Yantai

Ice-free port in Shandong province, east China; population (1990) 452,000. It was opened for foreign investment in 1984. Industries include tourism, winemaking, fishing, food-processing, and the production of machinery, vehicle parts, and embroidery.

Yantai was a summer resort and missionary headquarters during the 19th century. Its name derived from the fires lit on its cliff tops to warn the Chinese of approaching Japanese pirates during the Ming Dyansty (14th-17th centuries). Fires were lit again during the 19th-century Opium Wars to warn Chinese fishing boats of the approaching British ships.