Yantai

The name Yantai (lit. "Smoke Watchtower") derives from the watchtowers constructed on Mount Qi in 1398 by locals. The towers were used to light signal fires and send smoke signals, called langyan from their supposed use of wolf dung for fuel. At the time, the area was troubled by the Japanese pirates, initially raiders from the warring states in Japan but later principally disaffected Chinese. It was also formerly romanized as Yen-tai. The major district of Yantai is Zhifu, which used to be the largest independent city in the area. It was romanized by the Europeans as Chefoo, Che-foo, Chi-fu, and Chih-fou. Although this name was used for the city by the Europeans prior to the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, the locals referred to the settlement as Yantai throughout.

During the Xia and Shang dynasties, the region was inhabited by indigenous people vaguely known to the Chinese as the "Eastern Barbarians" (Dongyi). Under the Zhou, they were colonized and sinicized as the state of Lai. Lai was annexed by Qi in 567 BC. Under the First Emperor (Shi Huangdi), the area was administered as the Qi Commandery. In 218 BCE, during his eastern inspection tour, Emperor Qin Shi Huang visited Zhifu Island, leaving behind the Zhifu Stone Inscription and establishing the Eastern Inspection Palace. The stone inscription later fell into the sea and was lost, though 14 characters survive today through ink rubbings. The Eastern Inspection Palace was demolished in 1966 during Cultural Revolution. Under the Han, this was renamed as the Donglai Commandery (東萊郡). …

Yantai is located along the north coast of the Shandong Peninsula, south of the junction of Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea and parallel to the southern coast of Liaoning. The topographical breakdown consists of: 36.62% mountainous 39.7% hilly 50.23% plain 2.90% basin About 2,643.60 km2 (1,020.70 sq mi) is urbanized. Only Qixia City is located entirely inland. All other county-level entities are coastal, with Changdao consisting entirely of islands. The total coastline of the prefecture is 909 kilometers (565 mi). The summits in the hill country vary from 100–300 meters (330–980 ft); the average peak in the mountainous region is 500 meters (1,600 ft), and the highest point of elevation is the summit of Mount Kunyu (崑嵛山) at 922.8 meters (3,028 ft). There are 121 rivers over 5 kilometers (3. …