This site offers insight for other students considering a study abroad opportunity in Jinan, China.

So on our trip to mount Tai on Sunday our tour guide was quite knowledgeable and was telling us that Jinan was named after the Ji river which ran to the north of the city. In Chinese nan means south so the name is literally south of the Ji river.   Several years ago do to a big flood the Yellow river washed out the Ji river and it is no more but the city remains.  The Yellow river now runs to the north of Jinan with mountains on the other three sides.  Because of these mountains, Jinan is a very long, narrow city only about 13 kilometers wide.  This make for bad traffic all the time.

Jinan is nicknamed the city of springs due to all of its springs of course.  With all of this water underground trying to get an underground transit system has been daunting.  They have one in the works and expect it to be up and running in about a year.  They have plans for a second, above ground system to run in about two years.  They are hoping this helps with the traffic issues.

Fun facts for my German side of the family.  The City of Qingdao (pronounced like ching-dow), about five hours away by car is on the sea and was settled heavily by the Germans in 1889.  According to our guide the city looks like a European city rather than a Chinese city.  He referred to Jinan as still being a village.  Not due to its size as Qingdao is only bigger by 2 million, but because it has stayed populated by the Chinese and has a more Chinese look and feel.

The Germans of Qingdao started a brewery in 1903 due to the great water in the area and created many jobs and the world famous Tsingtao brewery.  That brewery is the second largest in China today.  It is no longer owned by the Germans but the beer is served in most restaurants in Jinan today.

I have enjoyed the night market just outside our west gate a lot. They show up each evening around 6ish and set up their tents. It is about the same wares each evening with everything from purses, undies, jewelry, makeup, clothing, street food and produce.

This is me just inside the west gate. The sign says University of Jinan.

Best part of the night market is the knock-offs!!

The last one you have to zoom in on his shoe. Saw the guy wearing these at the forbidden city and that started it all.

People here wear tshirts with English sayings on them. Sometimes used incorrectly or spelled incorrectly or just make no sense at all.

I have been trying to us the little Chinese I know when I am out and about. I have been learning my numbers. They typically display costs in English numbers but they do have characters and hand signals similar to those in sign language.

That coupled with hello, goodbye, and I am a mother/she is my daughter is pretty much all I got. But they really enjoy it when you try and hey if I can bring a little levity to their lives I feel successful lol🤷‍♀️😎

I guess I would reiterate my earlier statement of maybe learning the language a little before you come.

Today we did Chinese paper cutting. It was as any paper cutting, challenging but worth it to unfold it and see the cool thing you created. The teacher does amazing micro cutting and beautiful creations. Ours were of course a bit more blunt and simple but fun nonetheless.

What we cut out could be a wedding gift meaning Best Wishes!

Matt, are his shoes cool or what??

Wifi at the cafe wasn’t working well and we were all starving so we all meandered over to a different sort of place on campus.  I would call it a bar but they don’t serve alcohol. It has a bar feel. Dim lights, fun mixed fruity drinks, burgers and snacks foods like chicken poppers and fries and a big projector screen. Oh and good WiFi 😎

The owner is so sweet and loves when we come, probably because we order a ton of food. He turned on the air for us and asked us which movie we would like as the one playing was Face Off and in Chinese. So we choose 007 Spectre. Sadly, I now realize I don’t know his name or the name of his place and he speaks little to no English.  I will make it a point to learn it.

Our professor, Dr Long, wandered in after a bit and joined us for the movie and ate and it was very relaxing and a fun night off/out. After the movie was over the owner asked what we wanted to watch next 😀 What a sweetheart. Sadly we had to head out.