunch by the Vice-President of the Landbridge company (Mr Shouping Yao), first host) and both the Director and Deputy Director of Ocean and Fisheries Bureau for Rizhao Municipal Government (Mr Jiucheng Chui, Mr Jingyou Zhu, 2nd host). We were joined by the Vice Chairman of Qingdao People’s Consultative Council and former Mayor of Qingdao (Prof Xiuling Wang, 3rd host) and the Secretary-General of the Qingdao National Marine Laboratory (QNML, Prof Kehou Pan, 4th host). Discussions continued over dinner, hosted by Vice Mayor of Rizhao (Mr Kexia Ma).

On Day 2 we met for the Transformation of Urban Ports and Harbours (TUPAH) workshop. At this event we were joined by the before-mentioned executives along with the Vice Chairman and Chief Engineer of the Rizhao Port (Mr Xianlei Kong) and approximately 25 Chinese members of the EPA, Ocean and Fisheries Bureau, port authority, OUC, QNML and the Rizhao municipal government.

Presentations were made by:
Professor Johnston – Introduction to UNSW & a scientific presentation on water quality and eco-engineering.
Warwick Dawson – TORCH
Professor Nick Schofield – Global Water Institute capabilities
Dr Will Glamore – Water Research Laboratory capabilities, port design and wetland restorations
A/Prof Hua Wang – SARCCM & TUPAH

On Monday evening, we met with the SME “RobotFish”, a small ocean observing technology company. We discussed potential collaborative projects through TORCH (Torch.unsw.edu.au).

The following morning we were hosted for a tour and meeting with Prof Lixin Wu, the Director of the new Qingdao National Marine Laboratory which is a very large new campus on the northern edge of Qingdao. The facilities were impressive and the Laboratory is recruiting vast numbers of marine science researchers from now onwards to fill the spaces.

The trip was supported by RSPO Director Warwick Dawson and China Office Director Rachel Wei who provided substantial professional advice and translations.