Jinan

The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the history of the region from the earliest beginnings of civilization and has evolved into a major national administrative, economic, and transportation hub.

"[16] During the times of the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), Jinan was the capital of the feudatory Kingdom of Jibei (Chinese: 濟北國) and evolved into the cultural and economic hub of the region.

The Han dynasty tomb where the last king of Jibei, Liu Kuan (刘宽; 劉寬; Liú Kuān), was buried at Shuangru Mountain was excavated by archaeologists from Shandong University in 1995 and 1996.

The same period witnessed extensive construction of Buddhist sites in the southern counties of Licheng and Changqing such as the Lingyan Temple and the Thousand-Buddha Cliff.

After Jinan came under control of the Jin dynasty, both Li Qingzhao and Xin Qiji had to abandon their homes and reflected this experience in their works.

[13] Jinan was the site of a siege during the Jingnan Campaign where the city was defended by loyalists of the Jianwen Emperor led by Tie Xuan against the rebel Prince of Yan Zhu Di's army.

[23] During the Warlord era of the Republic of China, Zhang Zongchang, nicknamed the "Dogmeat General",[24] ruled Shandong from Jinan for a period that lasted from April 1925 until May 1928.

Sixteen other members of his negotiation team were also stripped naked, recklessly whipped, dragged to the back-lawn, and slaughtered by machine guns on the same day.

When Chiang lectured a group of Chinese army cadets, he urged them to turn their energies to washing away the shame of Jinan, but to conceal their hatred until the last moment.

[32] He established his base in Jinan and is credited with curtailing banditry and drug trading, thereby bringing a measure of peace and prosperity to the city.

[33] However, from 1935 onwards Han was under heavy pressure from the Japanese consul in Jinan to declare Shandong an "independent state" allied with Japan.

After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese invasion force crossed the Yellow River 60 km (37 mi) north-east of Jinan on December 23, 1937.

[34] He ordered the offices of the provincial government and the Japanese consulate in Jinan to be burned down[34] and the ensuing power vacuum led to widespread looting in the city.

[34] Han Fuju was arrested and executed for disobeying orders from superior commanders and retreating on his own accord[36] by Chiang Kai-Shek's chief of staff, General Hu Zongnan.

The battle for Jinan took a decisive turn in favor of the attackers when KMT Lieutenant-General Wu Huawen defected to the Communist side with about 8,000 of his troops.

[39] Lieutenant-General Wu had been in charge of the vital outer ring of defenses that protected the main airfield, the railroad station, and the commercial district.

[40] Red Guards took to the streets of Jinan from late August 1966 onwards, damaging cultural heritage and setting up courts to prosecute perceived enemies of the revolution.

In the spring of 1967, the "May 7th Incident" took place: When Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan, both later reviled as members of the Gang of Four, visited Jinan to support the Cultural Revolution and its local leader Wang Xiao Yu, fighting erupted in the front of the provincial government between two rival factions of the Cultural Revolution, the "April 22nd Group" and Wang Xiao Yu's "April 28th Group".

By then unrest due to the Cultural Revolution had severely damaged the city's governmental and industrial infrastructure, with about 80 percent of all government institutions shut down.

During the 6 years between the name change and its reversal, Lixia District had been known officially as "Hongwei", Tianqiao as "Face the Sun", Huaiyin as "East Wind", and Shizhong as "Red Flag".

[13] Following the trade in agricultural goods, the city developed a textile and clothing industry, flour mills, oil presses, as well as factories producing paper, cement, and matches.

Parc 66 (济南恒隆广场) to the south of City of Springs Road (opposite of Water Lily Street), opened in August 2011, is Jinan's largest shopping mall with seven levels of retail space and a total gross floor area of 171,000 square meters.

Since it opened for public service on June 30, 2011,[64] it has become a future hub with west–east running high speed railways to Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang and Qingdao.

It has domestic flights to many of the major cities in China as well as to international destinations, in particular Helsinki,[68] Osaka,[69] Seoul, Paris, Bangkok and Singapore.

The younger people of Jinan are more likely to speak standard Mandarin, whereas many older residents retain strong local dialect elements in their speech.

The late-Qing author Liu E describes Jinan's cityscape in his novel "The Travels of Lao Can" (老残游记, written 1903–04, published in 1907) as "Every family has spring water, every household has a willow tree".

Jinan Hundred Miles Yellow River Scenic Area is located in No.166 Luokou Huancheng Road in Tianqiao District.

There are so many ancient buildings in Daming Lake Park that it has a title describing them, which is "One terrace, three gardens, three towers, four ancestral halls, six isles, seven bridges and ten pavilions".

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.