At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, north of Daming Lake in Jinan, there were still large swamps

Jinan is known as "Spring City". According to liu hu in the Qing Dynasty's "Travels of the Old Remnant", Jinan is "a spring water for every family, and every household is weeping Yang".

In 1912, a foreigner named James B. Neal wrote in an English collection published by the Shanghai Christian Literary Society, "... Jinan's main glory is its large number of clear springs that never dry up, especially at the walls of the south and southwest (in the old city) and inside the city. ”“... Due to the continuous gushing of springs, the moat is full of flowing streams, making the surrounding scenery picturesque. ”

However, Neil also mentioned that due to the low-lying terrain north of the old city of Jinan, the springs converge into a swamp in this area. “... If the Xiaoqing River could suck away the spring water (outside the moat and Daming Lake), the situation in the area would be greatly improved; but there was too much water in the swamp to drain all of it into the Xiaoqing River; so during the rainy season from July to August, the countryside north and outside the old city of Jinan was extremely unsanitary and malaria-ridden. ”

I have the impression that by the mid-to-late 1980s, the area around North Park was still a large area of dryland farmland. Occasionally some of them are rice paddies. And you can still see some large ponds with lotus leaves. I was very impressed when I was new to the city and saw lotus flowers and lotuses for the first time.