Jinan is a beautiful city that boasts of long history and modernity, being renowned for its springs, lakes, lotuses, and weeping willows.  The verses of a famous poem "四面荷花三面柳，一城山色半城湖." can best capture its beauty; thus, our one-day city tour in Jinan mainly focused upon springs and lakes.

We came to a recreation park where that famous Spring Baotu(趵突泉) is located.  But now the water is low in dry season, so spring are too "weak" to gush out fountain now, what a shame!  Well, it should have been like this:     In the park there is a memorial hall for one of the greatest poets in Chinese history, a lady from Jinan: Ms. Li Qingzhao(李清照).  I bought a critique on her magnum opus, and I hope I shall have time to read it through.  Then we came to another spring, Spring Black Tigers(黑虎泉), where we found many a inhabitant of Jinan gathering there to scoop spring water with kettles, containers, and other utensils, and bring the water home for cooking, drinking, and making tea.  What a scene!  But the other day I read a report from Mainlands website that there were some people washed their feet at one of those springs again: http://m.gmw.cn/gallery/2016up_id=6294237340404302081.  Such behavior was quite disgraceful.  Dear Mainlanders, behave yourselves and please stop doing uncivilized things any longer!   

Lake Daming(大明湖) was the very last resort we were going to visit during our entire journey in Shandong.  It is Chinas largest lake formed by spring water, with sinuous channel and stone bridges over the water.  Leafy cover makes its long, winding pavement a perfect place for strolling, but due to time limitation all we could do was cruising the lake by boat.  It is worthy of spending at least half a day in the lake if you shall pay it a visit.  May I suggest you Baidu to search for more information concerning the lake before you go.   

P.S.  Jinan is a metropolitan city now, almost one fourth as big as Taiwan.  Adjacent to its southwestern part lies a smaller city named Liaochen(聊城).  Jinan and Liaochen are where a touching story "兩百里路地的雲和月" took place, upon which Id translated, and posted it at http://blog.udn.com/kkuo0810/7130345.