Yantai located at the middle part of Shandong eninsula ,lying at 36o16¡ä-38o23¡äN and 119o34¡ä-121o 67¡äE, 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 intertidal 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 located at the middle latitude , enjoys the seasonal continental temperate climate with annual average temperature of 11.8oC, average rainfall about 700mm and more than 200 days forest-free days.

Natural Resources and Products

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 isobath. 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, zine, lead molybdenum, magnesium, coal, talc, marble, sivler, 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 vermcelli, giant cherry and laiyang pear, prawn, sea cucumber, abalone, etc. are well known all over the world.

Water and Power Supply

Yantai is rich in water resources. Ten kilometers off the urban area is Dagu Jia River, which has a catchment area of more than 1,000 square kilometers and an annual discharge of 350 million cubic meters.

The Menlou Reservoir, which is 23 kilometers away from the urban district of the city, has an effective storage capacity of 126 million cubic meters. The waterworks is capable of purifying 150,000 cubic meters of surface water each day. Along the lower reaches of the Dugu Jia River, six waterworks can supply 350,000 tons of ground water for the city.

Electricity can be supplied by Yantai Power Plant, Longkou Power Plant and Shandong Power Grid. Yantai Power Plant has 2 generating sets of 50,000 kW and 2 heat and power generating units of 100,000 kW. In 1997, the State Planning Commission and the Power Ministry determined to locate the project of the IGCC exemplary unit in Yantai Power Plant. Now it is being prepared. The design installed capacity of 1 million kW of Longkou Pit power plant has already gone into operation. The generated energy of the whole city is 8.56 billion kWh and the annual power consumption is 7.1 billion kWh. The reliability rate of power consumption reaches 99.96% in urban area of Yantai.

Traffic

Communication and transportation in Yantai are flourishing. As early as in the Spring & Autumn Period (770-467B.C.),Yantai was a very important port linding shipping lines between the Southeast Asia including Malia Peninsula and the coastal provinces of Northeast China.

It was also one of the earliest trading ports of China opened to the outside world in modern time. There are 9 large/medium ports including four first-class ones (Yantai port, Longkou port, Penglai port and Laizhou port) opening to outside world and 23 berths, each with a handling capacity of over 10,000 tons. Total exchange capacity of the ports reaches 24.73 million tons.

Situated at Shandong Peninsula and in Zhifu Bay, Yantai is a key port of the state water transportation, an opening port along the coastline and an important hub of the great south-north highway between Sanya and Tongjiang, which is now under building by our country. The are of Yantai Port is 4.8 square kilometers and the coastline of Yantai port is 5,216 meters. It has 34 berths, among which 15 berths in deepwater own a handling capacity of over 10,000 tons respectively and an exchange capacity of over 16 million tons (including container freight volume of 110,000 TEU).

The third phase of the construction of seven deepwater berths with expected annual handling capacity of 3,900,000 tons has started in August 1997. Four deepwater berths engaged in container freights was listed in the first phase of this construction. Passenger liners go to Tianjin and Dalian directly, and the liner named "Zi Yu Lan" comes and goes between Yantai and Pusan, Kunsan of Korea. Cargo ships offer freight services to more than 100 ports in scores of over 70 countries and regions thoughout the world. Container freighters sail regularly between Yantai and Japan, the United States, Canada, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. Every year there are over 800 foreign ships enter Yantai Port for the first time. There will be 58 berths, including 43 deepwater berths, and the annual exchange capacity is expected to be more than 45 million tons in 2020. Railway between Yantai and Lancun joins up with the country's main line and contacts Yantai and many other cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan, Qingdao, etc.

A complete highway network with hight quality lines all conties, towns and most of the villages in the area. The highway length is 5,172 km in the area, and highway density is 36.5km/sq. km. The air transportation has achieved a great development. The construction of Laishan Airport has been completed and airlines have linked more than 20 citied, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Harbin, Shenzhen, Xian, Xiamen, Wuhan, Shantou, Wenzhou, Dalian Chengdu, Haikou, etc. Meanwhile, liners to Hong Kong, Macao, Seoul of Korea has also been opened. Among which there are 3 passenger liners from Yantai to Hong Kong and 6 ones from Yantai to Seoul.