Hehai Pavilion marks the point where the dragon spirits of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea meet. [Photo by Mark Frank]

There is more than just folklore in Penglai. For nearly 500 years it was a fairly illustrious city, divided into two parts by a moat and walls. The southern section of the city has now been replaced by modern architecture, but parts of its sea-hugging northern section have been preserved. Most impressive is the assortment of sites known as Penglai Pavilion, which borders on the ocean at the point where the Bohai Sea meets the Yellow Sea. It is a castle-like assortment of parapets, pathways and pavilions that cling to the cliffs.

One of the many old complexes in Penglai Pavilion. [Photo by Mark Frank]

Ida Pruitt, a daughter of American missionaries who grew up in Penglai, wrote that "two thousand years of stories and legends cling around the gray walls. It has been a city of great deeds but even more has it been the home of great men who have gone elsewhere for their great deeds."

Su Dongpo was one such man. Another was Qi Jiguang, the pirate hunter. During the Ming Dynasty, Penglai was a well-defended harbor with its own fleet of military junks. Qi cut his teeth as a military commander by battling Japanese pirate ships from Penglai as a high-ranking naval officer. He would later move to Zhejiang and eradicate most of the pirates of southeastern China, then battle the invading forces of Altan Khan in the north. There is now a statue of Qi Jiguang at Penglai Pavilion to commemorate his tenure there.