Baotu Spring

[2] Since the 1970s, the springs have stopped flowing several times because too much water has been taken out from the aquifer for human consumption (more than 270,000 m3 per day in the 1970s[2]).

[4] The Baotu Spring is also described in the Shuijing Zhu ("Commentary on the Waterways Classic") compiled by the geographer Li Daoyuan during the Northern Wei dynasty.

It dates back to the Song dynasty; previously the spring had been known under different names such as "Baoliu" and "Lanquan".

The largest architectural ensemble is the 10,000 Bamboo Garden (Chinese: 万竹园; pinyin: Wànzhú Yuán).

In 1912, Zhang Huaizhi, a commander of the local army who later became governor of Shandong Province, bought the garden and kept enlarging it from 1912 to 1927.

[7] During the Qing dynasty, the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors visited the spring and left inscriptions there.

The Qianlong Emperor conferred on it the honorary title "First Spring under the Heaven" (Chinese: 天下第一泉; pinyin: Tiānxià Dì-Yī Quán).

The Baotu Spring is located right to the southwest of the city center of Jinan, on the outer side of the old city moat and near the west end of Quancheng Road (Chinese: 泉城路; pinyin: Quán Chéng Lù); its street address is Baotu Spring South Road 1 (Chinese: 趵突泉南路1号; pinyin: Bàotū Quán Nán Lù 1 háo), Jinan, Shandong.