The origin of Yanshan University can be traced back to 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, there to be renamed the School of Heavy Machinery of HIT.

In 1960, the school became independent as the Northeast Heavy Machinery Institute, and in 1978, she was accredited as one of the eighty-eight national key institutions of higher learning. She began to relocate southward in the historic resort city of Qinhuangdao from 1985, and completed the process in 1997 when she was ratified by the former State Education Commission and adopted the present title of Yanshan University (YSU).

The YSU campus covers an area of 5,000 mu (or 330 hectares) with a total construction area of nearly 1,000,000 m2. At present, the university has 2,700 faculty and staff members, of whom 1,700 are teachers. Among the teachers are 309 full professors (including 101 doctoral supervisors) and 363 associate professors. The university has a student population of 34,000.

YSU has three postdoctoral research stations, six first-class disciplines with the authority of conferring doctoral degrees, thirty-five second-class specialties conferring doctoral degrees, thirteen first-class disciplines conferring master degrees, eighty second-class specialties conferring master degrees, fifteen master of engineering programs, one Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, one Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, as well as sixty undergraduate programs. With these wide ranging programs, YSU has taken shape as a multiversity with an emphasis on engineering studies, and with equal attention to liberal arts, sciences, economics, management, law and education.

YSU consists of eighteen schools and one independent department. They are the School of Graduate Studies, the School of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Materials Science and Engineering, the School of Electrical Engineering, the School of Information Science and Engineering, the School of Economics and Management, the School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, the School of Science,. the School of Humanities and Law,

the School of Foreign Languages, the School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, the School of Art and Design, the School of Vehicle and Energy Engineering, the Department of Physical Education，the School of Defense Technology, the School of Li Ren, the School of Vocational Technology, the School of Continuing Education and the School of International Education

At the same time, the university runs one national key discipline in Mechanical Design and Theory and eleven provincial key disciplines such as Material Process Engineering. The university also manages the State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education Engineering Center for Rolling Equipment & Complete Technology and ten provincial key laboratories such as Hebei Metal Product Technology and Optimization Control Laboratory.

The university also attaches importance to international academic exchange and cooperation and has conducted joint programs with institutes and institutions from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, South Korea, Japan and other nations.

Possessing an upbeat spirit and an innovative mind, all of the 40,000 teachers and students spare no effort in building Yanshan University into a well-known, multi-disciplinary university, excelling at engineering and in heavy machinery and equipment. Deeply rooted in Hebei Province with a vision for the whole country and the whole world, YSU is on the road to a bright and promising future.