China's Yantai: Forever a fairyland

Email|Print|Comments       twitter     facebook     Sina Microblog     reddit    

Penglai Pavilion on Danya Hill offers visitors beautiful views of the Yellow Sea. (China Daily)

Yantai in Shandong province is known to many Chinese as the place the immortals once lived, but Zhang Zixuan finds the town has plenty of earthly delights.

Yantai, northeast of Shandong province, has long been known as the fairyland of the immortals.

Penglai in western Yantai is believed to be the place that immortals once lived.

It is said that both the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC)'s First Emperor Shihuang (259-210 BC) and Han Dynasty (206 BC-Ad 220) Emperor Wudi (156-87 BC) came here to seek elixirs.

The Taoist wood architecture complex Penglai Pavilion has stood on Danya Hill since the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

The legendary eight immortals, that are well known to every Chinese, were said to cross the sea here by using their own magic instruments, instead of taking a boat.

Today Yantai is still a fairyland, not for immortals, but for human beings.

• Not for the faint-hearted: Inner Mongolia
• Gansu's great Silk Road secrets
• Trip to Hong Kong Ocean Park, China
• Top 10 landmarks in China
• Ningbo getaway: tranquility, history, great food

We Recommend

• 9th 'Hong Kong Teenager Military Summer Camp' ended
• Rhythm and melody in hearts: photo story
• So cute! Smallest animals on the earth
• Run naked as punishment for missing sales target
• 2 Chinese workers killed in Seoul bridge collapse
• Fan Bingbing poses for fashion magazine