Weihai City lies in the east end of Shandong Peninsula and is surrounded by sea on its north, east and south sides. Opposite to its north is Liaodong Peninsula and across the sea to the east and southeast are the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Bordering Yantai City to its west, Weihai occupies a total area of 5,436 square kilometers and has a total population of more than 2.48 million people.

Weihai has a long history. In the middle of the New Stone Age, there were already inhabitants living in the area. In the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, Weihai was the land of Dongfang Yi and belonged to Qingzhou. In 568 AD (the 4th year of Emperor Tian Tong in the Northern Qi Dynasty), Wendeng county was established in the area and all the area was put under the administration of Wendeng county. Although with the changes of dynasties, there was no change for the jurisdiction of the area. In 1398 (the 31st year of Emperor Hong Wu of the Ming Dynasty), the Ming government established a garrison and stationed troops in Weihai to defend the area from intrusion of Japanese pirates and at the time, it was called Weihaiwei or Weihai Garrison, which was the original name of Weihai. In 1898, Weihai was released by Britain by force. In 1900, the Weihaiwei administrative officer's office was established, subject to the colonial office of Britain. In October 1930, China regained Weihaiwei and established the Weihaiwei administrative region, subject to the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) of the Republic of China. On June 15, 1987, Weihai was upgraded to a prefecture level city.

Weihai boasts beautiful sceneries of mountains and sea, has distinctive four seasons and therefore is an ideal destination of tourism and summer resort. In 1996, Weihai was elected by the United Nations as one of the 100 model cities that have made substantial achievements in improving people's living environment. In 1998, Weihai was chosen as an excellent tourism city in China.