Yantai apples are famous for their bright colors, crispness and sweetness, and have always been loved by domestic and foreign markets. This is the most important apple producing area in China.
The producing areas are mainly Qixia, Laiyang, Laixi, Longkou, Zhaoyuan, Penglai, Haiyang, Mu Ping and Fushan within the jurisdiction of Yantai.
Among them, the main apple producing areas in Yantai are Qixia City, Laiyang City, Laixi City and Laizhou City. Apples are big and thin-skinned, and pollution-free bagging technology is adopted in the whole region. Qixia City, Shandong Province is known as the "Roof of Jiaodong", with an area of 20 17 square kilometers. The main terrain is hilly and mountainous, with the characteristics of "six mountains, one water and three fields".
This geographical and natural environment is very suitable for growing apples. Qixia people have a long history of planting apples, which has been 100 years.
Since the reform and opening up, Qixia has accelerated the adjustment of industrial structure and vigorously developed the apple industry. The orchard area has rapidly increased to 650,000 mu, with an annual output of 654.38 billion kilograms of apples, making it a pillar industry.
Qixia therefore enjoys the titles of "Apple Capital of China" and "Apple First City of China".
Professor Wu Mangmin said in Fruit Tree Cultivation: "In about 1850, an American missionary introduced all kinds of foreign apple seedlings from the United States and opened a garden east of Xinting Mountain in Yantai, Shandong Province, which was the beginning of China's cultivation of foreign countries." Since then, it has been gradually promoted in Yantai.
Yantai is located in the eastern part of Jiaodong Peninsula. Gao Shuang has a mild climate, especially in summer and autumn, with humid air and abundant sunshine, which is very beneficial to the growth of apples.
These unique conditions have created the bright colors and pleasant taste of Yantai apples.
Yantai has more than 100 apple varieties, among which green banana, red banana, ruby, Jin Shuai and Guoguang are the most famous.
Green bananas, red bananas and ruby fruits are big, fragrant, sweet and crisp.
The former is green in color, and the latter is as thick as fat, especially the green banana, with a sweetness of 13.2%, which is as sweet as the southern banana if it is meat.
Jin Shuai apples are golden in fruit, sweet in juice, fragrant and refreshing, and they are timely fruits for Mid-Autumn Festival.
At present, the apple planting area in Yantai has grown to more than 700,000 mu, which is 17 times higher than that in the early days of the People's Republic of China. The annual output of apples has reached more than one billion Jin, which is 65 times higher than that in the early days of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the largest economic apple planting areas in China.