Zibo - Sights

Yuanshan National Forest Park
Located southwest of the Boshan District, it is the only national level forest park in Zibo consisting of five scenic areas. The great wall of the Qi Kingdom, grass skiing field, dinosaur valley and folk custom garden are all attractions of the park. It took us 3 hours to navigate our way through the park. They had signs in English which of course was extremely helpful. My advice is avoid the need to pee. I wasn't sure whether to pee or throw up - the smell was that bad.

Linzi Chinese ancient Vehicle Museum
The Museum is located in Linzi district. It shows China's first system, the most comprehensive to horsemen heritage sites and the ancient vehicle display museum.

Zibo Museum of Ceramics
We had two attempts at going to the ceramics museum. On both times it was closed. However you can tell from the surrounding shops that Zibo is really the place to buy ceramics.

Yiyuan Karst Caves
Caves are always difficult to describe. You really need to see them to appreciate them. Photos never do them any justice. We had a guided tour which of course was wasted on us as we can't understand Chinese. It wasn't an option though. It took about an hour to go through the caves. There is also a waterfall at the same sight. We went to the top of the waterfall and then followed the arrows. The arrows had us climbing a mountain. After climbing this forever we were saturated and decided to turn around. When we finally reached the outside the driver had been looking for us. OOPS! The 1.5 drive back to the hotel never dried our clothes. We were tired and cranky. But still managed to go out for dinner. Amazing what a shower can do!

Lushan Forest Park
This is the original Mountain National Forest Park. Don't know that it was anything spectacular. They had a pleasure playground with suspension bridges which we tried to cross very unsuccessfully! There was a lake of some description but because of the fog we couldn't see where it went to. There was a pagoda and a water wheel. Not a great deal really or we just missed it!

Pu Songling's House
In Zichuan district near Zibo stands the house in which Pu Songling (1640 - 1715) wrote the well-known collection of tales entitled "Curious Stories from the Liao Studio". He lived here until he was 30, and returned to his native town when he was 71. The exhibition hall provides information on the writer's life and work.

Remains of Qi Kingdom Capital
A 30 sq.km/11.5sq.mi area of the remains of the capital of the Qi Kingdom in the Linzi district has been excavated. Founded 2900 years ago, the city was surrounded by a defensive wall. The city possessed a perfect sewerage system which also took away the waste water from the bronze and iron-smelting furnaces. In the course of the digs archaeologists also discovered coin mints and workshops in which tools were produced from bones. Some of the finds can be seen in the Archaeological Museum in Zibo's Old town.

Tombs
Large Numbers of tombs are to be found in the countryside around Zibo, including the Tomb of the Two Kings, in which the two Dukes of Qi, Huan (reigned 685 - 643 BC) and Jinggong (reigned 547 - 490 BC), are interred, as well as the Tomb of Guan Zhong one of the founders of Legalism.

Zhoucun Ancient Town
Zhoucun is located in the west of Zibo city. It has a distinguished history and reputation as a 'Silk Town', 'Golden Zhoucun' and 'Inland Port'. Zhoucan was awarded the title of 'No 1 Village' by Emperor Qianlong in the year 1750. Zhoucun Ancient Commercial Town is situated right at the centre of downtown Zhoucun. Its tourism zone mainly consists of Dajie St, Sishi St and Yinzishi St, Amongst which the well preserved ancient commercial buildings are a major part. The major attractions are Big Dying Workshop, Museum of Art, Qianfoge Temples, Sanyi Hall, Folk Customs Exhibition Centre, The Mansion for the Number One Scholar, The Courtyard of the Yang Family, Private Bank Museum and Kuixing Temple. The town has also been a shooting spot for the TV series 'Inland Port', 'Big Dyeing Workshop', 'Who Pays the Bill of Dream', 'The Grand Garden' and movies 'To Live' and 'The truth of Xuan Tianya Event'.