Jinan / China

Jinan is the capital of Shandong province in the People's Republic of China. The city is situated in the western part of China on The Yellow River or Huang He (600 km to the southeast of Beijing). The suburbs of Jinan are full of springs and streams, which are very beautiful especially during the monsoon season in the end of summer. That was why in old times the city was often called "City of Springs". The unofficial nickname is "The Spring City".

The population of the city is about 2.5 million people, including 29 nationalities. While in the province 5.9 million people live.

Jinan has an interesting history. It used to be the capital of the kingdom Jibei. In the 4-7 centuries there were built many Buddhist cave temples that made Jinan an important religious centre. The government of China gave Jinan the status of "the city of ancient culture and history". In the city there were found the ruins of the oldest Chinese city, remains of mountain terraces, a well, a Buddhist temple, and other temples. All monuments are protected by the government. They are main tourist attractions.

In the second part of the 19th century the city started its development. In 1906 the city was opened for international trade.

Jinan is an important industrial centre. In the city the following industries dominate: textile, light industry, food industry (flour mills, oil presses, and meat processing, alcoholic), metallurgical, steel rolling, mechanical engineering, automobile industry, rubber industry. Also in Jinan washing machines, TV sets, cigarettes are produced. Nowadays instrument engineering, automobile industry (trucks, specialized vehicles and heavy dumpers), electronics (digital hardware) and chemicals (biochemical medicine, fine-fibre chemicals) have become important components of the area's industry.

Jinan is a tourist (about 8.5 million tourists visit the city every year), commercial (there are 768 markets), financial (there are more than 1400 departments of Chinese banks and companies) centre. Special attention is paid to development of high technology.

Jinan has sister-city relations with Wakayama and Yamaguchi (Japan), Coventry (Great Britain), Sacramento (USA), Regina (Canada), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Nizhny Novgorod (Russia), Rennes (France), Kfar Sava (Israel), Suwon (South Korea), Vantaa (Finland), Joondalup (Austria), Augsburg (Germany).

The official webpage of the city is http://www.chinats.com/jinan/.