Jinan Hotels

The City of Jinan the capital of a large coastal province (present-day Shandong Province) that is situated on the southern shores of the Gulf of Bohai in northeastern China, into which gulf the Huang He ("Yellow River") empties – is inarguably one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization. Archeological evidence of agriculture (rice cultivation) dating as far back as the Houli Culture (BCE 6500-5500), an Early Neolithic (BCE 10,000-5,000) culture, has been found in Jinan. Well-preserved examples of perfectly symmetrical (bearing testimony to the use of the pottery wheel), highly-polished thin-walled black pottery (aptly termed "egg-shell" pottery) belonging to the Late-Neolithic-period (BCE 5000-2000) Longshan Culture (BCE 2500-1700) have been unearthed in Jinan. The Longshan Culture may have been the first true civilization (measured in terms of social stratification and the differentiation of labor) that arose in China, as it was a mass phenomenon, as opposed to earlier cultures that arose in present-day Shandong Province but which were characterized by smaller, autonomous enclaves. The City of Jinan is also an important part of China's later, pre-Imperial history and culture. It is the site of the famous Chengzi Cliff, part of the stretch of wall fortifications that were built by the then State of Qi, the last state of pre-Imperial China to be conquered by the emerging State of Qin, which state then became the first consolidated power to rule over what was later considered as China proper, making Qin the first Chinese empire (the famous Great Wall was built during the Qin (BCE 221-207) Dynasty).