Donggang District 东港区

Setting and landscape

The district government describes a warm-temperate, semi-humid monsoon climate and a coast known for its blue sky, sea and golden sand, and notes that Donggang is rich in fresh water, unusually for northern China. Sea cucumber, abalone and the clam known as xishishe (西施舌) are among more than 60 prized seafoods produced here. Donggang also grows tea and blueberries and calls itself the home of northern green tea and China's blueberry country.

What to see

Wanpingkou (万平口) is a beach with 5 kilometres of Yellow Sea shoreline. Merchant ships already anchored here under the Yuan dynasty; a tide barrage and sluice gates were built in 1959, and after rebuilding in 2016 the area has an ecological square, a Taigong Island square and a string of themed beaches. It became a national 4A scenic area in 2009.

Rizhao Seaside National Forest Park (日照海滨国家森林公园) has 7 kilometres of coast with sandy beaches. It began in February 1960 as the Dashawa tree farm (大沙洼林场), a planted coastal shelter belt, became a national forest park in 1992 and took its present name in 2002.

The district government lists five national 4A scenic areas: Wanpingkou, Longmengu (龙门崮), Liujiawan (刘家湾), the ocean park and Mount Tiantai (天台山). Donggang also has the Olympic Water Park, where the China Water Sports Games and a sailing world championship have been held.

History and culture

The district government calls Donggang an important cradle of the Longshan culture and says its black pottery is more than 4,000 years old. The Neolithic Liangchengzhen site (两城镇遗址) in Liangcheng was the largest of more than 20 sites found in southeast Shandong in the 1930s; it was excavated in 1936, again by a joint team of Shandong University, Yale University and the Field Museum from 1998 to 2001, and listed as a national key site in 2006. Donggang is also counted among China's three main centres of peasant painting, and it is the home of the strategist Jiang Shang (姜尚) and of Liu Xie (刘勰), author of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (文心雕龙). The ancestral home of the physicist Samuel Ting (丁肇中) is here too.

Highlights

• Wanpingkou 万平口: 5-kilometre Yellow Sea beach, a national 4A scenic area since 2009.
• Rizhao Seaside National Forest Park 日照海滨国家森林公园: Coastal shelter belt planted from 1960, with 7 kilometres of coast.
• Liangchengzhen site 两城镇遗址: Longshan-culture Neolithic site, a national key site since 2006.
• Xishishe clam 西施舌: Named by the district government among Donggang's prized seafoods.