Yantai occupies the northeastern tip of the Shandong Peninsula, where it faces the Bohai Strait toward Dalian across the water. It was opened as a treaty port in 1861, and the hilltop consulate district — Yantai Hill Park — preserves a cluster of 19th-century foreign buildings that look over the harbor in the same way that Qingdao's German quarter looks over its bay, with rather less tourist machinery surrounding them. The buildings themselves are modest, but the elevated views and the mixture of European architectural styles make the area genuinely pleasant to walk.
The city is better known in China for what it produces than for its history. Yantai is the heart of China's modern wine industry: the Changyu Winery was founded here in 1892 by a Chinese-American entrepreneur and became the country's first commercial winery; Asia's first underground wine cellar, built in 1903, is still in use and can be visited at the Changyu Wine Culture Museum. The Yantai Museum, housed in an 1884 Fujian guild hall with intricately carved wooden interiors, gives cultural context for the city's maritime trading history. The region grows substantial quantities of apples, cherries, and grapes, and the produce is excellent in season.
The seafront is straightforward resort territory — sandy beaches, seafood restaurants, evening promenades — and the city draws domestic holidaymakers who want something calmer than Qingdao. Yangma Island, connected to the mainland by causeway, has the better beaches. Ferries run to Dalian across the strait in a few hours and to South Korea in a longer overnight crossing. Nearby Penglai, about an hour by road, is easily visited as a day trip.