Yantai located at the middle part of Shandong Peninsula, overlooks Liaodong Peninsula across the Bohai Sea and Huanghai Sea to its north. The city has total area of 13,000 square km, and the cultivated land of 467,000 hectares in which there are 300,000 hectares for framing, and 500,000 hectares grain sown area annually. The city has 909 km coastal line, with 600,000 hectares zone possible for developing. The city has 4 districts, 7 county-level cities and 1 county with the total population of 6.43 million, in which 4.45 million are peasants.
Yantai has a long history and it is called "Zhifu" in the ancient times. In B.C. 200 years, Chinese first emperor drew a bow to shoot the fish here, the left site is called "diao yu tai"(in Chinese, it means the place where you fish). In A.D.1398, in order to defense the enemies from the sea, the government of the Ming Dynasty built the beacon tower here, from which the city derived her name "Yantai"( in Chinese, it means the place where smoke is produced to give warning ). In 1861, Yantai became one of the first opening ports in the modern China.
Yantai is the birthplace of the famous Shandong cuisine and also boasts richness in marine products. Peanuts and various fruits are the major agricultural exports while wines and clocks are well known throughout the country.
Yantai is located at the middle part of Shandong Peninsula, close to the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, crosses the sea against Liaodong Peninsula, Japan, South Korea and North Korea. Yantai is an ideal tourism city with beautiful landscape and pleasant climate. Interesting sceneries and fascinating coastal line attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world. Penglai Pavilion, the stone Tablet Inscriptions of the North Wei Dynasty on Mt. Yunfen, Changdao Island--the fairyland on the sea, Horse Raising Island, National Forest Parks, Natural Preservation Areas, Provincial Tourism and Vacation Resorts are perfect traveling spots. Moreover, Yantai is a famous "hometown of hot spring", which attracts over 100,000 tourists from over 30 countries and regions such as the U.S.A., Germany, Japan and Hongkong etc. Yantai is also famous for its "immortal, sea, mountain, island and ancient culture" and is listed as national excellent tourism city.
With mountains guarding the back and seawater right in the front, Yantai abounds in gifts of natural resources and products. It has wide fishing grounds along the coast, more than 900 kilometers of coastline and over 600,000 hectares of shallow waters within 15 meters of isobaths. It abounds with prawns, sea cucumbers, abalones and scallops. It has a large quantities of mineral resources underground, of which over 30 kinds of exploitable ones have been verified to be available such as gold, copper, zinc, lead molybdenum, magnesium, coal, talc, marble, silver, iron and graphite, etc. The reserves of gold and talc take up 1/5 of the country's total respectively, while the reserves of marble rank the second of our country. Yantai is also a major production area of the famous Yantai apple and Shandong big peanut. What's more, Yantai big peanut, with longer growth period, bigger size, and higher content of protein and vitamin, are sold well at the international market, and more than 40 countries and regions is in great demand of it. Products such as tussah silk, Longkou vermicelli, giant cherry and laiyang pear, prawn, sea cucumber, abalone, etc. are well known all over the world.
