China · Shandong
Where to Stay in Jinan, Shandong
Jinan is a city of Shandong in eastern China, the capital of the province, famed as the City of Springs for the many artesian springs that well up in its streets.
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Where to stay in Jinan
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Jinan turns on the old springs or the new city. The lanes around Baotu Spring keep the pools, the gardens, and Daming Lake within a walk, and staying by the springs suits anyone here for the old town. Clear water runs in the streams.
Willows lean over the pools. Out toward the mountains and the ring roads, the town gives way to Thousand Buddha Mountain, the new districts, and the road to Mount Tai. A room in the new city trades the springs for wide avenues, tall towers, and the green hills to the south.
The mountains rise beyond the sprawl. Stay by the springs for the old town, or out for the new city. The spring quarter is only a short way in from the ring roads.
About Jinan
Jinan is the City of Springs of eastern China.
What is Jinan known for?
On the plain between the Yellow River and the mountains in Shandong, it grew around the many springs that rise in its heart, and it keeps the great Baotu Spring bubbling up in the old town, the willow-lined Daming Lake fed by the waters, the green Thousand Buddha Mountain to the south, and the memory of the poet Li Qingzhao who was born here. The clear springs well up cold. Willows shade the lake.
What are the main landmarks in Jinan?
Baotu Spring is the pride of Jinan. The great spring where three jets of clear water leap from the pool, first of the seventy-two famous springs, rises in a garden in the old town, the emblem of the city, downtown. A willowed lake lies north.
The wide Daming Lake, fed by the springs, spreads below the walls, while the Thousand Buddha Mountain, the old spring gardens, and the poet's hall mark the country around Jinan.
What is the history of Jinan?
Jinan grew up around its springs. For thousands of years people gathered where the clear waters welled from the ground, and a walled city rose by the springs and lakes below the mountains. The springs made it famous.
Poets and scholars came to sit by the bubbling pools, and the great poetess Li Qingzhao, born in the city in the Song age, sang of its willows and waters in verse the country still loves. The city stood on the road to the north. Jinan guarded the way between the Yellow River fords and the passes of the mountains, and it grew into the seat of Shandong, its walls and watchtowers ringed by the springs and moats.
The railway brought new trade. When the line from the coast reached the city, mills and markets rose beyond the old walls, and Jinan grew into a great provincial capital, keeping its springs, its lake, and its mountain. The clear water still rises downtown.
Jinan keeps its springs below the mountains of Shandong.
Where is Jinan?
Jinan lies in the west of Shandong, on the plain south of the Yellow River in eastern China. The city sits between the great river to the north and the low mountains to the south, on a belt of springs where water rises from the limestone hills, with Thousand Buddha Mountain above the town and the wide river plain beyond. The springs feed the lakes and moats.
Hills rise green to the south.
What is the climate of Jinan?
Jinan has a warm, dry continental climate. Hot humid summers and cold dry winters cross the plain, with a rainy summer and long spells of haze and heat in the low basin. The summer air hangs still.
Winter turns cold and dry.
How do you get to Jinan?
Jinan lies in central Shandong, on the rail line between Beijing and Shanghai. Fast trains and the highway run to it across the plain from the capital and the coast, and roads lead south to Mount Tai and the holy peak. Trains call at Jinan through the day.
Beijing lies northwest up the line.
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Updated August 2026