The Shandong Peninsula or Jiaodong Peninsula is a

peninsula A peninsula ( la, paeninsula from 'almost' and 'island') is a landform A landform is a natural or artificial feature of the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body A planet is an astronomical body Astronomy (from el ...

in Shandong in eastern China, between the

Bohai Sea The Bohai Sea or Bo Sea, also known as Bohai Gulf, Bo Gulf or Pohai Bay (), is a marginal sea This is a list of seas of the World Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of Saline water, salt water that covers app ...

to the north and the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea This is a list of seas of the World Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of Saline water, salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% o ...

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 A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water which covers approx ...

to the northwest, which opens into the

to the north, which in turn passes through the

Bohai Strait The Bohai Sea or Bo Sea, also known as Bohai Gulf, Bo Gulf or Pohai Bay (), is a marginal sea This is a list of seas of the World Ocean, including marginal seas, areas of water, various gulfs, bights, bays, and straits. Terminology * Ocea ...

to the northeast into the

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

prefecture-level cities A road sign shows distance to the "Huangshi urban area" () rather than simply " Yangxin County from the neighboring Xianning), but still from the Huangshi main urban area. A prefectural-level municipality (), prefectural-level city or prefectu ...

Shandong Shandong (; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province A province is almost always an administrative division Administrative division, administrative unitArticle 3(1). , country subdivision, administrative region, subn ...

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Shandong (; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province A province is almost always an administrative division Administrative ...

Qingdao

in the southwest,

Yantai Yantai, alternately known as Zhifu or Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city Image:Yangxin-renmin-huanyin-ni-0022.jpg, A road sign shows distance to the "Huangshi urban area" () rather than simply "Huangshi" (). This is a useful distinc ...

Yantai

in the north and centre, and

Weihai Weihai (), formerly called Weihaiwei (), is a and major seaport in easternmost province. It borders to the west and the to the east, and is the closest Chinese city to . Weihai's population was 2,804,771 as of the 2010 census. Amongst them, ...

Weihai

at the eastern tip. Geologically it was once connected to the

Korean Peninsula Korea is a region In geography, regions are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and the environment (environmental ...

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 river mouth, mouths of the Daliao ...

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

History

In the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic or Palæolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek palaios - old, lithos - stone), is a period in prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history ...

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

Neolithic The Neolithic period is the final division of the Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history Human history, also known as world history, is t ...

, 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 historically known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese dynasty Dynasties in Chinese history, or Chinese dynasties, were hereditary monarchical regimes that ruled over China during much of its history. From ...

. The

State of Qi Qi was a state of the Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also historically known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese dynasty that ruled in the middle and ...

built the

Great Wall of Qi The Great Wall of Qi () is the oldest existing Great Wall The Great Wall of China () is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against Eur ...

, which is partially on the peninsula. The Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory was a leased territory of the

German Empire The German Empire or the Imperial State of Germany,, officially '.Herbert Tuttle Herbert Tuttle (1846–1894) was an American historian. Biography Herbert Tuttle was born in Bennington, Vermont Bennington is a New England town, town ...

from 1898 to 1914 located around

Jiaozhou Bay The Jiaozhou Bay (; german: Kiautschou Bucht, ) is a bay located in Qingdao (Tsingtau), China. It was a German colonial empire, German colonial Concession (territory), concession from 1898 until 1914. Jiaozhou City, Jiaozhou is the main town of ...

, 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, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war A world war is "a war War is an intense armed conflict between states State may refer to: Arts, entertainmen ...

. 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 A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or government ...

, 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 Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and ...

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

Empire of Japan The was a historical nation-state A nation state is a political unit where the state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of Sta ...

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

Shandong Problem The Shandong Problem or Shandong Question (, Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan , image_flag = Flag of Japan.svg , alt_flag = Centered deep red circle on a white rectan ...

, and led to the

May Fourth Movement The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist Anti-imperialism in political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of pol ...

. 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 Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elim ...

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

Northeast China Northeast China () is a geographical region In geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia'', literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth ...

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 for ...

. 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 There are various names of Korea in use today, all derived from ancient kingdoms and dynasties. The modern English name "Korea Korea (officially the "Korean Peninsula") ...

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

Major urban areas

References

{{Peninsulas of China Peninsulas of China Landforms of Shandong

Geography

History

Major urban areas

See also

References