Qingdao Huanghai

Qingdao Hainiu F.C. was established on 29 January 2013 by former players and coaches from Shandong that included Qi Wusheng as chairman, Hao Haidong as managerial director and Su Maozhen as general manager. With the financial backing of 20 million Yuan from Qingdao Central Plaza Business Management Co., Ltd the club would choose the name Hainiu (海牛), which means "The Sea Bulls" despite it once being used by Qingdao Jonoon, another football club in Qingdao between 1994 and 2004, hoping to inspire the golden era of Qingdao football. On the field the team would show their dominance within the league and go through the divisions group stage undefeated, while also beating Meixian Super-X and Shenzhen Fengpeng F.C. to reach the play-off final. In the final the club would defeat Hebei Zhongji F.C. 3–1 to gain promotion to the second tier and win a million Yuan in prize money for the game with a further 3 million won throughout the season.

On 31 January 2015, Qingdao Huanghai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. purchased a 51% stake of the club. On 3 July 2015, Serbian player Goran Gogić collapsed and lost consciousness after a training session with the club. He died later on the same day. Qingdao Hainiu finished 11th place in the 2015 season. On 30 December 2015, Qingdao Hainiu F.C. changed their name to Qingdao Huanghai F.C. after Qingdao Huanghai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. took full charge of the club. Qingdao Huanghai finished level on 59 points with Tianjin Quanjian and Guizhou Zhicheng under Spanish manager Jordi Vinyals in the 2016 season, but their head-to-head points was worse than the other two clubs, thus failing to promote to the Chinese Super League.

In the following two years, the club came close to promotion each time but fell short, earning fourth place in the League One. In the 2019 China League One the club earned first place and gained promotion.

Ahead of the 2021 season, Qingdao Huanghai changed their name to Qingdao F.C.

The club dissolved after the 2021 season.