Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao on the southwest and Weihai on the east, with sea access to both the Bohai Sea (via the Laizhou Bay and the Bohai Strait) and the Yellow Sea (from both north and south sides of the Shandong Peninsula).
It is the largest fishing seaport in Shandong.
Its population was 6,968,202 during the 2010 census, of whom 2,227,733 lived in the built-up area made up of the 4 urban districts of Zhifu, Muping, Fushan and Laishan.
Summer - Go to the beach during the day and go to the bar at night.
There are two major beaches in Yantai, the First Beach (第一海水浴场) and Second Beach (第二海水浴场), and another one called Golden Sand Beach in the Economic Development Zone (about 25 min from city centre).
Winter - There is a skiing place in the Tashan Park during winter.
One French restaurant, one Irish restaurant, one American-Diner style restaurant, a few Japanese and Korean restaurants and lots of Chinese seafood restaurants (well, what do you expect, it is the seaside!) Jusco in Laishan District has a number of Japanese, Korean and Chinese restaurants as well as McDonald's, KFC, and Pizza Hut. Notable local specialties include sea cucumber soup (海参汤 Hǎishēn tāng), the "Yantai" variety of apple (烟台苹果 Yāntái píngguǒ), and sweet cherries (甜樱桃 Tián yīngtáo)
Chaoyang Street is known as the Bar Street among the expats is the place to be seen in Yantai! Although it has a slightly seedy reputation within the city, Chaoyang Street is most definitely the expats' first port of call when feeling homesick. Trendy locals and ex-pats mix along the street, and for many westerners its the only place where you can bump into other native English-speakers.
If you are the shopping type, Three Stations (pronounced in Mandarin like: San Jang; taxi drivers all know it well) market has almost everything you can imagine, including Chinese cultural nicknacks, calligraphy sets, silk paintings, tea houses, and tea shops, sculpture and statue shops, as well as many computer outlet markets, clothing shops, furniture stores, and department stores.
French-owned Yantai-based Louis Wann makes wines and a good brandy.
Changyu Winery has also been around for over 70 years and their wines are pretty good.
Yantai is home to Yantai Raffles (烟台莱福士船厂) (Coordinates: 37°35′48″ N,121°23′39″E), which owns the largest shipbuilding crane in the world, towering over the eastern edge of the T shaped peninsula. Yantai is known for tasty fruit, especially cherries, apples, peaches and pears and is also the home of Changyu Wines, whose founder Zhang Bishi introduced viticulture and winemaking to China in 1892.
The seaside is home to a promenade for walking or relaxing. Among the seaside attractions is a great water, light and sound show: nightly at the promenade. It is definitely worth seeing.
Mandarin Chinese (普通话) is the lingua franca; the Yantai accent differs in tone distinction and is often described as gritty. Yantai is also the government seat for the surrounding areas and attracts many workers from those areas, each with a different flavor of Mandarin on a spectrum of intelligibility.
