The City of Springs — where 72 named natural springs burst from the limestone aquifer under the city centre, Baotu Spring shoots water 1.5 metres into the air and has done so virtually uninterrupted for 2,700 years, and the Shandong cuisine tradition that spawned both Beijing's court cuisine and the original kung pao chicken was born
Jinan (济南) is the capital of Shandong Province and one of China's most historically significant cities — ancient enough to be mentioned in the Analects of Confucius (Confucius was born 120 km south at Qufu). Its defining characteristic is water: the city sits on a karst limestone aquifer fed by Taishan's snowmelt, and natural springs emerge throughout the city centre. The 72 named springs (the actual count is higher — over 400 have been mapped) feed Daming Lake in the city's north quarter and the Baotu Spring Park (趵突泉), where three springs shoot clear water 1.5 metres into the air — the high…
Jinan was a walled city from at least the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), when it was called 'Lixia' — a name still used for the central Jinan district. The city's strategic location at the junction of the Yellow River plains and the Taishan mountain foothills made it the natural capital of Shandong for over 1,500 years. The Spring and Autumn Period city of Qi (a powerful Zhou-era state, roughly equivalent to modern Shandong) had its capital at Linzi (50 km northeast of Jinan), and Confucius' travels through the region are documented in the Analects. The Jinan Massacre (May 1928) — when Japanes…