Located on the east part of Shandong Peninsula, Yantai is among the first 14 coastal open cities. With its pleasant climate and abundant resources, it received the UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award and is an important base for wine production in China. Yantai is also an important port city in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Yantai faces Japan and Korea across the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea. With a National Economic and Technical Development Zone, a High-Tech Industrial Development Zone and a free trade port, it attracts over 3,000 foreign-funded enterprises including the world’s biggest game console manufacturer Foxconn and the world’s biggest cellphone screen provider LG Display. This year, Hyundai Motor Co. invested 1.7 billion yuan ($258 million) to build a new energy vehicles researching center in Yantai.

As one of the Chinese cities closest to ROK, Yantai has ROK as its biggest source of foreign investment and tightest trade partner. Till the end of 2015, totally 3,625 projects in Yantai on clothing, light industry, electronics, machinery, food products, etc, have received ROK investment of $5.51 billion, occupied one twelfth of the ROK investment in China. Among them, more than 200 projects are invested with over $10 billion. Nine Fortune 500 companies, including LG, Hyundai Motor, Hanhua, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, make Yantai the city in Shandong with the most ROK giant enterprises.

Despite the decelerated of the economy in 2015, Yantai maintained growth in economy with the export and import with ROK rose to $11.08 billion, covered 1/25 of China-ROK trade and 1/3 of Shandong-ROK trade.

More than 120 flights link Yantai with Incheon and Busan in ROK each week. As one of the top 10 ports in China, 13 vessels sail to major ports in ROK such as Incheon, Pyongtaek and Busan. Around 50,000 Korean are living and working in Yantai, whereas more than 30,000 Yantai residents are in ROK.

China-ROK Yantai Industrial Park was established in 2015 as a part of the China-ROK Free Trade Agreement. New energy vehicle park, cultural industries park and health care park within are important platforms to carry forward a comprehensive China-ROK cooperation.

So far, Yantai has initiated a one-billion-yuan industrial development fund, a five-billion-yuan industrial park fund, and invested 4 billion yuan on the construction of a railway logistic park and 1.5 billion yuan on Yantai International Shipping Center. Last year, 38 contracts have been signed to start cooperation with ROK enterprises in information electronics, auto mechanics, health and beauty, culture and tourism, logistics, e-commerce, etc.