Current Time in Linqu, China

Linqu lies in the centre of Shandong province in eastern China, in the hilly country south of the city of Weifang, to which it belongs administratively. The Mi River flows northward through the county, and the landscape is a mixture of low mountains, terraced slopes and fertile valleys, with the volcanic and sedimentary formations of the area giving it unusual geological interest. The climate is temperate and monsoon influenced, with hot rainy summers, dry sunny autumns and cold winters.

The county has a population of around eight hundred thousand, concentrated in the county town and in a network of villages and market towns. Agriculture remains fundamental, and Linqu is one of the leading producers of hawthorn in China, along with apples, walnuts, chestnuts and hardy kiwi fruit. Food processing, machinery, building materials and stone working provide industrial employment.

The area has an ancient pedigree. Shandong is the homeland of Confucius, and the state of Qi that once dominated this part of China left tombs, walls and legends across the county. Linqu was established as a county under that name more than a thousand years ago, and its hills held strategic passes on routes between the interior and the coast.

Linqu's greatest claim to fame is scientific. At Shanwang, a few kilometres from the county town, lies one of the richest fossil beds in the world. Fine layers of diatomite laid down in a Miocene lake around eighteen million years ago preserved plants, insects, fish, birds and mammals in exquisite detail, and the site has yielded tens of thousands of specimens, including delicate leaves with their veins intact and birds with feathers still visible. Chinese scientists call the deposit a book of ten thousand volumes, and the site is protected as a national geopark with a museum displaying the finds and the remains of ancient elephants and rhinoceroses recovered nearby.

The county is also known for Mount Yi, one of the historic sacred mountains of China, honoured since antiquity as the guardian peak of the east and visited by emperors and scholars. Its granite summits, pine woods, temples and inscriptions carved into the rock make it a fine place for walking, and it is protected as a national forest park. Another local treasure is the red silk stone quarried in these hills, valued for centuries as material for inkstones and counted among the finest in China, with pieces from Linqu prized by calligraphers since the Tang and Song dynasties.

Local culture reflects Shandong traditions of hospitality, wheat based food, folk opera and the martial arts of the province, and nearby Weifang is celebrated worldwide as the home of kite making, hosting an international festival each spring.

Expressways and provincial roads connect Linqu to Weifang, Qingdao and Jinan, with high speed rail and an airport in the neighbouring city. Schools and vocational colleges serve the county.

Linqu is remarkable for its fossils, its sacred mountain and its inkstones, a county where science, history and landscape come together.