The living morphology and infraciliature of a poorly-known marine planktonic ciliate, Spirostrombidium cinctum (Kahl, 1932) Petz, Song et Wilbert, 1995, collected from coastal mollusc farming ponds near Qingdao, north China, are investigated based on observations of live and protargol impregnated specimens. Since modern studies on S. cinctum are unavailable, an improved diagnosis based on the Qingdao population is given: medium-sized marine Spirostrombidium, in vivo about 55×40 μm; dorsoventrally ca 2:3 flattened; cell asymmetric barrel-shaped with inconspicuous apical protrusion; on average 25 anterior and 14 ventral membranelles; 3-4 posteriorly-directed thigmotactic membranelles; one macronucleus and one micronucleus; extrusomes prominent, about 6-10 μm long, arranged along somatic kineties; extra, girdle and ventral kinety consisting of about 17, 62 and 23 dikinetids, respectively.