Jinan's seventy springs flow like milk, but Baotu Spring is uniquely hailed as the number one spring

The famous writer Mr. Lao She, during his teaching period in Jinan in 1932, created a widely acclaimed prose masterpiece "Appreciation of Baotu Spring", which became a classic in our elementary school textbooks and opened the public's naive understanding of Jinan. "Look at those three big springs, all year round, day and night, always bubbling like that. If you stand still and watch for three minutes, you will feel the greatness of nature, making you dare not look directly at it. Always so pure, always so lively, always so bright, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, as if never feeling tired, only nature has such power!" The author particularly loves Baotu Spring, emphasizing "This is what flows out of Baotu Spring. Without this spring, Jinan would lose half of its beauty," showing the importance of Baotu Spring in the author's mind. Baotu Spring is located in the center of the old city of Jinan and is one of the eight scenic spots of Jinan. It is recognized that "Jinan's seventy springs flow like milk, but Baotu Spring is uniquely hailed as the number one spring," and there has always been a saying "If you haven't been to Baotu Spring, you have missed the essence of Jinan." Baotu Spring has three outlets, with a large volume of water, clear and sweet, with a maximum discharge of 162,000 m3/d, and 70,000 cubic meters of spring water gushing out every day. Moreover, there are many small spring eyes in the pool, and near Baotu Spring, there are more than thirty famous springs such as Jinxi Spring, Shuyu Spring, Xibo Spring, Liuxu Spring, Huanghua Spring, Dukang Spring, and Bailong Spring, forming the Baotu Spring group. Baotu Spring has a long history, rich in legends, and many ancient sites in the garden. There are northern gardens represented by Wanzhu Garden, historical culture represented by Li Qingzhao, and modern historical sites commemorating the Jinan Massacre. Especially, many famous people have left inscriptions and poems, such as Zeng Gong, Su Shi, Yuan Haowen, Zhao Mengfu, Zhang Yanghao, Wang Shouren, Wang Shizhen, Pu Songling, He Shaoji, Guo Moruo, Qi Gong, etc., all have written about Baotu Spring and its surrounding attractions. During the Kangxi Emperor's southern tour in the Qing Dynasty, he visited Baotu Spring, tasted the sweet spring water, wrote the two big characters "Jituan" (rushing torrent), and conferred it as "the number one spring under heaven," making Baotu Spring's cultural heritage even deeper, becoming a famous tourist destination at home and abroad. Another feature of Baotu Spring is the blooming of the wood fragrance flowers. Every spring, a grand wood fragrance flower feast arrives as scheduled in Cang Garden, with petals as white as snow and deep, rich wood fragrance attracting countless tourists to come and take pictures. Baotu Spring's cultural activities are very rich. Every year in the first month of the lunar calendar, the traditional cultural activity of the Spring Festival Lantern Fair, which has been passed down for many years, is held as scheduled in Baotu Spring. So far, the Baotu Spring Lantern Fair has been held for forty-three sessions, with the saying "If you haven't seen the lanterns at Baotu Spring, it doesn't count as celebrating the New Year." In addition, there are chrysanthemum exhibitions, opera performances, folk activities, calligraphy and painting exhibitions, Baotu Spring behavior dramas, acrobatics, and other cultural festival activities.