Situated in the east part of Shenzhen, Yantian District is high in the north and low in the south. Yantian District, facing the sea with the mountains in the background, consists of various landforms including low mountains, hills and seas with Wutong Mountain and Meisha Pass the backgrounds. The topography of the district features mountains in the north and coasts in the south. In the descending order of the elevation, the terrain of the mountains in Yantian District ranges from low mountains, high hills and low hills. The coasts are mainly mountain coasts which are situated in the north of Dapeng Bay. Capes alternate with bays. Capes have higher cliffs, steeper hills and more developed marine corrosions, whereas bays are mainly made up of beaches, whalebacks and lagoon plains. All together, they form a coast of bed rocks and grits. It has a subtropical maritime monsoon climate. The geology is old and the bed rocks are mainly granites. The soils are latosolic red soils with less organic matters and more sands. The soils on the mountains are mainly thin soil layers with a thin humus layer.

Yantian District is near the mountain and by the sea, thus enjoying a favorable natural environment. Yantian District has a coastal line of 19.5 kilometers along which the beaches and islands are distributed. The cliff reefs resulting from marine accumulation and abrasion are also scattered. The broad sea area makes it possible to build deepwater ports in Yantian. Yantian is abundant in aquatic resources including more than 40 rare species of fish such as carp, Golden sardine, scatophagus argus, Priacanthus macracanthus, hairtail, Barramundi and other 10 kinds of shrimps, crabs, shells and algae.

Yantian District has a forest area of 47.92 hectares with around 1,500 vascular plant species from around 200 plant families naturally distributed in the mountains. The majority of the plant families are tropical, including Lauraceae, theaceae, myrtaceae, melastomataceae, sterculiaceae, euphorbiaceae, rosaceae, hamamelidaceae, fagaceae, moraceae, aquifoliaceae, rutaceae, asteraceae, orchidaceae, cyperaceae and poaceae. There are some very typical tropical plant families including rhizophoraceae, malpighiaceae, capparaceae, stylidiaceae, palmae and pandanaceae. Some rare and endangered species including alsophila spinulosa, amentotaxus, artocarpus hypargyreus, aquilaria sinensis, Ioxanthes chinensis and angiopteris robusta ching are also found in Yantian District. Yantian has 24 orders, 64 families and 196 species of wild animals and national protected animals such as boa, glede, Accipiter soloensis, Centropus sinensis, pangolin and Viverricula indica.