Shandong, why does it look like two provinces?

When talking about Shandong , our impression of it is often vague and fragmented. It is the hometown of scallion pancakes, Zibo barbecue, Confucius and Mencius, as well as seafood, beer, red tiles, green trees, blue sea and blue sky.

Weihai, Shandong. Photo by Yang Yaping

This small northern province seems to have both the rusticity and heaviness of the inland areas and the openness and elegance of the coastal areas. Behind this very different impression is actually the externalization of the differences between western Shandong and Jiaodong.

Different mountains and rivers, different land and sea

As a northern province with both land and sea , Shandong's outline is like an eagle standing on the land and facing the sea, with its head deep in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, and its body embedded in the North China Plain.

Shandong is a northern province with both land and sea. The white boundary on the sea in the picture is the sea area under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province, which accounts for 30% of the province's 158,100 square kilometers of land. Image source: Shandong Provincial Land and Space Planning

The dual attributes of ocean and land divide Shandong roughly into the peninsula and western Shandong regions from east to west. In addition, due to the obstruction of the mountains and hills in central and southern Shandong represented by Mount Tai, the inland area can be divided into northwestern Shandong and southwestern Shandong regions from north to south. Since then, the three major geographical units of Shandong, namely the peninsula , northwestern Shandong and southwestern Shandong, have emerged.

Shandong administrative division map, horizontal screen view

There is also a common saying that if only the terrain is considered, Shandong can be divided into three parts: the plain and hilly area of ​​Shandong Peninsula, the plain area of ​​northwest Shandong, and the mountainous and hilly area of ​​central and southern Shandong.

Shandong topographic map, horizontal screen view

Regarding the Shandong Peninsula where the Jiaodong area is located, there is a widely circulated saying that "the Shandong Peninsula in a narrow sense is the Jiaodong Peninsula east of the Jiaolai River, and the Shandong Peninsula in a broad sense is the area from the mouth of the Yellow River in Dongying to the east of Rizhao."

This statement actually confuses the two types of boundaries, "official" and "civilian". On the map of Shandong Province below, three lines can be drawn, from east to west, representing an "official" boundary and two "civilian" boundaries of the Shandong Peninsula.

All three demarcation lines pass through Weifang City. Schematic diagram of the Shandong Peninsula demarcation line, horizontal screen view

For the “official” boundary, we adopted the definition of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, that is, the boundary of the Shandong Peninsula is located east of the Jiaolai River , also known as the Jiaodong Peninsula, including all administrative districts of Yantai City, Weihai City and part of the administrative district of Qingdao City east of the Jiaolai River.

As for the two "folk" dividing lines of the Shandong Peninsula, some say that one is from the Xiaoqing River estuary in Shouguang south to the Xiuzhen River estuary in Rizhao on the border between Jiangsu and Shandong, and the other is from the junction of Hekou District in Dongying City and Zhanhua District in Binzhou City south to the Xiuzhen River estuary in Rizhao.

Weifang is a hub connecting the peninsula and the hinterland of western Shandong.

Of course, no matter whether it is an "official" or "civilian" dividing line, it cannot change the geographical characteristics of Jiaodong region, which is deeply influenced by the ocean. Shandong Peninsula is surrounded by the sea on three sides, protruding between the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea. It has close exchanges with Liaodong Peninsula across the Bohai Sea in the north, and echoes with Japan and South Korea across the Yellow Sea in the east.

The ocean's good temperature regulation and heat storage capacity makes the Jiaodong region seem to be wrapped in a huge air conditioner. Compared with inland areas at the same latitude, the annual temperature difference is smaller, the precipitation is slightly higher, and it has certain marine climate characteristics .

The eastern end of the Jiaodong Peninsula extends deep into the ocean, and the Yantai and Weihai areas are almost surrounded by the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea to form an "island". Administrative division map of Yantai and Weihai, horizontal screen viewing

Taking the representative city of Qingdao as an example, its main urban area is surrounded by the sea on three sides. It has a significant marine climate, influenced by the warm and humid air currents brought by the southeast monsoon and the ocean currents and water masses along the coast of the Yellow Sea.

The air is moist, with no severe cold in winter and no extreme heat in summer. The temperature rises slowly in spring, one month later than inland. It is hot and humid in summer, with less extreme high temperature weather. In winter and spring, the warm and humid water vapor brought by the ocean often flows to the underlying surface, cooling the lower part to form the famous advection fog . The city is shrouded in a sea of ​​clouds and mist, like a dream.

Unlike the peninsula area which is influenced by the oceanic climate, the western Shandong area, although also in the southern temperate zone , is more continental and has a semi-arid continental climate.

The entire Shandong province is located in the southern temperate zone.

Take Liaocheng , a representative city in western Shandong, for example. It is dry and windy in spring, warms up quickly, has sufficient sunlight and strong solar radiation; hot and rainy in summer, with rain and heat in the same season; and clear and cool in autumn, with a rapid drop in temperature. The average annual precipitation is only 578.44 mm, which is nearly 100 mm less than Qingdao's 662.1 mm. The straight-line distance between the two places is less than 400 kilometers, so the difference is significant.

Liaocheng is a representative city in the northwest plain area of ​​Shandong. Administrative division map of Liaocheng

The spring in western Shandong is warming up quickly, and the continental climate is more pronounced. The average temperature from January to May is significantly higher than that in Jiaodong. Average temperature distribution map of Shandong Province, horizontal screen viewing

Shandong cuisine with delicacies from mountains and sea

"Live by the mountain, eat by the mountain; live by the sea, eat by the sea." The difference between land and sea not only brings about the difference in climate between oceanic and continental, but also makes the food and products of each place rich and diverse, thus evolving into a unique food culture . Shandong cuisine, one of the four major cuisines in China, can actually be divided into three major schools according to the classification of several major geographical units in Shandong: Jiaodong cuisine in the peninsula area, Jinan cuisine in the western part of Shandong, and the unique Confucius Mansion cuisine in the southwest of Shandong.

The peninsula adjacent to the sea is rich in seafood, and Jiaodong cuisine is also famous for its expertise in cooking a variety of seafood . The taste is light and tender, and it emphasizes maintaining the original taste and color of the ingredients. In modern times, the "native Jiaodong cuisine" represented by Yantai and the "improved Jiaodong cuisine" represented by Qingdao have developed. Representative dishes include boiled fish flowers, scallion-fried sea cucumber, shrimp roe tofu, three-shred shark fin, steamed cod, and braised abalone in its original shell, etc., which have a distinct seafood flavor.

Rushan oysters. Photo by Yang Yaping

Different from Jiaodong cuisine, which mainly features seafood, Jinan cuisine is good at processing various common meats such as chicken, duck and pork, and is good at stir-frying, roasting, deep-frying and frying, with a heavy taste. Representative dishes such as Four Happiness Meatballs, Nine-Turn Large Intestine, Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin, Sweet and Sour Carp, and Dezhou Braised Chicken are the classic faces of Shandong cuisine. Many people start their first taste of Shandong cuisine with these seemingly homely but actually complicated and meticulous meat dishes.

Jinan looks like a capital "人". Administrative division map of Jinan

Thanks to its location as a sacred place for emperors to hold sacrificial ceremonies, Confucius Mansion cuisine has been good at making official dishes since ancient times, which emphasizes the use of exquisite ingredients and fine preparation. Its representative dishes are also called large dishes, such as Carp in Arms, Ginkgo Biscuits with Poems and Etiquette, and Dangchao Yipin Pot. Just by reading the names of the dishes, you can feel the strong style of palace cuisine, and the cooking is even more sophisticated and complicated.

In addition to the distinctive Shandong cuisine, the staple foods of various regions are equally wonderful. For example, the classic "pancakes with green onions" is actually mainly popular in the mountainous and hilly areas of central and southern Shandong, represented by Linyi, Zaozhuang, Rizhao and Tai'an. The arable land in the mountainous areas is barren, suitable for the growth of grain crops such as millet and beans. The relatively closed geographical environment has preserved the ancient custom of making pancakes. Combining the two, pancakes have become a common staple food here.

Linyi, a representative city in the mountainous and hilly areas of central and southern Shandong, is famous for its thin, multi-grain pancakes.

When making pancakes, you need to first use an oil scraper to brush a thin layer of oil on the hot griddle, pour the batter made from ground grains on it, and use a wooden chi (chí) to scrape the batter thinly. The water in the batter evaporates quickly, and the pancakes gradually take shape and are ready to be baked. The hot and crispy pancakes, paired with dipping sauce and fresh green onions, are a refreshing simple meal.

The northwest plain of Shandong Province is an important wheat producing area in my country. The traditional staple food is steamed bread made from high-quality wheat, which is called "momo" in the local dialect. Youxuan, the "No. 1 snack" in Jinan, is also made from high-quality wheat. It is shaped like a shortbread, with a crispy outer skin, tender inner flesh, and a fragrant onion. The Jiaodong region is rich in seafood. In addition to steaming the special "big steamed bread", it is also good at wrapping various seafood in the dough to make special staple foods such as Spanish mackerel dumplings and sea cucumber buns.

Zibo barbecue and wok pancakes. Photo by Yang Yaping

Spanish mackerel dumplings. Photo by: Yang Yaping

The West Wind Blows Eastward and the World Changes

The difference between land and sea not only creates differences in climate and eating habits, but also provides favorable conditions for local economic development in accordance with local conditions . The conditions for agricultural development in the peninsula are limited . The hilly terrain leads to a low proportion of plains, and salinization and sea invasion in coastal areas make the soil fertility insufficient. The western Shandong region, on the other hand, enjoys the vast North China Plain and convenient water transportation brought by the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal , which makes Jiaodong inferior to the western Shandong region in terms of agricultural social and economic development in ancient times.

In modern times, industrialization and maritime transport have completely changed the fate of the Jiaodong region. The long coastline that seemed useless in the past has been transformed into a deep-water port, which has effectively promoted the development of coastal manufacturing and foreign trade, and finally achieved a curve overtaking of the western Shandong region.

In 1861, Yantai was opened as a port, and modern industry and commerce gradually sprouted in the Jiaodong region. The opening of Qingdao in the late 19th century greatly accelerated the process of industrialization. Located on the inner side of Jiaozhou Bay, Qingdao Port is calm, wide, deep, and free of silt and ice. It is a rare natural deep-water port. In just ten years after its opening, it surpassed Yantai Port and became the largest port in Shandong.

Born in troubled times and prospering because of the port, Qingdao has grown into the economic and foreign trade center of Shandong Province in just a few decades. It is now the third largest city in the north after Beijing and Tianjin.

With the completion and opening of the Jiaoji Railway in 1904, inland areas of Shandong such as Jinan, Zibo and Weifang were also incorporated into the hinterland of Qingdao Port. Coal, iron ore and other resources along the line were gradually developed, and various factories such as cotton textile mills, steel mills, machinery factories, power plants, water plants, and railway locomotive factories sprang up, effectively driving the economic development along the line.

To this day, the Shandong Peninsula and the Jiaodong Railway, as the earliest industrialized areas, are still the most developed areas in Shandong. Taking the per capita GDP of various cities in Shandong, which reflects the degree of economic development, as an example, in 2021, the per capita GDP of Dongying and Qingdao reached 156,904 and 140,358 yuan respectively, followed by Jinan and Yantai with 124,230 and 122,664 respectively, while Liaocheng and Heze in the western Shandong region ranked the last one or two among the 16 cities in Shandong with 44,396 and 45,210 respectively, which is less than one-third of Qingdao's per capita GDP.

Shandong's coastal areas and the Jiaoji Railway are still the most developed areas in Shandong. Shandong Province's GDP per capita in 2021, horizontal screen viewing

Shandong is a hospitable place that is harmonious but different. Whether you are in Jiaodong where the sea breeze blows or in western Shandong where the wheat waves are fragrant, you can't change your pride in being a Shandong native. Mount Tai rises here, the Yellow River flows into the sea here, and saints were born here. The common cultural traditions have forged a strong sense of identity.

Just like the banquet culture that reflects the hospitality of Shandong people, although the dishes and tastes vary from place to place, the seating order of the host and guest, main companion, and deputy companion is almost the same. Coupled with a rich variety of clear and fine wines, it will surely make guests from other provinces return with a great time.

References

[1] Shandong Peninsula - Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences

[2] Shandong geomorphological division - Hou Chunling, Huang Shaoming, etc.

[3] How does the ocean affect weather and climate? - World Meteorological Organization

[4] Qingdao's geographical and climatic characteristics - China Meteorological Administration

[5] Climate characteristics of Liaocheng City - China Weather Network

[5] Shandong Provincial Land and Space Planning (2021-2035)

[6] Atlas of Chinese Languages ​​(Second Edition), Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

[7] Atlas of China (Second Edition), China Cartographic Publishing House

Planning and production

Source: Earth Knowledge Bureau (ID: diqiuzhishiju)

Author｜Chengche

Editor: Yang Yaping