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China Travel Guide » Places in China » Shandong Province
Places in China: Shandong Province
This coastal Province on China's eastern shore attracts tourists for its beaches, museums, temples, pagodas, springs, lakes and of course, the Tsingtao Brewery, where the popular Chinese beer brand is produced.
The province has many cities with attractions for visitors. The capital city and largest city in the province is Jinan, located on the Huang He (Yellow River) about sixty miles from the western border of Shandong Province. Another exciting city within Shandong is Qingdao where the Koreans and Japanese have invested rather heavily and where the Tsingtao beer is produced.
The ancient state of Lu, within the province, is the birthplace of Confucius and Mercius, highly appreciated philosophers from China. Also, the fourth wife of Chairman Mao was from Shandong Province. Jiang Qing was a notorious member of the Gang of Four.
Shandong's history as a part of China begins as early as the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC to 1046 BC). Although parts of the province were leased to Germany and Britain about the time of the Boxer Rebellion in the late 19th century, by 1930 those leases expired, returning Shandong to the size that it is today.
The province presently consists of 156,700 square kilometres and has a population of 91.8 million people. Thus, the population density is 586 persons per square kilometre on average. The population of Shandong is the second highest provincial population in China.
The climate and weather in Shandong are affected by the monsoon occurrences. The summers tend to be humid and hot while the winters are generally mild. The location of Shandong brings visitors since a peninsula which is a part of the province separates the Bohai Sea on the north from the Huang Hai (Yellow Sea) on the south. Beaches and sea activities are popular around this shore area.
The Grand Canal of China flows through Shandong Province. As well, Taishan, one of the five sacred mountains in the nation is located in Shandong.
The Hui and the Manchu ethnic groups are minorities with Han Chinese being the dominant people in the province with more than ninety-nine percent of the population.
Shandong is moving toward becoming a modern, industrialized province. It was ranked the second in China's GDP production in 2004. Agriculture is important in the province although Shandong also benefits from gold, gypsum and natural sulphur in its borders. Within China, Shandong ranks second in reserves of diamonds, oil and magnesite.
Although the province is trying to industrialize, the major attraction for many visitors is the natural beauty found in the springs, mountains and beaches it contains. Religious festivals also attract tourists who want to see the niches in mountainsides where Buddha statues stood before they were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.
Major cities in Shandong:
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