Geographic location
  Situated in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, on China's eastern coast line, the province's territory consists of the Shandong Peninsular and adjacent inland. Protruding into the conjunction area of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, the peninsula faces the Liaodong Peninsular of Liaoning Province over the sea. Its inland adjoins the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu. The province stretches 420 km from south to north and 700 km from east to west, covering an area of 156,700 square kilometers.

Elevation extremes:

The central part of the province is a mountainous highland, with the summit of Mount Taishan, 1,545 meters above sea level, being the highest point. Most hills distributed in its eastern part are at the altitude of 500 meters and lower. Plains lying in its west and north are mostly below 50 meters in elevation. The lowest area of the province is the Yellow River Delta, which is generally 2-10 meters above sea level.

Shandong’s topography is complicated and interwoven with nine types of landform, including plains, basins, hills, terraces, deltas and mountains. Mountainous area and plains account for 15.5 percent and 55 percent of the province’s territory, while hilly areas are of 13.2 percent, and rivers and lakes, 1.1 percent.

Climate:

The province has a warm temperate monsoon climate with most rainfall concentrated in the hot summer. It has short spring and autumn but long winter and summer. The mean temperatures in a year are 11-14 °C. The annual average rainfall is between 550-950 mm. Natural calamities occur often.

Natural resources:

Mainly relying on rainfall, the province’s water resource is in scarcity, with only 520 cubic meters of water available for each of its residents, accounting for 18.8 percent of the national average of 2,770 cubic meters per head. For the time being, the water-supply ability of the province is 19.224 billion cubic meters, including 7.844 billion cubic meters of surface water, 5.88 billion cubic meters of underground water and 5.5 billion cubic meters diverted from the Yellow River. When 75 percent of the supply is guaranteed, the province will have 6.4 cubic meters of surface water, 5.2 cubic meters of underground water and 5.5 cubic meters of Yellow River water, a volume of 17.138 cubic meters in total.

A total of 128 varieties of minerals, 78 percent of that found in China, have been discovered in the province, of which 33 have their surveyed deposits listed among the top tens of the nation: gold, natural sulphur and gypsum rank the first; petroleum, diamond, magnesite, cobalt, hafnium, and granite are the second; and kali salt, graphite, talc, bentonite, and limestone are the third. In addition, the reserves of many other minerals, such as natural gas, iron, barite, diatomite, zircon, bauxite, and refractory clay are also very affluent.

There are more than 3,100 varieties of plant, including 645 of wide cash, growing in the province. Among the 450 species of wild land vertebrate animals (accounting for 21 percent of the nation’s total), 55 are beasts, 362 are birds, eight are amphibians and 25 are reptiles. In addition, there are many species of land invertebrates, insects in particular, making the province rank No. 1 in the country in varieties of creatures in this category.

One of China’s major agricultural production bases, Shandong is known as “a warehouse of grains, cotton, and oil, and the land of fruits and aquatic products.” It’s also an important producer of wheat, cotton, peanut, tobacco, hemp, silkworms, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs and materials. The apples produced in Yantai, pears from Laiyang, peaches of Feicheng, and Leling’s golden-threaded jujubes are all famous specialties.

Shandong is rich in marine resources too. Its offshore area makes up 37 percent of the total surface area of the Bohai and Yellow seas, with a shoal area accounting for 15 percent of the nation’s total. There are about 260 species of fish and prawn in its seas, including more than 40 major cash species of fish and 100 species of shellfish. Shangdong leads the country in the production of prawns, shellfishes, abalones, sea slugs and urchins. Meanwhile, with many large and medium-sized salt works, the province is also one of China’s four major salt producers. In its 266,000 hectare of freshwaters, there are more than 40 species of freshwater plants and more than 70 species of fish.

The province is one of China’s important energy bases, with Shengli Oilfield being the second largest of its kind in the country, and Zhongyuan, another oilfield, having a major part on its territory. The crude oil produced in Shandong makes up one-third of the nation’s total. The province has 50,000 square kilometers of coalfields and its Yanteng Coalmine is one of the nation’s 10 major coal production bases. The province has a rich electricity resource. The Shandong power network is the only one of the country’s six major power networks that is operated separately on a provincial basis.

Tourist resources:

With beautiful natural landscapes and numerous historical and cultural relics, Shangdong has rich tourist resources. It offers a string of tourist attractions, such as Mount Taishan and the Temple, Mansion and Cemetery of Confucius, two World Heritage sites; Lingzi, capital of the ancient Qi State; Penglai, the well known “fairyland on earth”; Mount Laoshan, a sacred land of Taoism; Weifang, the “world capital of kites”; Qingdao, a charming coastal city famous for its annual International Beer Fair; Yantai, known worldwide as a wine producer; Rongcheng, a place considered as “the edge of the world” by ancient Chinese; Jinan, the provincial capital honored as “the city of springs”; and the site for watching the wonderful scene of the torrential Yellow River running into the sea
Total population:

According to statistics of the fifth national census, the total population of the province was 90.79 million. The ratio of male population against female was basically balanced.

Male: 45.96 million, 50.63 percent of the total;

Female: 44.83 million, 49.37 percent.

Population growth rate:

Compared with the figure of 84.39 million out of the fourth national census made in 1990, the population has increased 6.40 million. The birth rate was 10.75 per thousand while the mortality was 6.29 per thousand, making up a natural growth rate of 4.46 per thousand. The population growth rate had been stabilized at about 5 per thousand for nine years.

Ethnicity:

There are 54 ethnic groups, including the Han, Manchu, Zhuang, Korean, Miao, Tibetan, Yi, Yao, and Bai. The Han population is 90.17 million, accounting for 99.32 percent of the province’s total. The population of various minority ethnic groups is 620,000, accounting for 0.68 percent of the total.

Literacy:

The number of those who have a college educational background is 3.0244 million, accounting for 3.33 percent of the total population; the number of those who have received high school (including vocational school) education is 10.02 million, accounting for 11.04 percent and that of those who have junior high school education is 33.26 million, 36.6 percent of the total; that of those who have primary education is 29.72 million, 32.7 percent. The number of illiterate (including those at the age of 15 or above cannot read or just read a little) is 7.6798 million

GDP:

According to the preliminary calculation: in 2001, the province’s GDP reached 943.83 billion yuan, which, calculated at a comparative price, is 10.1 percent higher than that in the preceding year.

GDP ratio:

In 2001, the first industry created an added value of 135.95 billion yuan, or 4.2 percent more than that of the preceding year; the second industry, 465.45 billion yuan, a growth of 11.3 percent; the tertiary industry, 342.43 billion yuan, a growth of 10.7 percent. The proportions of the three industries changed from 14.9: 49.6: 35.5 in 2000 to 14.4: 49.3: 36.3 in 2001, indicating a further improved structure.

Average GDP per capita:

The average GDP per capita hit a historical record of 10, 465 yuan in 2001, 910 yuan higher than that in the preceding year. Counted at a comparative price, it increased by 9.1 percent than that in the preceding year.

Poverty alleviation plan:

There are 1.50 million people in the province living under the poverty line (625 yuan).

After the province carried out its program to aid the poor in 1994, the provincial government offered aid to 13,384 poor villages, 602 townships and 28 counties, having solved the basic living problem of 7.21 million people up to 2000. The provincial government now has worked out a new plan for poverty relief in the period of 2001-2010 and made it publicized so that the public know all about the detailed targets.

Unemployment rate:

Since 1998, the rate of registered unemployment in cities and towns had been 3.5 percent.

Revenue:

In 2001, the provincial financial revenue was 57.29 billion yuan, an increase of 23.6 percent over the previous year.

Agricultural output value:

In 2001, the annual added value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery was 135.95 billion yuan, 4.2 percent more compared with the preceding year, of which, 82.35 billion yuan were from agriculture, a growth of 4 percent; 3.53 billion yuan were from forestry, a growth of 5.5 percent; 28.93 billion yuan were animal husbandry, a growth of 7.4 percent; and fishery, 21.14 billion yuan, 1.4 percent down. The ratio of each of the different sectors of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery was: 60.6 percent, 2.6 percent, 21.3 percent and 15.5 percent respectively.

Industrial output value:

The province’s industrial production grew rapidly. In 2001, the sales of large-scale enterprises reached 914.6 billion yuan, having obtained an added value of 290.84 billion yuan, 14.8 percent over the preceding year.

Foreign trade:

Its total volume of import and export in 2001 was US$28.96 billion, a growth of 15.9 percent compared with that of the preceding year, of which, the export was US$18.13 billion, an increase of 16.7 percent, 9.9 percentage points higher than the nation’s average growth rate. Its investments in overseas countries and regions increased rapidly. In 2001, 71 more enterprises (or institutions) were newly approved to invest abroad, an increase of 31.5 percent over the preceding year, their total investment was US$140 million, a growth of 63.4 percent. Of this figure, investment in processing trade was US$110 million, averagely US$1.905 million per project.

Foreign investment:

In 2001, a total of 3,058 new foreign-invested projects were contracted, an increase of 11.9 percent over that of the preceding year, which absorbed US$7.16 billion of foreign capital, a growth of 27.6 percent. More than US$4.25 billion of the foreign investment had been put in place for use, a growth of 11.4 percent. Of the direct foreign investment of US$6.72 billion, US$3.62 billion was actually utilized; the growth rate of contracted and utilized direct investment was 32.4 percent and 21.9 percent respectively. The newly approved loans from foreign overseas totaled US$210 million, of which US$450 million were actually utilized, 49.9 percent and 37.1 percent lower respectively than the previous year.

People’s living standard:

In 2001, the average annual per capita disposable income of the province’s urban citizens reached 7,101.1 yuan, an increase of 9.4 percent over the preceding year. The average per capita consumption expenditure of urban citizens in the year was 5,252.4 yuan, an increase of 4.6 percent over the preceding year.

The average annual per capita net income of rural residents in the province was 2,659.2 yuan, an increase of 109.6 yuan over the preceding year, a growth rate of 4.3 percent. The average per head consumption expenditure of peasant was 1,770.4 yuan, an increase of 90.7 yuan, 5.4 percent more than the previous year.
Highways:

The province is well known in the country for its highways, both in quantity and quality. Shandong is among the top provinces in the country that have built their highways with the longest mileage and the most density. So far, it has more than 50,000 km of highways, including 14 state highways totaling 4,395 km, 12,787 km provincial highways, 17,378 county highways and 19,786 km township roads. The highway density is 36.5 km per 100 square kilometers. In 2002, a total of 2,266 km expressways are in operation, making Shandong the No. 1 in the country in this respect.

Railways:

The province has a complete railway network. The Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Kowloon railways run north-south across the province and the Qingdao-Jinan and Rizhao-Shiyan railways traverse it from east to west. Through the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, one can reach Hong Kong from Shandong by train. Rizhao, the port city at the east end of the Rizhao-Shiyan Railway, has been designated by the state as one of the terminus stations on the new Asia-Europe transportation line. So far, the total length of provincial railways is more than 300 km, accounting for 11.5 percent of the railways operating in the province, ranking the sixth in the country’s 25 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions who have their own local railways.

Airports:

Civil aviation has developed rapidly in the province. There are nine airports, including the ones of Jinan and Qingdao which serve as international airdromes and that of Yantai, an airport for international freight. Shandong has direct flights to Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The Shandong Airlines now has 36 airplanes of various models, including Boeing–737, Challenger-200, Saab—340 and others such as amphibious airplanes. It has 500 flights taking off each week




Jinan

Jinan is the capital of the eastern province of Shandong. It is situated on the southern shores of the Gulf of Bohai in northeastern China, into which gulf the Yellow River empties – is inarguably one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization. Archeological evidence of agriculture (rice cultivation) dating as far back as the Houli Culture (BCE 6500-5500), an Early Neolithic (BCE 10,000-5,000) culture, has been found in Jinan. Well-preserved examples of perfectly symmetrical (bearing testimony to the use of the pottery wheel), highly-polished thin-walled black pottery (aptly termed "egg-shell" pottery) belonging to the Late-Neolithic-period (BCE 5000-2000) Longshan Culture (BCE 2500-1700) have been unearthed in Jinan. The Longshan Culture may have been the first true civilization (measured in terms of social stratification and the differentiation of labor) that arose in China, as it was a mass phenomenon, as opposed to earlier cultures that arose in present-day Shandong Province but which were characterized by smaller, autonomous enclaves.

The City of Jinan is also an important part of China's later, pre-Imperial history and culture. It is the site of the famous Chengzi Cliff, part of the stretch of wall fortifications that were built by the then State of Qi, the last state of pre-Imperial China to be conquered by the emerging State of Qin, which state then became the first consolidated power to rule over what was later considered as China proper, making Qin the first Chinese empire (the famous Great Wall was built during the Qin (BCE 221-207) Dynasty).

Jinan is also home to the Stone Shrine, the oldest surviving surface edifice in China, part of the Guo Family Mausoleum built in the 1st century BCE on Xiaotang Hill during the Western Han (BCE 206 – CE 9) Dynasty. Liubu, on the outskirts of Jinan, is home to the Four-Door Pagoda, China's oldest stone pagoda, which dates from the Sui (CE 581-618) Dynasty. The Thousand-Buddha Hall of Lingyan Temple, Jinan, is famous among Buddhists the world over for its 40 exceptionally well-crafted, exceptionally expressive arhats (sculpted images of disciples in varying poses that run the gamut of human expression) that date back to the Song (CE 960-1279) Dynasty. As well, Jinan is situated close to Mt Tai, chief among the Five Famous High Mountains sacred to Taoism, and it is also situated close to the village of Qufu, sacred to Confucianism as it is the birthplace of Confucius himself

Since ancient times, Jinan has rightfully been called "the city of springs", owing to its many naturally-occurring springs, of which Baotu Spring, Pearl Spring, Black Tiger Spring, and Five-Dragon Pool Spring are the most renowned, but the city is also renowned for its many willow trees which impart a quintessentially Chinese atmosphere (eg., the similarity of certain calligraphic brush strokes to the willow leaf is striking). In addition to its many springs, Jinan is also surrounded by mountains such as Five Peak Mountain and Qianfo Mountain, and is home to the very large, very famous lake, Daming Lake. It is said of Jinan that "half the beauty of the city is represented by its wonderful lake landscapes". It is no wonder then, that Jinan has attracted generations of scholars who were either famous before their arrival, or who established their reputations while residing in Jinan




Qingdao

Qingdao, located at the southern tip of Shandong peninsula, is a very beautiful seaside city in eastern Shandong Province. Nowadays it is a major seaport, naval base and industrial center as well as the home to Tsingdao Brewery and Haier Group. It was recently named China's 9th-most livable city by China Daily. Recently Qingdao has attracted more and more tourists due to its seaside setting and temperate weather. Parks, beaches, sculptures and some unique architectures line the shore. Along with Beijing's winning bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, Qingdao will be the host city for several events of the Olympic Sailing competitions which will take place along the shoreline by the city. These events will be hosted at the Qingdao International Sailing Centre and held in Fushan Bay, near the city's central business district.?

Qingdaos fortuitous location at the southern tip of the Shandong peninsula has always suggested that this seaside city would play an important role in Chinas heritage. As far back as 600 BC, Qingdao began attracting visitors after the famed Chinese scholar Lao-Tzu created the religion of Taoism in the neighbouring Laoshan Mountains. From this moment, the area instantly became a major centre of spiritual mystique as thousands of people flocked to the hills in search of enlightenment. The small fishing town of Qingdao, 20 miles away, continued to slowly but steadily evolve into one of Chinas main shipping and industrial cities, a role which it still holds today




Taian
Located in the center of Shandong Province, Tai'an lies at the south foot of Mount Taishan and adjoins Jinan to the north, Qufu to the south, the Yellow River to the west and Zibo to the east. The Taishan and the Daiyue districts, Ningyang and Dongping counties, Xintai and Feicheng county- level cities also all fall under Tai'an's administrative jurisdiction

The area is subject to a temperate monsoon climate and has four distinct seasons: spring tends to be windy and dry; summer is hot and rainy; fall is very cool; and winter is cold, though snowfall is limited.

The area has a long history, with Mount Taishan highly-regarded in ancient times. The mountain was considered to be the first of the countries five sacred mountains, and was a place where emperors prayed for the fortunes of the nation. Mount Taishan was also a focal point for religion in the area, providing a base for the likes of Buddhism and Taoism.

Tai'an is also a noted tourist city. Although Mount Taishan is the most celebrated of its attractions, other scenic spots, such as the Peach Blossom Ravine and Dai Temple, are also well worth a visit. These sights are well-served by the city's transport network, with buses able to take you there directly and a number of taxis also offering trips to these places.

With regard to local specialty foods, the people of Shandong are known throughout China as eaters of scallion wrapped in pancake. It is said that this type of food reflects the uncomplicated and honest nature of the local people. Of course, for those that do not eat scallion, there are numerous other types of filling available.

Tai'an city and its famous accompanying Mount Taishan remain a highlight of any visit to Shandong Province, and will leave any visitor to the area taken in by its charms




Qufu

Situated in the southwest of Shandong Province, Qufu is one of the first of 24 famous historical and cultural cities announced by the State Council. It is 160 kilometers (about 99 miles) from the capital of Shandong Jinan and 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Jining City, Shandong.

Qufu was the capital of the kingdom, Lu, in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC) and is the hometown of the great Chinese philosopher and educator Confucius. Most tourists go there in order to see the places where Confucius lived, studied and was buried. There aren't any high buildings in Qufu, since the local people don't allow their buildings to exceed the height of the Dacheng Hall (81 feet) which the main hall of the Temple of Confucius. In this way, they show their respect for this great person.

Qufu is a city of great character. One fifth of the residents of Qufu have the surname Kong and they are all Confucius' descendants. Meanwhile, it's a rich productive city. The local special product Qufu rice, it's very famous in China. Also there are many different kinds of handicrafts and each of them is highly appreciated.

Qufu is a place that is able to create delicacies. In the Chinese ancient times, the local Kong Family Feast originating from the Kong Family Mansion became quite well-known. It's said that the Qianlong Emperor (1736-1796) paid a visit to Qufu and, while there the cooks of the Kong Family Mansion made a Kong Family Feast for him. After the emperor participated in the feast, he was very pleased and satisfied.

Qufu has convenient land transportation. Several expressways cross it and it's not far from Jinan and Jining. So it's not difficult to get there. And the urban traffic of Qufu is also convenient. You can take a city-bus or taxi to get around. Qufu is not big and most attractions are very close. You will not spend much time and money visiting them.

Through the above introduction, maybe you have learnt something about this city. China is a country influenced by Confucianism. If you want to have a deep understanding of China, you should visit Qufu