J

inan

 

November, 1999








Chinese flag




In one long day we went from Chengde back to Beijing and then on south to Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province. We did it in two train rides: the first a five hour hard seat (third class) and the second a four hour soft-seat (first class) ride. Until we got there we had hardly heard of Shandong. It has a population of about 90 million and an area of about 153,000 square kilometers; that makes it roughly the equivalent of Germany. Until World War I Shandong was more or less a German colony; after the war Japan took over the "concession" and used it from the late 1930s as a base for conquering China.

We spent two days in Jinan, and as with almost all of our stops, didn't like it at first, but then it grew on us. We'd never heard of this city of many millions and were quite surprised to find it filled with new skyscrapers. It has a lovely central square and an old moat that we spent a few hours walking along. The museum building there is very imposing on the outside but the inside is rather disappointing. It sits at the base of a hill which we climbed, pausing on the way up at a temple. We had fun one evening when we discovered what we call "food street" — a very narrow lane two blocks long with almost nothing but open fronted restaurants on each side of the street. We chose our meal from among those displayed and waited while it was cooked; the place was a dump but the food good.




Updated September  15, 2002