The Shandong Peninsula or Jiaodong (tsiaotung) Peninsula is a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

eastern China East China () is a geographical region in the People’s Republic of China, mainly consisting of seven province-level administrative divisions, namely the provinces (from north to south) Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, a ...

, between the

Bohai Sea The Bohai Sea ( zh, c=渤海, p=Bó Hǎi, l=Bo Sea) is a gulf/inland 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 via the Bohai Strait. It ...

to the north and the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North 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. Names It is one of four ...

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 o ...

to the northwest, which opens into the

to the north, which in turn passes through the

Bohai Strait The Bohai Sea ( zh, c=渤海, p=Bó Hǎi, l=Bo Sea) is a gulf/ inland 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 via the Bohai Strait. ...

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 China, People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province of China, province and above a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in China's ...

Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...

in the southwest,

Yantai Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of the People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao ...

in the north and centre, and

Weihai Weihai ( zh, t=, p=Wēihǎi), formerly Weihaiwei ( zh, s=, p=Wēihǎiwèi, l=Mighty Sea Fort, first=t), is a prefecture-level city and major seaport city in the easternmost Shandong province of China. It borders Yantai to the west and the Yellow ...

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 is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

and the

Liaodong Peninsula The Liaodong or Liaotung Peninsula ( zh, s=辽东半岛, t=遼東半島, p=Liáodōng Bàndǎo) is a peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. It is located ...

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

History

In the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

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

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

, 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 Jap ...

people inhabited the peninsula. The Dongyi had their own kingdom called the

State of Lai Lai (), also known as Laiyi (), was an ancient Dongyi state located in what is now eastern Shandong Province, recorded in the '' Book of Xia''. Tang Shanchun () believes ''lái'' means "mountain" in the Old Yue language, while thYue Jue Shu() say ...

. The peninsula later belonged to the

State of Qi Qi, or Ch'i in Wade–Giles romanization, was a ancient Chinese state, regional state of the Zhou dynasty in History of China#Ancient China, ancient China, whose rulers held Zhou dynasty nobility, titles of ''Hou'' (), then ''Gong (title), Go ...

. The Qi 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 by the state of Qi, to defend itself against attacks from the states of Jin and Yue. Construction ended during the Warring States ...

, which is partially on the peninsula. During the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

, the peninsula belonged to the semi-independent feudatory

Jiaodong Kingdom Jiaodong Kingdom ( zh, 膠東國) was a kingdom of the Han dynasty, located in what is now eastern Shandong. Zichuan was separated from the Qi Kingdom in 165 BC and granted to Liu Xiongqu (劉雄渠), son of Liu Fei, King of Qi. Xiongqu was kill ...

. The

Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory The Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory was a German leased territory in Imperial and Early Republican China from 1898 to 1914. Covering an area of , it centered on Kiautschou Bay (Jiaozhou Bay) on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula. T ...

was a leased territory of the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

from 1898 to 1914 located around

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

, where the village of

(Tsingtao) developed into a major seaport. Contemporary map of Tsingtau and the Shandong Peninsula

Japan seized the territory from Germany in 1914 in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In the 1919

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

, 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 a ...

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

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

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

Shandong Problem The Shandong Problem or Shandong Question (; ) 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 in 1922. The German Empire acquired ...

, and led to the

May Fourth Movement The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese cultural and anti-imperialist political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen to protest the Chinese government's weak response ...

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

Washington Naval Conference The Washington Naval Conference (or the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armament) was a disarmament conference called by the United States and held in Washington, D.C., from November 12, 1921, to February 6, 1922. It was conducted out ...

. 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 of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. 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 are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. The majority of Koreans live in the two Korean sovereign states of North and South Korea, which are collectively referred to as Korea. As of 2021, an estimated 7.3 m ...

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

Climate

Shandong Peninsula is surrounded by sea on three sides and has a

monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate subtype that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ' ...

with four distinct seasons (Köppen: '' Cwa/ Dwa''). Due to maritime influence, the climate is relatively mild, in both summer and winter.

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 manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from September 2015 to February 2022, with its chapters collected in 34 volumes. In North A ...

''.

References