Shilao is at the easternmost point of the Shandong peninsula, in Rongcheng, with Korea and Japan across the water, and it is the closest place in China to Korea. Its administrative shape has changed repeatedly: a city under the Republican government in 1946, a county under the People's Republic in 1954, a town again in 1982, and since January 2005 a special management district built out of the old Shidao and Ningjin towns, with six subdistricts named Gangwan, Chishan, Dongshan, Wanglian, Taoyuan and Ningjin. It is one of the few areas in China administered apart from the city around it. The district covers 260 square kilometres, holds 144 administrative villages and 41 residents' committees, and counts 169,000 people, who in 2011 produced 23.04 billion yuan of output, 19.2 per cent more than the year before.
From the journal
The Harbour at the Eastern Tip
At the eastern tip of the Shandong peninsula, a district of 169,000 people built on the largest fishing port, fish market and shipyards in northern China.
In the same city · Rizhao ↗A place that kept changing its name
The largest of its kind in the north
What Shilao is known for comes out of the water. It has the largest fishing port in northern China and the largest fish market in the north, and it is the largest shipbuilding base in northern China, with twenty-four large shipbuilding enterprises, among them the Huanghai shipyard and the Chishan group. Logistics came with the boats: Shilao New Port is a national first-class open port with frequent passenger and cargo services to Korea and Japan. On the land side the district is described as having neither severe summer heat nor severe winter cold, and the sights that carry a grade are the Chishan scenic area, a national four-A site, the Fahua Monastery on Chishan, a Tianhou palace for the sea goddess, and a bathing beach measured at ten thousand metres.