Shandong · Where a Bought Navy Was Lost
Liugong Island, Weihai (刘公岛)
A small island in the bay at Weihai that was the base of China’s first modern navy. The fleet was bought abroad, beaten by Japan in the 1890s, and surrendered in this anchorage, and the island has been explaining that ever since.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | A wooded island in Weihai bay, reached by ferry, holding the headquarters of the Beiyang Fleet and the museum of the war that destroyed it |
|---|---|
| Where | Weihai, on the tip of the Shandong peninsula. The ferry crossing takes about twenty minutes |
| Why it matters | China’s first modern navy was based here. It was defeated by Japan in 1894 and 1895, and the surviving ships surrendered off this island |
| Listed | A 5A scenic area, the top tier of the Chinese national rating |
| What is on it | The fleet headquarters, coastal batteries, the war museum, a naval academy site, and a full-size replica of one of the battleships |
| The other layer | Britain leased Weihai from 1898 and returned it in 1930, so the island spent three decades as a British naval station |
| The guns | Krupp barrels, according to the panel beside them, lifted out of the water in 1986 |
| Time needed | Most of a day, including the ferry each way |
Why Go
A Navy Bought, and What Happened to It
1. The fleet was assembled by purchase
From the 1870s the Qing state set out to build a modern navy, and the method was to buy one. Ironclads were ordered from German yards and cruisers from British ones, the guns came from Krupp, the drill books were translated, and European officers were hired as advisers and instructors. One of the pictures below is a waxwork tableau in the fleet headquarters showing a staff conference: a row of Chinese officers in Qing robes, a map of the coast on the wall, and at a side table a bearded European in a dark suit going over papers with them.
For about a decade it looked like it had worked. The Beiyang Fleet was, on paper, a serious force, and this island was its base: a headquarters, batteries on the hills, a naval academy, a dockyard across the water. Then in 1894 it fought Japan, which had been building a navy by the same method and had thought harder about how to use it. The Chinese fleet lost a fleet action, withdrew here, was besieged from the land and the sea, and the surviving ships surrendered.
The two gun barrels in the picture at the top of this page are from that fleet. According to the panel beside them they were made by Krupp, and they were lifted out of the water in 1986, ninety years later. That is the island in one object: bought abroad, sunk at home, salvaged and displayed.
2. Why this defeat is the hinge
Foreign visitors generally arrive knowing nothing about this war, which is a problem, because it is one of the few events that almost every educated Chinese person can date. The defeat was not simply military. China had spent two decades and enormous sums on modernisation of exactly this kind, buying the technology while leaving the institutions alone, and Japan had spent the same period rebuilding its institutions. The result settled the argument about whether buying the hardware was enough.
Everything that follows in Chinese history runs through that conclusion: the reform movement of 1898, the revolution of 1911, and a century of argument about how much of a foreign system has to be taken with the foreign machinery. A visitor who understands nothing else about this island should understand that this is where the case was decided, and that the museum here exists to keep it decided.
The island then acquired a third layer. In 1898, with the Japanese withdrawing, Britain leased Weihai as a naval station, partly to balance the Russians at Port Arthur across the gulf. British warships used this anchorage for three decades, the lease was given up in 1930, and a small British presence lingered a few years longer. So within forty years the same stretch of water was a Chinese naval base, a Japanese prize and a British station.
The catch. The whole visit runs on a ferry timetable and in bad weather the crossing stops. Almost everything here is a museum, and the museums are dense with text that is mostly in Chinese, so a visitor without the language or a guide gets buildings and artefacts without the argument. The framing is explicitly patriotic, which is appropriate to the subject and is worth expecting. And the island is at its emptiest and most atmospheric in winter, which is also when the wind off this coast is at its worst.
Orientation
Ferry, Then the Island on Foot
The island is reached by ferry from the Weihai waterfront and the crossing is short. Once ashore, the main sites are within walking distance of the landing: the fleet headquarters, the war museum, the batteries, and the replica warship along the shore. A road and shuttle run to the hill battery at the top of the island.
Because the ferry governs the day, the sensible plan is an early crossing and a late return, with the museums done first while concentration is fresh. The island is small enough to walk and hilly enough to make the shuttle worth it in bad weather.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Book the ferry both ways
The crossing is the constraint on the day, and sailings are suspended in rough weather.
Take a guide or an audio guide
This is a site made of arguments and documents. Without the language it is buildings and rusted metal.
Read one page about the war first
Twenty minutes of background changes the entire visit, because nothing here is self-explanatory to a foreign visitor.
Dress for the wind
The bay is exposed and the island is colder than the city across the water.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| September and October | Clear, mild and the sea at its calmest, which makes the crossing reliable | The first week of October is a national holiday |
| May and June | Green, comfortable and before the summer crowd | Sea fog is common on this coast in early summer |
| July and August | The peak season, with full services on the island | Hot and busy, and the beaches around Weihai draw large numbers |
| November to March | Empty, atmospheric and snow on the roofs, which is what these pictures show | Cold with a hard wind, and sailings can be cancelled |
Context
Forty Years, Three Flags
Weihai bay is a good harbour on the tip of a peninsula that points at Korea and Japan, which is why it has been fought over. The Qing chose it as the northern base for the fleet they were assembling, fortified the headland and this island, and put the headquarters here. The buildings that survive are those of a Chinese naval administration of the 1880s and 1890s, which is a rare thing: most of what that state built was replaced or destroyed.
The war of 1894 and 1895 was fought over Korea and decided at sea. After the fleet action off the Yalu the Chinese ships withdrew to this anchorage, where they were besieged from both the land and the water and finally surrendered. The commanding admiral took his own life. The treaty that followed cost China Taiwan and an indemnity that funded Japanese industry for a decade, and the humiliation of it is the reason this island is a museum rather than a naval base.
The British came three years later, leasing Weihai for as long as Russia held Port Arthur, and ran it as a minor naval station and a summer anchorage for the China Squadron. They raised a Chinese regiment here, built a small administration, and handed it back in 1930 with much less drama than they had taken it. That layer is the least visible on the island today and it is the one most likely to interest a British or American visitor, which is a gap worth knowing about in advance.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · about 100 km southwest
Mount Lao (崂山)
The granite mountain above Qingdao, at the other end of the same coast.
Spot · about 450 km southwest
Confucius Temple and Cemetery, Qufu (曲阜三孔)
The family town of Confucius, inland.
Where to Base
Weihai (威海)
Weihai is a clean mid-sized coastal city with a long seafront, and it is comfortable to spend a night or two in. The ferry terminal for the island is on the waterfront in the centre, and there is high-speed rail along the peninsula from Qingdao.
The city and the island are best done together, with one night at least, because the crossing eats the ends of the day. Anyone travelling this coast should treat Qingdao, Weihai and the peninsula as a single trip rather than separate stops.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On site · one day
The island and the museums
Early ferry, the fleet headquarters and the war museum, the batteries and the shore, and a late crossing back.
On site · half day
The batteries and the shore
The hill battery and the coastal guns, for anyone more interested in the fortification than in the displays.
Guided · 4 days
The peninsula and the treaty ports
Qingdao, Weihai and this island, read as one story about what foreign powers did on this coast and what China did about it.
Read twenty minutes about the war before you get on the ferry. Without that this is a pleasant wooded island with some old buildings and two rusted guns; with it, it is the place where China found out that buying the machinery was not the same as changing the state, and decided to do something about it. The guns at the top of this page were made in Germany, sank here, and were pulled out of the sea ninety years later, which is as good a summary as the museum manages.
The Shandong Coast, With the Argument
This island is almost never on a foreign itinerary and it explains more about modern China than most sites that are. Tell us your dates and our local team will put somebody with you who can read the displays, and join it to Qingdao so the whole coast makes sense.