Sunday afternoon in Quandeng Square

This enormous square, with a big blue two legged sculpture at the centre, and a shopping mall beneath, is in the middle of Jinan.

It was a warm, Spring, Sunday afternoon, with just enough breeze to lift the kites. People are entertained by the amazing fountains, and each other. Kite fliers, roller skaters, lovers, men spinning tops.

I've 25 photos on FlickR, so click here for a slide show!


And below is a short video of some top spinners, entertaining an appreciative crowd. Listen to the weird sound the tops produce.

Construction of four football stadia

Of course, everyone knows that the Olympic Games will be held in Beijing this year (the torch has already arrived!) starting 8 August. But few of you might realise that in 2009 Jinan is hosting the All-China Games, and in 2010 the 16th Asian Games will be also be held in China - Guangzhou, to be precise.

It seems that Jinan decided to have a few more football facilities, and so not one, but four giant stadia are currently being built on one site near the road I travel every day to work. The scale of the construction is really quite enormous. Here is a video I took from the bus window, to the sound of Sabre Dance (so turn up your sound!):

Canal walk

Not far from the Hotel Sofitel is the huge Quancheng Square,
which buzzes on weekends. Today it was almost deserted (by Chinese standards), but there were a couple of kite fliers. Here are some first photos :

Then I walked back along the canal, which boast some of the springs that the city is famous for. It's not an easy walk for arthriticky knees, as there are many ups and downs. The springs themselves are only of mild interest, but they seem to excite the Chinese tourists. The locals fill up their water bottles as you can see in the photos.

I then got lost in some interesting back lanes, which was not at all unpleasant in the spring sunshine, and then found some food stalls - one offering delicious potato / onion pancakes.

The old buildings are gradually being demolished to make way for the modern monstrosities. I am witnessing an end of a bygone age.

Massage - with a cow horn

Realising that I was particularly stressed - as my neck was like concrete, I decided to venture into a busy massage place - which looked quite legit. What an experience!

For AU$30 I had 90 minutes of foot reflexology, ear cleaning, back, neck and head massage ending with what can only be called a facial.

Hot towels, cupping (popular in Chinese medicine), prodding and scraping with various implements - one of which was a smooth edged cow horn. The young male masseur, probably straight out of massage college, was snappily dressed in a black trousers and shirt with maroon tie and maroon silk waistcoat. Our language difference caused few problems, as he was able to interpret my ow's and ah's.

While he was viciously prodding my feet, which was quite painful, a woman came in to the room with a miners light, and an assortment of gear including a swag of miniature bottle cleaners. After my lug holes were appropriately reamed, she chimed a tuning fork and held to an implement stuck in my ear causing my lug holes to resonate at the same pitch.

I feel better now! Although I have cup bruises (no less than 13) all over my back.

Here is a video of some other people's experience, probably at the same establishment.

A rosier view - something to do with good food

Things are picking up - perhaps it's the bright Spring sunny Sunday.

We found a great restaurant near Daming Lake, which specialised in dumplings. It was clean, efficient, and we were treated courteously.

In the bus coming back, someone actually stood up and offered me a seat with a smile.

In the evening we caught up with our student contact (whom we met on our arrival at Beijing airport) who steered us away from the "dirty" local restaurants and after a ten minute taxi ride ($3) introduced us to a part of Jinan the likes of which we had never seen before. Clean roads, and buildings! Dozens of brightly lit restaurants each offering dishes from various provinces! We had a splendid Sichuan food, and it was a very enjoyable evening. Thank you, Luke. Jinan is redeeming itself.

For meals from now on, I don't mind paying a $3 premium for a taxi to a better part of Jinan.

Daming Lake in the centre of Jinan

A chilly Spring overcast Sunday, and James and I went exploring one of the "must see" attractions early in the morning - Daming Lake, which is in the centre of Jinan. It was a photographer's paradise.

Quite a few photos can be seen by clicking here, and I reckon some are quite good, even if I do say so myself!

Here's a sample of my work:


But this is a photo from the official Daming Lake website.

"With an impervious rock bottom, the lake keeps a constant level the whole year through. The lake is recorded as early as in The Annotated Book of Waters by Li Daoyuan who was active about 1,500 years ago. With a waterly picture and quite a number of historical cites in the urban landscape, it has always been a tourist attraction through the centuries. The banks are overgrown with flowers and trees, dotted by picturesque buidings. On the water are birds playing and feeding on fish swimming in the wake of pleasure boats. Half the city is filled by mountain tints, the other half by the lake."

I've never seen the "mountain tints", let alone the mountains, due to the smog.