The Foreigners In The Eyes Of Jinan Urban Landscape Study (1840-1937),

Studying on foreign perspective on China is a new standpoint and important content in studies on modern history and geography of historic cities, and provides valuable materials for exploring the natural and cultural landscape of regional cities in China in modern times. The study is not only of profound historic, geographical, folklore, ethnic and religious research value, but can be used as reference for the city planning and development of current cities. Tsinan was the political center of Shantung Province in modern history, and it became the economic center and transportation hub of Shantung and the North China in a larger extent and got prosperous day by day as treaty ports were open and the Tsingtao—Tsinan and Tientsin—P’uk’ou Railways lines were opened up. In this circumstance, a large number of foreigners rushed to Tsinan under the protection of unequal treaties, among them people from Germany, Japan, Britain and U.S. occupied the largest proportion. The foreigners did business, worked as missionaries and doctors and other occupations in Tsinan. Many materials such as diaries, travel sketches, newspapers and magazines, research reports and great works written by them remained, with content related to all aspects of Tsinan, including climate, hydrology, population, ethnic groups, economy, transportation, architecture, education, medical and health care. By analyzing the above foreign materials, this thesis has a detailed research on foreign perspective on the cityscape of Tsinan in modern times.The thesis starts from the study of natural landscape. Located in the north temperature zone the city of Tsinan had a continental monsoon climate. It was dry and windy in spring, or even sweltering; it was hot and rainy in summer, bright and sunny in autumn, cold and dry in winter. The hilly area in the south was of certain adjusting function to the local climate to bring an appropriate amount of snow sometimes; hydrological sceneries abounded there; Xiaoqing River was the main aquatic access to the sea for Tsinan and inlands in Shandong, and the springs and the Daming Lake added spiritual nature and sense of beauty for Tsinan on the one hand and brought more usable values to citizens of the city of springs. Secondly, the thesis studies from the perspective of cultural landscape. Commercial trades thrived after trade ports were open. The trade area and Ximen Street were the most prosperous. Change of house and building sceneries was the most outstanding in these streets. There appeared increasing two-storey buildings with Chinese and western characteristics, corresponding with the traditional courtyard buildings in a far distance, while the layout and construction of trade areas became models for city planning in China in modern times. Tsinan had a large population, reaching200,000to300,000between the late19th century and the early20th century, with a population density far higher than that of contemporary Beijing and American cities. As a result, the city was plagued by excess population and immigration policies needed further planning and be improved; people of hui ethnic group had a large population and gathered together to live closely, and some of them converted to Christianity which had been rarely seen in history, arousing the close attention of foreigners in modern times; there were changes in social life as well. Despite that Tsinan was relatively slower than metropolises in becoming modernized, urban residents in Tsinan benefited a lot from improvements in roads and vehicles, communication and lighting facilities, as well as the construction and development of leisure and entertainment places. All these were a testimony of Tsinan’s modernization. In addition, foreigners’attention to the living conditions of lower class common people became one of its highlights; wheelbarrows and rickshaws constituted the major vehicles in Tsinan in modern times, as streets were narrow and bumpy, and poor drainage made traffic jams extraordinarily serious; opening trade ports bolstered the rapid economic development; in the industrial and commercial area, numerous imported and exported goods and industrial enterprises of different types emerged, mounting to the top at the contemporary time; religious schools and traditional school education in Tsinan made outstanding achievements in modern times, and the Qilu University became the model of religious schools in modern China; Guanzhi Museum displayed various exhibits to enrich people’s popular scientific knowledge, frequently held speeches and Bible reading activities, which were of significant social and educational meanings; progress was also made in medical and health care sectors, medical facilities and conditions in hospitals of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine gradually improved, and became affordable for more and more people, which contributed a lot to improving the health conditions of Tsinan citizens.Finally, based on the above analyses, the author makes a comparison of the similarities and differences between foreigners’ perspectives and Chinese and foreign celebrities’perspectives on the cityscape of Tsinan, with an aim to meet the target of remodeling the foreign perspective on Tsinan in modern times.