China Travel Guide

Jinan, the capital of East China’s Shandong Province, is known as the City of Springs. More than 100 natural springs can be found there, and they are most impressive during the rainy season in August. Jinan has four distinct seasons, but for tourists, the best periods to visit are from March to June and from August to September.

Perhaps the most awesome of the springs is the Baotu Spring in the Baotu Spring Park. The crystal water creates a thunderous sound as it gushes forth from the spring’s three outlets. While you’re in the Baotu Spring Park , be sure to visit the Li Qingzhao Memorial Hall. It was built in honor of the most significant female poet of the Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), and her statue and her works etched onto stone tablets are housed inside.

In the Lingyan Temple are 40 life-sized, colored sculptures of Arhat (a type of Buddhist sage) that were crafted during the Song Dynasty. Their facial expressions are striking, their dress is vivid, and their muscular features are almost lifelike.

Visitors to Jinan will not go hungry, whatever their taste in food. Origin of the Shandong style of cooking, some dishes are crisp, others tender, some sweet, others salty. All are quickly cooked. The most popular dish in Jinan is Sweet and Sour Yellow River Carp, while its most traditional is a delicious vegetable soup known as Pucai in Milky Soup, eaten by locals since the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Local specialty handicrafts include Jinan embroidery, (also called Lu embroidery) one of the country’s most ancient varieties of embroidery, and handmade black pottery, first produced at the start of the latter-Neolithic Age.
Any visit to Jinan should include a short trip to the nearby town of Qu Fu. This town spawned one of the greatest thinkers, statesmen and educators in Chinese history: Confucius. It was his school of Confucianism, spread throughout the land by his disciples, which shaped the very essence of traditional Chinese culture. Located at the center of the town are the Confucian Temple and the Confucian Cemetery. Some of the great philosopher’s descendants still live in the town.
Name: Jinan Jinan
City: Jinan
Address:
Admission:

Baotu Spring Park, located to the south of Ximen Bridge, is a park with natural hills and lakes. The main attraction for tourists is the Baotu Spring. The Baotu Spring has a rectangular shape of 30m from east to west and 20m from south to north. In the middle of the spring, there are three spring mouths shooting out spring water both day and night.
As is commonly known, Jinan is famous for its springs and people consider the springs in Jinan the best in the world. There are altogether 72 springs in Jinan, among which the Baotu Spring is the regarded as the best. Moreover, the Baotu Spring is also acclaimed as the “First Spring under Heaven.” So please come and pay a visit to Baotu Spring Park.

Name: Jinan Baotu Spring Park (Baotuquan Gongyuan)
City: Jinan
Address: No.1 Baotuquan South Road, Jinan
Admission: CNY15
Hours: 7：00am-10：00pm
Tel: 0086-531-86920439

Daming Lake Park lies in the center of Jinan. The most attractive scenic spot of the Daming Lake Park is the natural Daming Lake that was formed when many springs converged. This lake covers an area of 460sqkm, and has 6 dotting islands within. The natural scenery of the Daming Lake is so beautiful that it has become one of three major tourist attractions in Jinan (the other two are Baotu Spring and the Thousand Buddha Mountain).
The natural Daming Lake was first named Lianzi Lake during the Sui (581-618AD) and Tang (618-907AD) Dynasties, then West Lake during the Song Dynasty. The name Daming Lake was finally determined during the Jin (1115-1234AD) and Yuan (1279-1368AD) Dynasty. There are many scenic spots in Daming Lake, among which the Lixia Pavilion is the most well known. It is said that in 745, the famous poet Dufu made a famous poem about the Lixia Pavilion. As the poem gained popularity, the Lixia Pavilion became famous in the eyes of many people. Worthy of mention is also the tablet of the Lixia Pavilion which was written by the Qing Emperor Qianlong.

Name: Jinan Daming Lake Park (Daminghu Gongyuan)
City: Jinan
Address: No.271 Daming Lake Road,Jinan
Admission: CNY15
Hours: 6：30am-7：30pm
Tel: 0086-531-86088900

Shandong Provincial Museum is the provincial level comprehensively local museum. It is located at the foot of the Thousand Buddha Mountain. It began construction in August 1954. The new hall began construction in 1991 and completed in 1992 in the original hall. The area is 34,000 square meters and the floor space is 21,000 square meters. The grand, elegant architectural group manifested the national and modern art style.
Its architectural appearance was still the Chinese classical Confucian Temple but the inner decoration design is similar to the British Museum style. It becomes a big historical landscape in Jinan, China. On 29 April 1994, the new hall is in due form to open to promote “the Qi and Lu culture and elegant demeanor show”, “Minglu emperor Zhutan grave excavated cultural relics show”, ” the Ming Dynasty large-scale warship exhibition”, “modern Shandong”, “the Shandong people eight year Sino-Japanese War”, “the collection of Ming and Qing Dynasties books and art exhibition”, “the Shandong ancient organism fossil exhibition”, “the giant Shandong dragon fossil exhibition”, “the collection of rare and precious animal specimen show” and so on in the 10 exhibition rooms. This collection is rich in quality and each of the collection has historical relics. The natural specimen cultural relic amounted to 210,000 pieces and the exhibited cultural relic amounted to more than 3,000. It vividly reflects the Qi and Lu history culture and style.
There is the Ming Dynasty’s cloud dragon red painting with the length and the width of 58.5 centimeter and 61.5 centimeters respectively. It was divided into three floors. The drawer located on the left side represents the Yuan and Ming reign golden paint level; they made the same model ship in the Qing Dynasty as Zheng He went to the Western country using the ship in Ming Dynasty. The wooden wheel is used by Confucius more than 1,000 years ago and the bamboo slips was used for writing. The precious cultural relic is too numerous to count.

Name: Jinan Shangdong Provincial Museum (Shandongsheng Bowuguan)
City: Jinan
Address: No.14 Jing Eleven Road,Jinan
Admission: CNY20
Hours: 9：00am-4：00pm
Tel: 0086-531-82967179

Tai Mountain lies in central Shandong Province, spanning the ranges of Tai’an and Ji’nan cities. It covers an area of 550 square meters. It is regarded as preeminent among China’s Five Sacred Mountains. Seventy-two Chinese emperors of various dynasties made pilgrimages to Tai Mountain for sacrificial and other ceremonial purposes, including Emperor Shihuang of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-8 AD), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
The mountain is endowed with many scenic spots, a large number of them being given names in ancient times. They include 112 peaks, 98 precipices, 18 caves, 58 oddly shaped rocks, 102 streams and valleys, 56 pools and waterfalls, and 64 springs. Vegetation covers 79.9% of the area, comprising 989 species in 144 families. Tai Mountain also boasts a cultural heritage spanning several thousand years. Currently on the mountain, there are 22 ancient architectural complexes, 97 ruins, 819 stone tablets and 1,800 stone inscriptions, which provide a natural museum for the study of ancient history and calligraphy. Main sites of interest are the Tiankuang Temple, Nantian Gate, Azure Cloud Temple, Peak for Viewing the Sun, and Sutra Rock Valley.
Yet, Tai Mountain is also a mountain of outstanding aesthetic, scientific, historical and cultural value. Giving clear evidence of such an impression, Chinese people tend to describe a situation as being “as stable as Tai Mounatin” or a matter as being “as weighty as Tai Mountain.” Tai Mountain was elected to the “World Heritage List” in 1987.

Name: Jinan Tai Mountain (Tai Shan)
City: Jinan
Address: Hongmen Scenic Spot,Taian City
Admission: CNY100
Hours: 24hours
Tel: 0086-538-8225841

Located in Linzu District, Zibo city of Shandong province, the museum was opened to the public in September 1994. It is currently the most integrated ancient vehicle museum in China.
There are many ancient vehicles dated back to the Spring and Autumn Period (822BC-481BC), as well as the relics where they found these vehicles. You may see the luxury carriages which are used solely for the emperors during that time.
Other than that, there are also various kinds of ancient vehicles of different periods, hundreds of accessories for the vehicles and thousands of related pictures. Visitor may learn more about the origin and development of China’s ancient vehicles from here.

Name: Jinan Ancient Vehicle Museum
City: Jinan
Address: Located in Linzu District, Zibo city of Shandong province
Admission: Free

Five Peaks Mountain is located ten kilometers southeast from Changqing area of Jinnan, Shandong Province. Together with Tai Mountain and Lingyan Mountain, they were known as “Luzhong three mountains”.
It acquires its fame as the immortal peak, the ideal immortal, the group immortal, the watched immortal and the gathering immortal juxtapose. It is a rare geomancy land with its green continuous hills and the clear water. The Daoist temple was in large scale during ancient time when Taoism extremely prevailed. It was divided into the north and south temple.
The north temple is named “the Dongzhen Guan”. There are great number of stone tablets and palaces in the temple, mainly the Jade Emperor palace, the god of the north palace, three Yuan palaces, the chilly pavilion, the stone memorial arch and so on.
In history, the Daoist temple palace was destroyed several times by war. The present hall shows hundreds of tablets from all previous dynasties especially the most precious ‘Mr. Cui statuary tablet “. The calligraphy, painting and engraving on this tablet are good. It is carved on the famous golden carved stone and written by hand by Mr. Jin. Mr. Cui is a Taoist priest. He read many books on Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism and on medical skill. He gave treatment to the commoners without expecting any payment. This tablet is to commemorate him.
The South temple is called “Yuandu Guan”, also named Yuandu Guan. It is the De king’s palace in Ming Dynasty. There are six mausoleums, which are Ming’de Zhuang king, Deyil king, Dehuai king, Degong king, Deding king and Derui king.
In recent years, Changqing County invested and repaired majority of the historical sites here. They opened the twist mountain road and increased many new landscapes. The thousand- year- old gingko tree is the second biggest gingko tree in the province. The leaves and branches grow well and are full with fruits. The spring water flows out from the Chilly Pavilion Beautiful Girl Trough year to year. The 91 stairs Slanting Peak resembles the step of Tai Mountain; ascending along the twisting mountain road and upon looking from the peak, is just like Mount Tai itself. You can get Five Peaks Mountain’s panoramic view. It is an interesting view with the green tree, black tile and the red ocher wall set of one another.

Name: Jinan Five Peaks Mountain (Wufeng Shan)
City: Jinan
Address: Changqing District, Jinan
Admission: CNY25
Hours: 7：30 am-6：00 pm
Tel: 0086-531-87312233

The Lingyan Temple (Spirit Crag Temple) is located about 40 kilometers north of Jinan. The spirit crag at the front of the Buddhist temple was constructed during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and was popular in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Silver Age, during the Tang and Song Dynasties, saw the creation of the important national four ancient temples. It is well known because of its breathtaking scenery and beautiful springs and stones.

Name: Jinan Lingyan Temple (Lingyan Si)
City: Jinan
Address: Wande,Changqing District, Jinan
Admission: CNY45
Tel: 0086-531-7468097

Spring City Square is the central square in Jinan, the capital city of Shandong province. Covering an area of 1,743 square meters, the square is located in the central tourism zone of Thousand Buddha Mountain, Baotu Spring Park and Daming Lake Park.

At the main entrance, the national flag flutters in the wind, under which the four Chinese characters of “Spring City Square” are sculptured as the signal of entrance, with “Spring City Square Record” on its back. “Celebrity Forest” is divided into south and north parts, where there are many exuberant growing trees.

Two groups of celebrity pavilions were built in two parts of the forest serving as a resting place for tourists. Large-scale steel sculpture of “spring” is 38 meters in height and 170 tons in weight, towering over the crossing point between the axes, which is very rare in the country. Transitional space connecting the upper ground and underground is situated to the east of the main sculpture, adding changes in levels. Granite paved “Shandong Territory” portrays the vast land.

The Maturing Garden and the Growing Garden are constructed around the main sculpture, which is the resting and amusement place for children and old folk to enjoy themselves near the green grass and colorful flowers or falling leaves. At the cross point of the main axis and Shuowen Avenue, lotus sculpture and colorful laser musical fountains show graceful bearing.

More than four thousand sprinkler heads play thousands of water changing views accompanied by music. The Cultural corridor looks like a jade screen half embracing the square. You can ascend to have a birds-eye view of the square or appreciate the art gallery showing Qilu culture. Leading through to the middle corridor, Liberation Pavilion is close at hand as in a picture.

Northern part of the square is the walking part beside the city moat. Inside this place, willows dance in the wind and transparent springs flow sluggishly, reminding us of the old life style of the city, “There are flowing streams by every house and willow trees by every door”. The underground mall covers 46 thousand square meters, with main businesses such as trade, touring, culture, entertainment and parking.

Name: Jinan Spring City Square (Quancheng Guangchang)
City: Jinan
Address: No.69 Leyuan Avenue,Jinan
Admission: Free
Hours: 24hours
Tel: 0086-531-86073961

The temple is situated in downtown of Tai’an in Shandong province. The Dai Temple is the largest and most completed ancient building of Tai Mountain. It used to be the venue where emperors of the past dynasties held celebrations to worship heaven and earth and bestowed sacrifices to the God of the mountain. It was also the first stop for pilgrims on their way to the holy Tai Mountain.
One of the attractions in Dai Temple is the stone engravings made in the Qin Dynasty, which has a long history of 2,200 years. The content engraved on the stone is about the merits and virtues of Ying Zheng (the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty).

Name: Jinan Dai Temple (Dai Miao)
City: Jinan
Address: downtown Taian
Admission: CNY20