Daming Lake

Address: 271 Minghu Avenue
Tele: 86-531-86088922
Open: 6:30-17:30 (6:30-18:30 during summer time)
Buses: 11, 41, 66, 106, K54, K96, K98, K109 Get off at Daming Lake
Ticket Fee: ￥15 at this moment, and is likely to rise to ￥40 in this December.
www.daminglake.com

“The city is surrounded by lotus all around and willows in three sides, a city full of beauty with half of it occupied by lakes”. This famous verse is exactly true for the ancient Jinan City, and the lake refers to Daming Lake. Daming Lake is about 460,000 square meters with an average depth of 2 meters. Daming Lake enjoys a long history, with many beautiful stories and legends, as well as historical relics. Many emperors, poets, artists came and left a great amount of works because of their appreciation of the lake’s natural beauty. However, the lake is not only beautiful but also rich in culture.
There are also many wonders about this lake. It is formed by the spring waters. The waters sprout from underground and gather here spontaneously. The lake was even much bigger in the history. In the years of flood, the water level did not rise, nor did it fall when the climate was dry. Also, in summer time, snakes can be seen and frogs can be heard in other places, but this is never true for Daming Lake. For thousands of years, no one has ever seen snakes nor heard the frogs sing. This enigma remains a mystery even today. There are also many incredible things about the lake waiting for you to explore by yourself!
The food here is also great. When I was in Shanghai this summer for HSYLC2006, a boy asked me where I was from. When I told him that I was from Jinan, he told me he had visited the city once and still missed the delicious portage he had on a boat on the Daming Lake. This is true for such portage is well cooked with lotus seeds and has a special aroma.
This is a place I really love, thus I recommend it enthusiastically. The lake has so many beautiful stories. The governor’s traditional Chinese mansion, the love story of Qianlong who is an emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the anecdotes of poets—all of them are fascinating and make you think of the past. The long history of humankind with many things gone yet the most brilliant part remained. Everything was gone only the natural beauty was left along.