济南的景点 (Jĭnán de jĭngdiăn) Jinan's scenic spots (Day 1)

大家好！

Yesterday was my first day of actually visiting a few of the many 景点 located here in Jinan.  First, a little introduction.  Jinan is also known by the name 泉城 quán chéng (city of springs) for the numerous artesian springs located inside the city.  Many of the springs are located within the same vicinity in an area that is known as 泉城广场 quán chéng guăngchăng (city of springs plaza).  This was a really huge area with at least 20 or so different springs.  It was definitely a good thing that we came here where it was slightly cooler because it was practically 100 F!!!

(Here are my friends: Wu Juan, Wu Ying (Juan's sister), and Xiao Peng (their nephew))

 

(Left:  This fountain in the plaza shoots jets of water to the beat of music)

(Right: This sculpture is known as 泉标(泉城的标志) “the emblem of city of springs” and represents jets of spring water coming up from the ground.)

Before heading down to the springs, we checked out a series of statues of all the famous historic figures from Shandong province, which are really quite a few of the very most well known including Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, Zhu Ge Liang and many others.

(Here I am chillin' with 諸葛亮 (Zhu Ge Liang), the master strategist from 三國演義 (Romance of the Three Kingdoms))

The most famous one that we saw is called 黑虎泉 (Hēi Hŭ Quán) "Black Tiger Springs".  People were lined up to fill containters with the spring water, which you can reportedly drink straight from the spring.  We all also gathered a small bottle and I used it today to brew my morning Nescafé (after a good long boil, of course).  Pretty good stuff!

(Here are some pictures of a few people gathering water from one of the springs.)

(Here are Juan and I feeding the Black Tiger some of his own spring water.)

After making our way out of the giant plaza, it was off for a bit of lunch.  We walked through an area with only restaurants and vendors where all of the buildings were very old-style (Sorry, no pics.  The heat must have been getting to my head) and ended up at a place that

 specialized in 大米面皮儿  (dàmĭ miànpír) "rice noodle skin" which came  served in a nice spicy sauce with bean sprouts.  We also had a delicious sour plum drink that reminded me a lot of one of my favorite drinks in Taipei.

After lunch, we headed to one last spring area called 蜘(Zhīzhū Quán) "Spider Springs" and hid from the crippling heat for about an hour.  

Finally, after tricking ourselves into thinking we had cooled off, we headed to 大明

湖 (Dàmíng Hú) "Big Bright Lake" located within a short walk from the springs.  .  Usually, one has to pay $50 RMB (about $7.50 USD) to get into the park surrounding the lake, but to my surprise there were several open gates on the sides of the park that you could just walk through freely.  My friends explained that what we were doing was called 走后门儿 (zŏu hòuménr) "going in the back door" and that the tickets were sold primarily to outsiders.  Its always best to know someone on the inside, isn't it? :)   The lake is beautiful and sitting next to it reminded me a lot of being back home in WI.  There were areas of Lotus plants 荷花 (hé huā) that will bloom in the next month or so.  I learned that lotus leaves can be brewed as an ingredient in rice porridge or 粥 (zhōu), which I was able to try the day before.

(Left: Cool looking trees by 大明湖.)(Right: A 100 year old house in 大明湖 park.)

By the time we left the lake, everyone was exhausted and right on the border of heat stroke (we were out in the sun from 10:00am-4:00pm).  I was glad to come back to my hotel room for a cold shower and a nap.  Actually, I pushed my nap off until about 6:00 because I'm reading a really good book.  I awoke to the hotel room phone ringing, which meant that Wu Juan, Wu Ying and Xiao Peng were back to pick me up for dinner.  Still groggy as hell, I went downstairs to meet them.  We ended up going to a place called "Golden Hans" (金汉斯, Jīn Hànsī), which is a German decor buffet restaurant that also features South American style BBQ (you know, where the waiters walk around with meat on skewers).  Picture a pirate themed restaurant in the US, but with all the waitresses dressed as German bar maids.  The food was pretty good, including the more exotic stuff like chicken hearts and cow tongue, but none of us could bring ourselves to eat all that much because of all the heat we had taken earlier that day.

After "Golden Hans," I came right back to the hotel with the intention of reading or finally catching some television in Chinese, but I was thwarted again and actually fell asleep with the lights on for a couple of hours.  Today, we are going out again, but should be calling it a day somewhat earlier since its supposed to be even hotter than yesterday (is that possible?).  More later, hope everyone is well!

Andy