Laizhou 莱州市

Setting and history

Ye County was set up at the start of the Western Han and was later governed as part of Donglai commandery (东莱郡), then Guangzhou (光州), Laizhou and Laizhou prefecture (莱州府); in 1988 it became Laizhou city. Zhaoyuan (招远) and Laixi (莱西) lie to the east, Longkou (龙口) to the north-east and Pingdu (平度) to the south, while the Jiaolai River (胶莱河) separates it from Changyi (昌邑) to the south-west. National Highways 206 and 228 pass through.

What to see

Yunfeng Mountain (云峰山), south-east of the city, carries the lower of the two Zheng Wengong stelae (郑文公碑), cut into the cliff in 511 during the Northern Wei, when Zheng Daozhao (郑道昭) recorded the career of his father Zheng Xi (郑羲). The upper stele is on Tianzhu Mountain (天柱山) in Pingdu. Zheng Daozhao also left signed inscriptions and poems on Yunfeng Mountain, and the stele's regular script, strong in brushwork, is admired by calligraphers.

Other named sights are Daoshi Valley (道士谷), Sanshan Island (三山岛) and Furong Island (芙蓉岛), an uninhabited island in Laizhou Bay about 4.5 kilometres from the nearest point of the mainland, Diaolongzui (刁龙嘴) in the Sanshan Island industrial zone.

Crafts

Laizhou straw plaiting (莱州草辫) began in the villages around Shahe town (沙河镇) and is said to be 1,500 years old. After the Opium War it became one of the first Chinese goods to reach Western markets, winning a special award at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Plaits are made with three, five or seven straws, and the range has grown to more than two thousand patterns. It entered the national intangible heritage list in 2008.

Ye County talc carving (掖县滑石雕刻), on the same list since 2008, works soft, jade-like talc. It is recorded as dating back to the Song dynasty, and carvers make more than two thousand designs in eight classes, from vases and figures to seals and stationery, often using the stone's natural veins and colours in 'clever-colour' (巧色) pieces.

Food

The four prized local seafoods are fleshy prawns, hard clams, swimming crabs and large razor clams, and Laizhou also produces sea cucumber, scallops and mantis shrimp. Among snacks are dough fish (面鱼) and mutton soup (羊汤). Laizhou calls itself the capital of the Chinese rose and holds a rose festival each May.

Highlights

• Yunfeng Mountain inscriptions 云峰山石刻: Cliff site of the lower Zheng Wengong stele, carved in 511 under the Northern Wei.
• Laizhou straw plaiting 莱州草辫: Straw-plait craft from Shahe town; national intangible heritage, 2008.
• Ye County talc carving 掖县滑石雕刻: Carving in soft talc dating back to the Song; national intangible heritage, 2008.
• Furong Island 芙蓉岛: Small uninhabited island in Laizhou Bay.