Jinan (济南) is the capital and second biggest city in Shandong Province, China. The city has a sub-provincial administrative status. It covers 8,177 sq km (3,157 sq mi) and has a population of 6 million people.
Jinan is located 400 km to the south of Beijing. It is bordered by Dezhou to the northwest, Binzhou to the northeast, Zibo to the east, Laiwu to the southeast, Tai'an to the south, Liaocheng to the southwest and Dezhou to the northwest. The city occupies the area between the Yello River to the north and the Taishan Mountains to the south.
Jinan experiences a climate between humid subtropical and humid continental. Its warmest monts are June and July, when the average high temperature reaches 32°C. Coldest month is January, when the average low temperature drops to -4°C. July is the wettest month with 201 mm of precipitation.
Jinan, which means "south of the Ji River", was named after a river that has disappeared in 1852, when the Yellow River changed its course. The city was formerly written as Tsinan in the Wade-Giles romanization. Human habitation in the area goes back thousands of years, with evidence such as the Neolithic Longshan Culture discovered in 1928.
Jinan was the capital of the Kingdom of Jibei during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). Excavation of Han Dynasty tombs has yielded artifacts ranging from funerary masks to pillows and swords, all crafted from jade.
Today Jinan is a modern city. It played host to the 11th All China Games in 2009. The people of Jinan speak a Jinan dialect of Mandarin which is not easily understood by speakers of standard Mandarin. The city is a railroad hub and a market for agricultural products. It also has a number of industries including textile, steel and chemical.
Jinan is a major transportation hub. There are high-speed trains connecting it with Beijing (3.5 hours) and Shanghai (5 hours). You can also fly to Jinan, and take a taxi from the airport to downtown. The journey from airport takes an hour and costs ¥100.
Exploring Jinan
For a tourist, it may be more practical to take the taxi than to learn to take the bus, which are often overcrowded. The bus fare is ¥2 for an air-conditioned bus. Taxi fares start at ¥7.50. Have someone write your destination in Chinese to show to the taxi driver.
Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.
About this website
Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.
While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.