Qushuiting Street and Baihuazhou 曲水亭街与百花洲

About Qushuiting Street and Baihuazhou

Qushuiting Street runs south from Daminghu Road to the junctions of Xigengdao and Donggeng streets, with Baihuazhou along its eastern side. It faces the site of the north gate of the Ming Prince of De's mansion, lies next to the Jinan prefectural Confucian temple on the west, and has Zhenzhu Spring at its southern end. Water from Zhenzhu Spring and the pool known as Wangfu Chizi gathers into a stream that runs along the street, the arrangement the novel The Travels of Lao Can summed up as a spring in every house and a willow at every door. Li Daoyuan's Commentary on the Water Classic already described a 'floating-cup pool' here, identified with today's Wangfu Chizi, whose outflow turned east as the Qushui river; on the third day of the third lunar month people came to the water for the xiuxi purification and then held the winding-stream wine-cup poetry gatherings from which the street's vanished pavilion took its name. The street was placed on Jinan's first list of protected traditional place names in October 2021. The prefectural Confucian temple immediately to the west was built in the Xining reign of the Song, and a short length of Qing-dynasty water channel uncovered by archaeologists is kept open in the square at its south gate.

Baihuazhou, also called Baihuating, Baihuachi or Xiaonanhu, covers more than 7,000 square metres, and was once larger: the houses along its present eastern bank stand on what was an island in the water. In 1072 the writer Zeng Gong, one of the eight masters of the Tang and Song, was posted as prefect of Qizhou and built the Baihua dyke on Daming Lake, after which the island was called Baihuatai, and the pool has carried the name ever since. A rehabilitation scheme for the Mingfucheng and Baihuazhou area began in 2011, treating seven groups of 42 buildings with nearly 5,000 square metres of courtyards and keeping older structures such as the former private newspaper office and the Wu family paper shop. A further programme of repairs started in 2023 and the renewed Baihuazhou historic and cultural district opened in May 2024; more than forty items of intangible cultural heritage at various levels are now practised there, among them Jinan shadow puppetry, which is on the second national list.

What to look for

• The spring channel along Qushuiting Street, fed from Zhenzhu Spring and Wangfu Chizi
• Wangfu Chizi, identified with the 'floating-cup pool' recorded in the Commentary on the Water Classic
• The Baihuazhou pool, more than 7,000 square metres of water named for Zeng Gong's Baihua dyke and terrace
• The courtyard houses on the eastern bank of Baihuazhou, standing on what was once an island
• Older buildings kept in the rehabilitation of the district, including the former private newspaper office and the Wu family paper shop
• The Jinan prefectural Confucian temple west of the street, a Song foundation of the Xining reign, with a preserved Qing water channel in its south gate square

Location & getting there

Getting to Qushuiting Street and Baihuazhou

Identify the main visitor approach and any separately managed houses, museums or performances. Ask before entering residential spaces or photographing residents.

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