By Rewa Hodges

Visitors get a dazzling view of Jinan atop a mountain at the Pavilion of Panoramic View.

On the ninth moon of the Chinese calendar, October, the twilight of the year, our American tour group of 15 arrived in the ancient Chinese city of Jinan. Today it is called the City of Springs, with waters sparkling everywhere from its more than 100 bubbling natural springs.

Jinan, 218 miles south of Beijing, and the capital of Shandong Province, started life as a walled town 2,600 years ago. Today its 1.07 million people live in a city with a modern look - clean, wide streets and high-rise buildings.

The Jinan Hotel, where we stayed, was at the junction of Warp and Woof (Jingsan and Weiliu) roads, names attesting to the importance of Jinan’s textile industry.

Our rooms were clean and spacious with private baths. We were within walking distance of beautifully painted temples, pagodas and restful teahouses.

Few cars were on the streets, but hundreds of pedestrians and thousands of bicyclists announced their presence with their bells. Many of the pedestrians wore the traditional Mao jacket, with its Chinese inch-and-a-half-high collar, in many bright colors.

Arching sycamores, twisted, dark-green cypresses, tall poplars turning butter-yellow and hundreds of water-loving weeping willows shaded the streets.

The gingko tree, with its fluttering scalloped leaves, is reserved for temple grounds. The Chinese believe the gingko and cypress trees have a tie to the ancient world, so they revere them for their longevity.

Jinan is nestled in a valley between the Taishan Mountains and the yellowish-brown wide water of the Yellow River. Flowing through nine provinces, the Yellow River is the second largest waterway in China, surpassed only by the Yangtze.

With its massive stone dikes and pumping stations 12 meters higher than the city, the winter floodwaters of the Yellow River are today held back and harnessed for farming irrigation.

Continuous human labor, with only the help of mules and carts, built and still maintains these dikes and pumping stations that prevent the widespread death, destruction and devastation of years ago. In those days, the flooding earned the river its second name, “China’s Sorrow.”

Bright, sunny mornings greeted us. Mr. Chi, our guide, arranged a boat ride on Baming Hu (Lake of Great Light, the source of Jinan’s 100 or more natural springs).

Weeping willows fringed the shores, and flowering gardens, pavilions and temples, scattered throughout the park, enhanced the lake’s beauty.

Twelve acres of the lake were planted with white lotus, agreeing with the inscription on the brightly painted, very large archway that spans the entrance to the 1,100-acre park. Translated, the inscription reads: “Lotus on four sides, willows on three, encircling hills, a lake within.”

A gaily painted, flat-bottomed and canvas-topped boat was waiting for us lakeside. We stopped at a tiny island whose pavilion, Lixia Ting, built in A.D. 727 but repaired many times since, was set among graceful willows, golden poplars, large-leafed shading catalpas and delicate bamboo.

The greenery contrasted with the bright red columns and painted beams of the building. The gray-tiled, two-tiered roof had the traditional good-luck figures marching along its edges.

From the park a path led us along the aquamarine waters of Jinan’s largest spring, “Gushing on the Ground,” where women pounded clothes on its rocky banks.

Further along we were startled by the roar of “Black Tiger Spring” as gallons of icy-blue water, spouting from the mouths of three stone-sculptured tiger heads, caused the pool below to bubble and froth.

Some springs gurgled and emitted vapors, others sent out a fine mist and a few sparkled or splashed and rushed down in cascades while some scarcely murmured. Their music rose and fell like the wind.

Early our last morning the bus took us to Thousand Buddha Mountain on the outskirts of the city. High on the Mountain at the Pavilion of Panoramic View we took our unobstructed look at beautiful City of Springs and the surrounding countryside lying at our feet.

Los Altos resident Rewa Hodges is an author of children’s books.

Jinan, capital of Shandong Province on China’s east coast, is the province’s political, economic and cultural center. Nearby Mount Tai is officially recognized by the United Nations as a cultural heritage site.