Yantai travel guide

Air, sea, rail and road networks make getting in and out of Yantai very convenient.

Yantai Penglai International Airport is located in Chaoshui Town, Penglai District, about 43 km from downtown Yantai. It mainly serves domestic routes, with direct flights to dozens of major and mid-sized Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an, Kunming and Xiamen.

Now that the Qingdao–Yantai–Weihai–Rongcheng Intercity Railway is fully operational, it links these peninsula cities with bullet-train services. The journey from Yantai to Qingdao takes just over an hour, and from Yantai to Weihai about 20 minutes, so you can truly experience the “same-city effect.”

The Yantai–Qingdao First-Class Road, the Yantai–Weihai Expressway and the Qixia–Yantai National Highway 204 are all fully enclosed expressways. The Wenzhao Road and county and township roads form a dense road network that connects to the national road system.

Besides sailings to nearby cities such as Dalian and Lushun, Yantai has a daily ferry to Tianjin and ferries to South Korea.

International passenger ferries to Incheon, South Korea, depart at 17:00 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tickets must be collected 3 hours in advance.

Yantai → Dalian

Buses can cover most travel needs within central Yantai, with minibuses and taxis as supplements. Bus fares are generally ¥1, and minibus flat fares are

¥1.5. Taxi flag-fall fare is ¥7 for the first 3 km, then ¥1.5 per km.

Bus No. 1 (Railway Station North Square → Kunyu Mountain Scenic Area) is a coastal sightseeing route. Departing from the train station, it passes 14 seaside sights, including the Wharf, Yantai Mountain, Yangma Island, the International Convention & Exhibition Center, Moon Bay, the east gate of Yantai University and Yellow Sea Amusement City.

Yantai's signature dishes include the Eight Immortals Banquet, Lamb Ribs in Jade-Green Sauce, Egg-White Dried Scallops, sea intestines, braised prawns, Penglai braised donkey meat, sugar-crisp gangzitou, fresh fish water dumplings and stir-fried double crisp.

“To eat well, go around Fushan.” Fushan's culinary art was already recorded in the Qilu Zhizhuan during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and by the Yuan dynasty, Fushan chefs were serving in the imperial palace, exclusively in charge of the emperor's meals.

Fushan cuisine prizes knife work and heat control. Exquisite knife skills are a pleasure to watch, and precise timing keeps dishes lightly crisp without burning and tender without going soft. Other famous Fushan specialties include grilled prawns, scallion-stir-fried sea cucumber and vinegar-glazed fish slices.

Local specialties include Yantai apples, gold-and-tin inlaid tea sets, Laizhou jade carvings, Laiyang pears, swan eggs, Yantai velvet embroidery, Haiyang drawn-thread crafts, and seafood such as Zhikong scallops, sea cucumbers, black sea cucumbers, prawns and abalone.

V.O Gold Medal Brandy, special ice wine, dry white wine.

Yantai's commercial streets have a distinctly local character. In recent years, with economic growth, seven major shopping streets have taken shape: Binhai Square International Commercial Pedestrian Street, Chaoyang Historic & Cultural Street, Qilu Antiques Culture Street, Oriental Paris Commercial Pedestrian Street, Wenxing Road Garment City in Muping, Zhifu Commercial Street and Bus Station Commercial Street.

Yantai's Shopping Nandajie is the city's busiest commercial district, with many shopping venues, including Nandajie Shopping City, Tiantian Fishing Port Shopping Center, Huaqiao Department Store and Zhenhua Shopping Center. The Yantai Sanzhan Wholesale Market on Xingye Road in Zhifu District and Liangyou Plaza on Lifeng Street are also good places to shop.