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Home Travel in Shandong Weihai Travel Guide
Weihai Travel Guide
Travel in Shandong

weihai
Weihai (Wēihǎi 威海) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It is the easternmost prefecture-level city in the province and a major seaport. Between 1898-1930, the town was a British colony. Weihai was not developed in the way that Hong Kong, the other British colony in China, was developed, because Weihai fell into Germany's sphere of influence. It was largely used as a naval station and a sanatorium. During the colonial period it was known as Weihaiwai or the Weihai Garrison (Wēihǎi Wèi 威海卫), and sometimes as Port Edward. Weihai borders Yantai (yān tái 烟台) to the west and the Yellow Sea to the east.

History

weihai history
The port was once the base for the Beiyang Fleet (běi yáng shuǐ shī 北洋水师) of China during the Qing Dynasty (qīng cháo 清朝). During 1895, the Japanese captured it from the landward side. It was evacuated during 1898.

After Russia leased Port Arthur (on the opposite coast) from China for 25 years during March, 1898, the United Kingdom obtained a lease for Wei Hai Wei which was to exist for as long as the Russians leased Port Arthur. During 1905, when the Japanese assumed ownership of the lease for Port Arthur, the British lease was made to exist as long as the Japanese occupied Port Arthur. Thus the city was part of a territory (c.285 sq mi/740 km²) called "Weihaiwei", which was leased by the United Kingdom from 1898 until October 1, 1930. It was a summer station for the British naval China Station and it was also used as a sanatorium. It became one of two major ports for ships of the Royal Navy in the Far East (the other being Hong Kong in the south).

weihai historyAt the beginning of the lease the territory was administered by a Senior Naval Officer of the Royal Navy. During 1899, administration was transferred to a military and civil commissioner appointed by the War Office in London. The territorial garrison consisted of 200 British troops and a specially constituted Chinese Regiment with British officers. During 1901, it was decided that this base should not be fortified, and administration was transferred to the U.K.'s Colonial Office. A Civil Commissioner was appointed during 1902 to manage the territory, and the Chinese Regiment was disbanded during 1903.

The last British commissioner of Weihaiwei was Reginald Johnston. It was briefly a special administrative region after it was returned to the Republic of China, the successor of the Qing Dynasty. During 1949, Weihaiwei City was established, and was renamed Weihai City after it was occupied by the People's Republic of China.

During recent years, a proposal regarding the territoriality of Weihai during the 1800s was discovered in the British Archives. The proposal, made apparently by Hong Kong governor Sir Frederick Lugard, stipulated that the British would revert Weihai to Chinese rule, and receive perpetual rule of the 1898 leased territories of Hong Kong in return. This proposal was never adopted.

The nickname British sailors gave to this port was "Way High"; it was also sometimes referred to as Port Edward in English.

Attractions
weihai beach
Weihai City is located in the east end of Shandong Peninsula.It has clear seasons and delightful weather; its environmental quality indexes, such as atmosphere quality, water quality and noises, are all up to the standards of China,which is the first " State Clean City", also the "State Gardens City" and "Model City in Environment Protection", a good place for tourism, summer vacation and health recuperation.

Weihai has beautiful surroundings with mountain and sea, and many relics. Its cleanliness and pleasant weather attract a lot of tourists and is a famous tourist city. In 1997, this city has received tourists from home and abroad up to 4.48 million and 80,000 million person-time respectively, ranking first in Shandong province. There are over tens of scenic spots in the city, of which Liugong Island (liú gōng dǎo 刘公岛) with many State's protected relics in memory of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Chengshantou (chéng shān tóu 成山头) named as "The end of the sky" has a beautiful landscape, where the emperors of Qin and Han Dynasties visited and is the scenic spot at the State level. The scenic spot of Tiechashan (tiě chá shān 铁槎山) is the birthplace of Quanzhenism (quán zhēn jiāo 全真教) branch of Taoism, and have many relics. Rongcheng Swan Lake (róng chéng tiān é hú 荣成天鹅湖) is the largest winter habitat of swans in northern China. There are rich underground spring and more than 70 of natural sea bathing places, and also built four province-class tourist resorts, including Huancui (huán cuì 环翠), Rushan Beach (rǔ shān hǎi tān 乳山海滩), Shidao Bay (shí dǎo wān 石岛湾) of Rongcheng and Swan Lake. There are 56 hotels (one four-star, eleven three-star and seven two-star) with over 9,000 beds. The three cities and one district under its jurisdiction all have star hotels and 18 travel agencies including three international agencies and 15 domestic agencies.

Mt.Chashan
weihai Mt.TiechaLied on the Yellow Sea shore of southern Rongcheng City of Shandong Province, with an attitude of 539 m of its highest peak—Qingliang Top (qīng liáng dǐng 清凉顶), Chashan Mountain (Iron Chashan Mountain of Nine Peaks) owes its name to the nine deep green peaks linking to each other.

Chashan Mountain is well known as the Wonderland of Dadong since ancient times for the natural and human cultural relics.It is also an important origin of Taoism.

Location: Renhe Town (rén hé zhèn 人和镇), Rongcheng City
Admission Fee: CNY 30
How to go: You can take bus at bus station or you can drive by yourself.

weihai chengshantouChengshantou
Looked upon as the "ancient Cape of Good Hope", Chengshantou lies in the east of Jiaodong (jiāo dōng 胶东) peninsula. It is an area boasts of evergreen ridges, deep blue sea, cliffy kraits and onrushing billows, taking you into the natural environment of the oriental city.

Hailv island (hǎi lǘ dǎo 海驴岛)
Just 2 sea mile from Chengshantou, there is a miraculous island abounded with legend and natural view--Hailv island.
Surrounded by deep blue water and thousands of sea-gulls, with risky ridges on it, the Tophus Island will be a place leading you into the ancient fairy tale.


Swan Lake
weihai swan lake
In Rongcheng Swan Lake tourism holiday resort, there is the world's largest swan’s habitat—Cheng Shanwei (chéng shān wèi 成山卫) Swan Lake which has clean water, gold beach and blue sky with delightful climate.

weihai swan lakeEvery year, from November to April, thousands of swans, wild ducks and wild goose from Siberia and Inner Mongolia come to spend the winter. It is well named as the Eastern Kingdom of Swans. A sand dam of 100 m wide isolates the lake and sea, forming thousands of sea and sand bathing places.

The sea recreation company, large casino and horse race grounds have been built, which makes a modern holiday resort combining tourism, relaxing, vacation and recreation.

According to the legend, the tears of the first emperor's wife of Qin Dynasty made the Swan Lake; the swan was the embodiment of the wife's soul. A long time ago, in order to seek immortal medicine of long life, Qin emperor recruited workmen to fill the sea and build a bridge, and ordered his wife to send meals when hearing the sound of gonging. One day, it was still early to send meals. However, due to the ramping of dung beetles, the gong sounded, the wife hurried to send meals. The emperor saw that his wife violated his order and was very angry, so he killed his wife. She felt injustice; her tears collected a river called Tears Lake. People could not forget her and wanted to bring her pure soul to the world. Therefore, countless big swans fell to the ground from sky.

weihai swan lakeWith completed facilities, 8 high-class hotels and restaurants are built in this area. There are 88 cultural recreation places, high grade bars, steam bathing center and bowling room, a water treatment company with daily water supply of 10,000 cubic meter, a transformer station of 110,000 volt, 20,000 gates of program-controlled telephones which can directly link with other places of China and foreign countries. In addition, mobile communication and wireless calls are already in service.

It is easy to get to this area which is the center of the northeast part of Rongcheng City, 28 km from Weihai Airport, and 26 km from Weihai New Port, 28 km from Weihai Railway Station. In summer, tourists come here to escape hot summers and enjoy seafood, have sea bathing and watch sea; in winter, see swans and snow.
This area has a lot of local special products, such as sea cucumbers, scallops, peanuts, apples.

Location: Longxudao town (lóng xū dǎo zhèn 龙须岛镇), Rongcheng city
Transportation: Distance from the city is 50km and it takes 90mins. Everyday there are buses taking off from the station every half hour from 6:30 to 17:00.
Admission Fee: CNY 150

Mt. Shengjing (shèng jīng shān 圣经山)
weihai shengjing mount
Shenjing Mountain scenic spot is located in the northwest area of Gejia Town, Wendeng City, 20 km away from downtown. The stretching peaks, green pines covered mountain, plain contiguous with Yellow Sea and Gaoshan Lake are like a ring winding around the mountains, forming a beautiful landscape.

It is a continental climate of temperate zone. With an annual average temperature at 11.3℃ and clear seasons and no tough winter or summer, it is an ideal place for tourism and summer vacations.

weihai shengjing mountAs the cradle of Quanzhen (quán zhēn 全真) branch of Taoism, Shengjing Mountain is also famous for its rich religion culture. According to the record in historic books a lot of temples and nunneries were founded here in Tang and Han Dynasties. And in Jin Dynasty, a Taoist priest named Wang Chongyang (wáng zhòng yang 王重阳) came from Xianyang (xián yang 咸阳) of Shanxi (shǎn xī 陕西) and sermonized in Shengjing Mountain, creating "Quanzhenism". One of his seven disciples—Qiou Chuji (qiū chù jī 丘处机), was awarded by Chengjisihan (chéng jí sī hàn 成吉思汗) and appointed to be in charge of national Taoism, which became the State's religion.

The main peak of Shengjing Mountain has an attitude of 385 m. On mountaintop stands a giant stone 15.6m long, 6 m high with Taoist lection carved on it, about 5 thousands words, 146 lines, 10 cm long for each word. Many other Taoism relics such as Huenyuan Hall (hún yuán diàn 混元殿), Sanqing Hall (sān qīng diàn 三清殿), Sanguan Hall (sān guān diàn 三官殿), Zhongxian Tomb (zhòng xiān fén 众仙坟), Chaoyang Cave (cháo yáng dòng 朝阳洞), Liaojun Temple (lǎo jun miào 老君庙), Longwang Temple (lóng wáng miào 龙王庙), Shanshen Temple (shān shén miào 山神庙), Donghua Palace (dōng huá gōng 东华宫), Yuhuang Pavilion (yù huáng gé 玉皇阁), Tianmen (tiān mén 天门), Woxian Stone (wò xiān shí 卧仙石) are well preserved here.

Every year, from May.20 to 22, a mountain festival is held here with folk art performances, calligraphy and stone inscription culture, economy and trade negotiation activities, attracting a lot of guests from Japan, South Korea, Hongkong Taiwan and Canada.

Transportation: Bus shifts are provided each day from urban of Weihai to Shengjing Mountain.

Liugong Iisland
weihai liugong island
Liugong Island at the mouth of Granville Gulf, from the pier 2.1 sea miles of urban tourism, travel by boat 20 minutes to reach the sky Shuiyun it faces the Yellow River, back to the azure blue Granville Gulf, known as "Upper Ping Fan" and "Shen warships "Said.

weihai liugong islandLiugong Island North alleviate the steep South, East and West of 4.08 km, 1.5 km north and south of the wide, the narrowest 0.06 km, 14.95 km long coastline, the area of 3.15 square kilometers, the highest mountain top flag 153.5 meters above sea level 10,000 are Island East blue sea, Yanbo Hao-miao. Island West and the urban areas across the sea. Island vegetation lush, green, black pine mainly up to more than 2,700 acres, was named the 1985 National Forest Park. Liugong Island in 1999 by the Ministry of Construction called "national scenic areas of civilization

Liugong Island is the state AAAA-class scenic area. China Sino-Japanese War Museum, Liugong Island Bolan Yuan, the 1894 naval clash Museum, Liugong Island National Park, Liu Gong miao, and other attractions for marine natural barrier, in national defense on an extremely important position.

Address: NO.52, Xinwei Road (xīn wēi lù 新威路), Weihai City
Admission Fee: CNY 100 (including all tickets)

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