President Lee Myung-bak arrived in Qingdao, a major seaport and industrial center in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, on Thursday (May 29) after successfully winding up his visit to Beijing with a surprise announcement that he will personally travel to China’s earthquake-devastated Sichuan Province Friday (May 30) to deliver his personal condolences to the Chinese people suffering from the unprecedented natural disaster.

Qingdao, which is geographically the closest part of China to the Korean Peninsula, is well-known as a hub of Korean manufacturing companies. Korean-invested companies operating in Qingdao totaled 4,081 as of the end of 2007, accounting for over half of the whole foreign-invested firms in the region. Including unregistered entities, the number of Korean-invested firms is estimated to reach about 6,000, providing about 450,000 jobs to the local economy.

Lee cameto visit Qingdao to see Korean investments in this port city and stress the importance of closer practical economic and industrial cooperation.

Lee arrived in China on Tuesday for a four-day state visit and held talks with President Hu Jintao, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and other Chinese leaders, agreeing to upgrade bilateral relations to a strategic cooperative partnership.

President Lee personally explained the background for his decision to visit Sichuan Province while meeting with Korean reporters in Beijing.

"I have long thought about how to swiftly enhance friendship between Korea and China. At first I thought the Chinese government would oppose my trip to Sichuan, but explained my determination to President Hu," said Lee.

"I told Hu I have to personally look at the pain sustained by my neighbor China, and the Chinese leader made some instructions to his foreign minister about my trip. I wish to achieve what it (normally) takes 10 years (to do) in the Korea-China friendship in just one year through my visit to the earthquake area," said the president.

Lee then talked about Korea’s diplomatic relations with four regional superpowers.

"It is not desirable for Korea to extraordinarily lean toward a Korea-U.S. alliance, particularly from the perspective of a power balance in Northeast Asia. Korea-U.S. relations and Korea-China relations should be complementary to each other," he said.

A presidential spokesman said the president’s visit to Sichuan is expected to greatly contribute to boosting mutual friendship and trust between the two countries and their peoples. He added the Korean military plans to donate about 380 million won ($362,000) worth of relief goods, including tents and blankets, to China on Thursday prior to Lee’s visit there.

Lee will become the first foreign head of state to visit the earthquake-hit province.

The number of confirmed deaths from the magnitude 7.9 quake, which rocked Sichuan Province in southwest China and its vicinity on May 12, exceeded 68,000 as of Wednesday. An additional 19,851 are still missing and more than 5 million people were made homeless by the earthquake.

"Lee first disclosed his intention to travel to Sichuan Province during his summit talks with Hu and the Chinese president welcomed the surprise offer and instructed his foreign minister to make thorough preparations for Lee’s trip," said the spokesperson.

The Korean government has already extended about $3 million worth of cash and relief goods to China and dispatched 44 emergency relief workers to the scenes of the earthquake. An additional $2 million worth of aid will be delivered to China.

Prior to his departure to Beijing, Lee made a personal trip to China’s embassy in Seoul last week to pay condolences to the earthquake dead.

On Friday, Lee plans to fly to the earthquake-hit Sichuan Province to deliver his personal consolation and condolences after visiting several Qingdao-based Korean and Chinese industrial facilities.