China torch relay: Weihai

Modern art mixes with the past at the seafront in Weihai

Perched on the tip of a peninsula on the far eastern edge of China, the port of Weihai was once a sleepy fishing village.

But its strategic location on the Bohai Sea saw it developed as a navy port in the late 19th Century, and it was soon thrust into the arena of international conflict.

The Japanese razed it to the ground in 1895 during the Sino-Japanese war.

CHINA RELAY CITIES IN FOCUS Use the map to see the full Olympic torch relay route or read about some of the key cities: Full route map, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Jinggangshan, Shanghai, Nanjing, Huangshan, Three Gorges, Kaili, Lhasa, Urumqi, Xian, Yanji, Weihai, Qufu, Anyang, Beijing.

Three years later the British, concerned by Russian incursions to the north, forced China to lease it the port.

The British renamed it Port Edward and for several decades used it as a summer station for its fleet.

But the inhospitable mountainous terrain precluded its development as a trading post, and the British voluntarily handed back the remote colonial outpost in 1930.

Since then Weihai has slipped back into relative obscurity, sustained by its fishing industry, sandy beaches and textile manufacturing plants - its part in the colonial adventurism of the British a long-faded memory.

The torch arrives in Weihai on 23 July.