He started his professional career at Shandong Luneng playing as understudy to Wang Chao for the left-back position, making numerous appearances off the bench as his replacement.

It was however not until the 2008 season that saw the prominence of Yuan Weiwei establish himself as Shandong Luneng's first choice left-back when he overtook Wang Chao within the team by starting in twenty-one league games for them.

[3] After a stellar 2013 season, Yuan transferred to fellow Chinese Super League side Tianjin Tedaon 1 February 2014.

On 23 June 2017, Yuan joined China League Two side Yinchuan Helanshan.

[6] He made his senior debut for the national team in a friendly against Jordan in 2007, which China won 2–0.