Germany began building the Tsingtau-Jinan railway shortly after securing the Kiautschou Bay lease in 1898, and the Qingdao station opened in 1901 as its coastal terminus. The railway was more than transportation; it was the economic spine of the German colonial project, connecting the port to the coal mines and agricultural heartland of inland Shandong. By 1910, the completed line reached Jinan, and from there passengers could theoretically connect to the Trans-Siberian Railway for a journey all the way to Berlin. The original station building reflected the Germanic architectural style that characterized early Qingdao: solid, functional, and unmistakably European in a Chinese setting.

In the years leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympics, when Qingdao hosted the sailing events, the station underwent a major renovation designed to handle surging passenger traffic. The architects faced a challenge specific to this city: how to modernize a station while honoring the German architectural heritage that makes Qingdao visually distinctive. Their solution was a building that incorporates German design traits into a Chinese-designed structure, consistent with the approach taken across much of the city's development. The result acknowledged the past without replicating it, a train station that fits naturally among the red-roofed villas and stone churches of the old German quarter while functioning as a thoroughly modern transit hub.

Despite its historical significance, the station's relatively small number of platforms means it cannot accommodate every train in Qingdao's expanding network. Most newly scheduled high-speed services now terminate at the larger Qingdao North railway station, though many trains continue to stop at both. In December 2016, the station gained a new dimension when Qingdao Metro Line 3 opened beneath it, followed by Line 1. The metro connection placed a station born in the era of steam locomotives at the center of a twenty-first-century rapid transit network. In October 2022, the station briefly closed for renovation of its platform canopy, a reminder that even a building with 120 years of continuous service occasionally needs its roof repaired. Services resumed in early 2023, and the trains continue to depart as they have since the year the century began.