Jinan

Capital of Shandong, 'City of Springs' — 72 named natural springs run through the old town, with Baotu Spring as the centrepiece.

Jinan is the capital of Shandong and has been known for centuries as the City of Springs. Artesian groundwater emerges from more than seventy named springs within the urban area, fed by rainfall percolating through the limestone hills to the south and surfacing along a geological fault line running through the city. The springs have defined Jinan's identity since antiquity: poets of the Tang and Song dynasties wrote about them; the Qing-dynasty scholar Li Bai's contemporary Zhao Mingcheng and his wife Li Qingzhao — one of China's most celebrated poets — lived beside them.

Baotu Spring, the largest and most famous, rises in a garden park in the centre of the old city. The spring issues from several vents in a stone pool, maintaining a fairly constant flow even in dry years, though the flow rate has declined since the 1970s as groundwater extraction for the city's growth depleted the aquifer. Restoration efforts and groundwater regulation have stabilised it. The park around the spring includes a traditional garden, a teahouse, and a museum, and is one of the city's most pleasant urban spaces.

Daming Lake, north of Baotu Spring, is a large natural lake formed by the collective runoff of the city's springs. The lake is rimmed by willow trees and connected by the historic canal system that once made Jinan an important water-transport city. The Deyue Pavilion on the lake's north shore is a restored Qing-era structure. The western shore has been turned into a heritage district with restored canal-side architecture and restaurant streets.

Black Tiger Spring, one block east of Baotu Spring, is the second-most-visited: water issues from stone carvings of three tiger heads in an outdoor stone basin. Locals fill water bottles here in the mornings; the spring water is clean and cold.

The city's major cultural site beyond the springs is the Shandong Museum, which holds significant collections of ancient bronzes, Han dynasty stone carvings, and historical artefacts from a province that sat at the centre of Chinese civilisation.

The overwhelming argument for a night in Jinan rather than just a transit stop is Mt Tai (Taishan), 90 minutes south by high-speed rail. The foremost of the Five Sacred Daoist Mountains and a UNESCO World Heritage site, Taishan has been climbed by emperors, pilgrims, and ordinary visitors for three millennia. The ascent by the stone-paved imperial pilgrimage route takes three to five hours on foot; cable car shortens the ascent considerably. Sunrise from the summit is a significant experience for Chinese and foreign visitors alike.