The capital was Port Edward, which lay in what is now the centre of Huancui District in the city of Weihai in the province of Shandong.

On 28 March 1898, the day after the signing of a Sino-Russian convention granting a 25-year lease on Port Arthur to Russia, Sir Claude MacDonald, British minister in Beijing, met with the ministers of the Zongli Yamen to inform them that the British government was demanding the cession of Wei-Hai-Wai on terms comparable to the Russian lease.

It also served as an occasional port of call for Royal Navy vessels in the Far East (very much secondary to using Hong Kong in southern China).

At the start of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the commander of the Royal Navy's China Station was initially ordered to withdraw his ships from Weihaiwei to avoid Britain being drawn into the conflict.

However, fearing that the Imperial Russian Navy might use Weihaiwei as a safe haven, the Japanese government successfully pressured the British to return their fleet.

At the beginning of the lease, the territory was administered by a Senior Naval Officer of the Royal Navy, Sir Edward Hobart Seymour.

However a survey led by the Royal Engineers deemed that Weihaiwei was unsuitable for a major naval base or trading port.

[5] In 1899, administration was transferred to a military and civil commissioner, firstly Arthur Dorward (1899–1901), then John Dodson Daintree (1901–1902), appointed by the War Office in London.

During British rule, residences, hospital, churches, tea houses, sports grounds, post offices, and a naval cemetery were constructed.

[9] The post was held by Sir James Stewart Lockhart until 1921, where he oversaw the renaming of the civil seat of the Commissioner from Matou (lit.

[5] As the position was not a full Governorship, it afforded the holders more authority as they did not have to consult any territorial legislative or executive councils when making decisions or passing ordinances.

The last Commissioner was the sinologist Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston (previously tutor to the last Chinese emperor, Pu Yi) who served from 1927 to 1930.

[11][12] When Lockhart arrived as the first civil commissioner, he wrote to the Colonial Office requesting that the dragon be replaced by Mandarin ducks as he felt it was inappropriate to use a Chinese national symbol on a British flag.

The Weihaiwei Regiment was formed in 1898 with Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton Bower as its first commanding officer and served in the Boxer Rebellion.

After completing six months' training in Weihaiwei, the recruits were posted to Hong Kong to maintain law and order in March 1923.

The Weihaiwei policemen were known as the D Contingent in the HKP, and their service numbers were pre-fixed with letter "D" to differentiate them from the European "A", Indian "B" and Cantonese "C".