Yantai

Coastal Shandong port and wine region. The Changyu Wine Culture Museum documents the 1892 founding of China's first modern winery; nearby Penglai is the legendary 'Eight Immortals' coast.

Yantai sits on the northern Shandong coast, sheltered by the Bohai Strait. The city was a treaty port from 1862 (one of the smaller late-Qing concessions), and the Changyu winery founded here in 1892 by overseas Chinese merchant Zhang Bishi was the first European-method winery in China. The Yantai Hill area preserves several treaty-port buildings, and the Yantai Mountain Museum is one of the better mid-tier museums in eastern China.

70 km west, Penglai is the mythological coast of the 'Eight Immortals crossing the sea' — Penglai Pavilion (1061 CE) is one of the Four Great Towers of China alongside Yueyang Tower and Tengwang Pavilion. The local cherry harvest in mid-May draws domestic tourists.