Shilao

Shilao stands 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 in 1946, a county in 1954, a town again in 1982, and since January 2005 a management district of six subdistricts built out of the old Shidao and Ningjin towns. It covers 260 square kilometres with 144 administrative villages, 41 residents' committees and 169,000 people, and it is one of the few areas in China administered apart from the city that surrounds it. What it is known for comes out of the water: the largest fishing port and fish market in northern China, and the largest shipbuilding base in northern China.