Hey guys, so today I thought I would show you my favorite part of Jinan, the city in China that I am lucky enough to live in.
There are many great things about Jinan but the one place that I never get bored of is Da Ming Lake. Chinese cities take a lot of pride in their parks, lakes, and springs if they have them and they don't hold back on making them gorgeous places to visit night and day.
For this blog, I have decided to try a Photo slideshow rather than the usual giant catalog of individual pictures so please let me know what you think and which you prefer.
Da Ming Lake is definitely the heart of Jinan, it is located pretty much right in the center and is surrounded by some of the cities natural spring parks which also make for a great day out but that's a blog for another time. This particular lake is pretty big and its name literally translates to "Lake of great splendor" and it is a very fitting name as it is home to miles of great green gardens and walkways along with some really amazing Chinese architecture. Day or night the lake is the perfect place to walk around and take in some local culture or find a nice spot to relax meditate or have a good picnic. You will also find boat trips going around the lake and also some small pedal boats if you want to venture off around the small islands within the main lake.
The locals like to come here and practice Taichi and other various martial arts which is always great to watch and they also have the small fitness parks located around the lake if you want a quick workout on some pretty weird looking swing things and pull up bars etc.
The Lake is a must visit for a nice romantic walk at night when the lake's surrounding walkways and building really come to life with amazing lights. It's hard to describe but the light is so bright they make the buildings look like something built from falling stars, I remember thinking "it looks like somewhere the gods would live".
You can find a few bars and restaurants dotted around the lake but don't expect much to be open after 9 pm as most things here close around that time so people can go home and have family time. This is nice when you think about it but also super annoying if you want to go out for a late bite at the main attractions but on the other hand, you can always find a good 24hr hot pot places or some BBQ.
I will leave you with a bit of history on the lake that I found on Wikipedia.
As a central site in the historical center of Jinan, Daming Lake has been the setting of many events in the history of the city: As his rebellion against the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan came to an end in 1262, the governor Li Tan tried to drown himself in the lake. He was rescued by the Mongols in order to be executed by being put in a sack and trampled to death by horses.[1] The warlord Zhang Zongchang, nicknamed the "Dogmeat General" and unpopular because of his heavy-handed rule, planned to erect a living shrine to himself on the lake, but the plans were not executed due to Zhang's fall from power. During the Battle of Jinan in the Chinese Civil War, the commander of the city's defense against the communist People's Liberation Army, Kuomintang General Wang Yaowu had his command post near the lake shore.
From March 2006 to April 2007, the Daming Lake Park was renovated and extended to connect all portions of the park for unified access. To achieve this, 1788 housing units (including 1639 residential units) were demolished.[2] Since the expansion, the Daming Lake Park covers a total of 103.4 hectares, 29.4 hectares (land: 20 hectares, lake 29.4 hectares) of which were added in the expansion.
I hope you enjoyed this post and I will share some more cool parts of my home city very soon.
In the meantime, you can see something a little more personal and check out my proposal blog and also a day out at Hong Kong Disneyland.
Thank you for reading, STEEM ON!!!!