The origin of Yanshan University can be traced back to the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) founded in 1920. In 1958, the Department of Heavy Machinery of HIT and its related specialties moved to the strategic industrial town of Fulaerji, Qiqihar in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and was renamed the School of Heavy Machinery of HIT. In 1960, the school became independent as the Northeast Heavy Machinery Institute, and in 1978, it was accredited as one of the eighty-eight national key institutions of higher learning. Starting in 1985, it began to relocate southward to the historic seaside city of Qinhuangdao, in Hebei Province and completed the migration in 1997 when it was accredited by the former State Education Commission to adopt the present name of Yanshan University (YSU). 

The YSU campus covers an area of 5,000 mu (or 330 hectares) with a total construction area of nearly one million m2. At present, the university has a faculty and staff of 2700, including 1,700 teachers, of which 326 are professors (including 113 doctoral advisors) and 422 are associate professors. The university has a student population of 37,000.

 YSU has five postdoctoral research stations, six disciplines and 35 subdisciplines conferring doctoral degrees, 13 disciplines and 80 subdisciplines conferring master degrees, 15 masters of engineering programs, one Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, one Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, as well as 60 undergraduate programs. With such a wide range of programs, YSU has become a multiversity with emphasis laid on engineering studies and importance attached to liberal arts, sciences, economics, management, law and education.

YSU consists of eighteen colleges and one independent department. Yanshan University runs five national key disciplines, four key disciplines of national defense, and eleven provincial key disciplines, and twelve key provincial laboratories and engineering centers. 

YSU is known for its world-renowned achievements in the development of whole-set heavy machinery and equipment, the theory and technology of parallel robots, the technology of fluid transmission and electro-hydraulic servo-systems, the technology and equipment of precision plasticity figuration, technology of thermal treatment of big forging, the technology of mega amorphous bodies, metastable materials and technology, the theory and technology of industrial automation etc. 

YSU has won fifteen national scientific and technological awards in a row since 1996, including three first-class China State Science and Technology Progress Awards, eight second-class Awards, two third-class Awards, one State Technology Invention Award, and one second-class National Natural Sciences Award. The university has undertaken more than 230 national research projects, including those funded by the 973 Programs, the 863 Programs, as well as the National Natural Sciences Foundation and the National Social Sciences Foundation. In 1999, YSU established its high-tech park in the Qinhuangdao Economic and Technological Development Zone. The park was officially ratified by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education as a national university science park in September 2003, thus becoming one of the 34 national university science parks of its kind.

The university also attaches great importance to international academic exchange and collaboration, and has conducted joint study and research programs with institutions from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Norway, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Korea, etc.

Qinhuangdao City in which YSU is located is a coastal resort city just 260 km northeast of Beijing. As one of the Class A tourist destinations in China, Qinhuangdao attracts visitors from home and abroad with the beginning of the Great Wall (or Lao Longtou), the First Pass Under Heaven (the Shanhai Guan) on the Great Wall, the summer resort Beidahe Beach, the sandy Golden Beach at the Nandaihe area, the safari zoo, and other scenic spots which are all within easy access.

Welcome to Yanshan University!