Yantai, a well-known "land of fruits", is China's largest cultivation area of cash apples. The Yantai Apples and the Laiyang Pears are famous all over the country. The annual output of the Yantai Apple, which is the principal variety of fruits in Yantai, is 1.9 million tons, accounting for one ninth of the total yield of apples in the country, and the export volume of the Yantai Apple constitutes one quarter of that of the whole country. At a national appraisal Conference 1994, fifteen varieties of the Yantai Apple were rated, with seven at the top of the list, among the twenty-one high-quality fruits in northern China.