The Shandong (Shantung) Peninsula or Jiaodong (Chiaotung) Peninsula is a

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

Shandong Province Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...

in eastern China, between the

Bohai Sea The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth of a ...

to the north and the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour terms ...

to the south. The latter name refers to the east and Jiaozhou.

Geography

The waters bordering the peninsula are

Laizhou Bay Laizhou Bay () is a bay on the southern shore of the Bohai Sea (also known as the ''Bohai Gulf'', or just ''Bo Hai'', which is a large and relatively shallow westward extension of the northern Yellow Sea), bounded by the northwestern coastline of ...

to the northwest, which opens into the

to the north, which in turn passes through the

Bohai Strait The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth o ...

to the northeast into the

to the east and south. The peninsula's territory comprises three

prefecture-level cities A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China' ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

in the southwest,

Yantai Yantai, Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of ...

in the north and centre, and

Weihai Weihai (), formerly called Weihaiwei (), is a prefecture-level city and major seaport in easternmost Shandong province. It borders Yantai to the west and the Yellow Sea to the east, and is the closest Chinese city to South Korea. Weihai's popula ...

at the eastern tip. Shandong Peninsula is the largest peninsula in China. Stretching into the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, it is 290 kilometers long from east to west, 190 kilometers wide from north to south, and 50 kilometers narrow. The total area of Shandong Peninsula is 73,000 square kilometers. Geologically it was once connected to the

Korean Peninsula Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and the

Liaodong Peninsula The Liaodong Peninsula (also Liaotung Peninsula, ) is a peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. It is located between the mouths of the Daliao River (the ...

, but was split starting around 27 Ma ago, resulting in the formation of the

History

In the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

, the Shandong Peninsula area was covered by forest. In the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

, about 7,000 years ago, a large number of

Dongyi The Dongyi or Eastern Yi () was a collective term for ancient peoples found in Chinese records. The definition of Dongyi varied across the ages, but in most cases referred to inhabitants of eastern China, then later, the Korean peninsula, and Ja ...

people inhabited the peninsula. The peninsula later belonged to the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

. The

State of Qi Qi, or Ch'i in Wade–Giles romanization, was a state of the Zhou dynasty-era in ancient China, variously reckoned as a march, duchy, and independent kingdom. Its capital was Linzi, located in present-day Shandong. Qi was founded shortly ...

built the

Great Wall of Qi The Great Wall of Qi () is the oldest existing Great Wall in China. Construction of the wall started in 441 BC (during the Spring and Autumn period) by the state of Qi, to defend itself against attacks from the states of Jin and Yue. Constr ...

, which is partially on the peninsula. The

Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory The Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory was a German colonial empire, German leased territory in Qing dynasty, Imperial and Republic of China (1912–1949), Early Republican China from 1898 to 1914. Covering an area of , it centered on Jiaozhou Ba ...

was a leased territory of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

from 1898 to 1914 located around

Jiaozhou Bay The Jiaozhou Bay (; german: Kiautschou Bucht, ) is a bay located in the prefecture-level city of Qingdao (Tsingtau), China. The bay has historically been romanized as Kiaochow, Kiauchau or Kiao-Chau in English and Kiautschou in German. Geogra ...

, where the village of

(Tsingtao) developed into a major seaport. Japan seized the territory from Germany in 1914 in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In the 1919

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

, Germany lost Qingdao and its

sphere of influence In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military or political exclusivity. While there may be a formal al ...

in Shandong. Instead of restoring Chinese sovereignty over the area, the treaty transferred the leased territory to the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

. This resulted in popular dissatisfaction with the outcome, known as the

Shandong Problem __NOTOC__ The Shandong Problem or Shandong Question (, Japanese: , ''Santō mondai'') was a dispute over Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which dealt with the concession of the Shandong Peninsula. It was resolved in China's favor i ...

, and led to the

May Fourth Movement The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) to protest the Chinese ...

. Eventually, Shandong was reverted to Chinese control in 1922 after mediation by the United States during the

Washington Naval Conference The Washington Naval Conference was a disarmament conference called by the United States and held in Washington, DC from November 12, 1921 to February 6, 1922. It was conducted outside the auspices of the League of Nations. It was attended by nine ...

. However, Japan retained economic influence in the area. Due to geographical reasons, the Shandong Peninsula is closely connected with

Northeast China Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of t ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Historically, a large number of people migrated to the Northeast by boat, whereas in the present day many people from the Northeast "return" to the Shandong Peninsula. After the People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, a large number of South Korean companies also set up factories in the region. There are more than 200,000

Koreans Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refe ...

living in the Shandong Peninsula. South Korea has a consulate-general in Qingdao .

Natural climate

Shandong Peninsula is surrounded by sea on three sides and has a temperate monsoon climate with four distinct seasons. Due to the influence of the ocean, compared with the same latitude of the inland climate mild, summer without heat, winter without cold. Shandong Peninsula coast winding, harbor staggered, islands list, is the North China coastal good port concentration area. Qingdao in Jiaozhou Bay, Yantai in Zhifu Bay, Weihai in Weiwan, Shidao in Shidao Bay and Longkou are all famous ports in China. Shandong Peninsula is a warm temperate humid monsoon climate. About 60% of the annual precipitation is concentrated in summer, and the intensity is high, often heavy rain.

The allusions

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and the Han and Tang Dynasties, many famous historical figures appeared on the Shandong Peninsula. A thinker, politician, strategist, agronomists and therapist, little and six towers, sun wu and sun tzu, sun bin, and the world, this and this spring and autumn period, the pipe and the pipe, high RAMS and the male sheep biography, ChunYuYi and he made history records, the king and "SiMaRangJu art of war", jia sixie and qimin yaoshu, etc. With their thoughts, conduct, speech and writings, these sages created a culture of sages that has been passed down through the ages on the Shandong Peninsula. Up to the Qin Dynasty, the First Emperor of Qin had five Tours in his twelve years, three of which were to the Shandong Peninsula. Xu Fu, a man from Qi in the Qin Dynasty, sailed east to Japan and became the first navigator with a famous family name recorded in the history of Chinese navigation. Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty made seven sea cruises, all of which came to the Shandong Peninsula. The Shandong Peninsula has laid the foundation of China's maritime industry and also the foundation of China's maritime culture. 陈杰．从考古资料看先秦时期山东半岛先民的海洋经济生活：《文博》，2007 (6) ：16-21

Major urban areas

In popular culture

The Shandong Peninsula is fictionalized as the "Chinese Peninsula" in the Japanese manga and anime series, ''

Fire Force is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Atsushi Ohkubo. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from September 2015 to February 2022, with its chapters collected in thirty-four '' ...

''.

References

4. 傅广典．山东半岛地域文化的界定、内涵及其传承趋向：《民间文化论坛》，2006 (2) ：59-63 5. 陈杰．从考古资料看先秦时期山东半岛先民的海洋经济生活：《文博》，2007 (6) ：16-21 {{Peninsulas of China Peninsulas of China Landforms of Shandong