Jinan, Shandong: A Day in the Life of an Old Jinan Resident, Starting with Water Collection from Black Tiger Spring
The beautiful Jinan, known as 'Four Lilies and Three Willows' and 'Half City Mountains and Half City Lakes,' is renowned as a historic and cultural city. It boasts ten major spring groups and hundreds of springs, which is how Jinan earned its name as 'the Spring City.' Among Jinan's famous seventy-two springs, Baotu Spring, Black Tiger Spring, Pearl Spring, and Wulongtan are widely recognized.
If you like a city, you should definitely get up early and see what the city looks like in the morning.
Before coming to Jinan, a local friend told me that his father would get up early every morning to fetch water from Black Tiger Spring, and their family used Black Tiger Spring water for cooking and drinking, which was very curious, so after coming to Jinan, I took the opportunity to observe that he got up early and came to the Black Tiger Spring.
Before entering Black Tiger Spring, I could already see a crowd of people coming to fetch water, and the tools they used were all kinds of things, including large mineral water buckets and bottles.
Why do old Jinan residents like to come to Black Tiger Spring to fetch water?
The reason is largely due to the location of Black Tiger Spring. Black Tiger Spring is located on the southern bank of the Henan River, and Black Tiger Spring and its associated spring groups are scattered along the city walls.
The remaining three major spring groups, Baotu Spring, have been a commercial and handicraft center in Jinan's inner city since ancient times. Now it is a famous tourist attraction, and you need to pay an entrance fee. Pearl Spring was included in the estate of the Duke of Wei since the Ming Dynasty and was kept in seclusion. Now it is located in the courtyard of the Jinan Political Consultative Conference. Wulongtan was originally Qin Jiang's residence, and later built a temple and viewing pavilion. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, it became a place for Taoist monks and Buddhist priests to practice. When compared, Black Tiger Spring is the most grounded and has become a place where ordinary people come to fetch water.
Next to Black Tiger Spring, there is a sign that clearly shows the time people come to fetch water every day.
Why do Jinan residents like to come to Black Tiger Spring to fetch water? It started from the 1990s. Before that, people used spring water to wash clothes. The springs were not so clear, and with the strengthening of environmental awareness, Jinan's springs have become as clear as they are today. More and more people came to fetch water, and gradually a landscape was formed beside Black Tiger Spring.
What is often underestimated is that fetching water is a technical skill. Black Tiger Spring consists of a spring source and a spring pool. There is a spring source 3 meters south of the spring pool, and many people like to directly fetch water from the spring eyes. This requires technical skills. But with practice, watching people one by one skillfully fetch water shows that they come here every morning.
Black Tiger Spring's water is not only liked by local residents, but also by tourists from other places. When tourists come to Jinan, they like to bring mineral water bottles to collect a bottle of water. Hearing what local people say, there is a friend from Shijiazhuang who came to Jinan and specially brought a large bucket of morning water to Shijiazhuang.
An old Jinan resident's day starts with fetching water. Spring culture has formed a unique city landscape with people and water.
