Weihai was a land of Lai barbarian in xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasty. It was a territory of Qi Kingdom at the end of Spring and Autumn Period and a county under Qi prefecture after the unification of Qin Dynasty. After the Jiawu war in 1895, Weihai was degraded to a leased territory of Britain. In 1930, the Nationalist Government took it back. Weihai became an administrative district directly under the Administrative Council. In 1940, Anti-Japan Democratic Govemment was founded in Weihai. In 1945, Weihaiwei City was established, which is under Donghai Prefecture. After the founding of PR China, it was first under Wendeng Prefecture and belonged to Laiyang Prefecture in 1956. It was under Yantai Prefecture after 1958. Under the approval of the State Council, Weihai was upgraded to a prefecture-level city in June, 1987.