Zhifu Island (Chefoo Treaty Port Anchorage)

Zhifu Island lies at the northern edge of Yantai, connected to the mainland by a natural sand tombolo near Datuan Village in Zhifu District, and takes its historical significance from its role as the sheltered anchorage that gave the treaty port its Western name, Chefoo. Foreign warships and merchant vessels anchored in the bay off the island after Yantai opened to foreign trade in 1861 under the Treaty of Tianjin, and the island's name is permanently attached to the 1876 Chefoo Convention, signed in these waters, in which the Qing government agreed to open additional treaty ports and pay indemnities following the murder of a British official in Yunnan. Unlike Yantai's museum-style historical sites, Zhifu Island preserves little built heritage from this period; its historical interest today lies mainly in the anchorage itself, the coastal terrain that made it strategically useful, and scattered remnants of small military and lighthouse installations from the late Qing and Republican periods along its shoreline. The site functions largely as a natural and recreational area, with beaches, fishing villages, and coastal walking paths rather than a curated exhibition, so its treaty-port history is understood mainly through its geography and the historical record rather than through on-site displays. There has been no significant restoration program at Zhifu Island in the way seen at Yantai's built heritage sites; the island's state today reflects ordinary coastal development and fishing-village life layered over its earlier role as a diplomatic and naval anchorage.