page_title: Daming Lake
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Daming Lake / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Historical postcard of China
context_page_description: Daming Lake is the largest lake in the city of Jinan, Shandong, China and one of city's main natural and cultural landmarks. Located to the north of the historical city center, the lake is fed by the artesian karst springs of the area and hence retains a fairly constant water level through the entire year.
context_section_description: As a central site in the historical center of Jinan, Daming Lake has been the setting of many events in the history of the city: As his rebellion against the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan came to an end in 1262, the governor Li Tan tried to drown himself in the lake. He was rescued by the Mongols in order to be executed by being put in a sack and trampled to death by horses. The warlord Zhang Zongchang, nicknamed the "Dogmeat General" and unpopular because of his heavy-handed rule, planned to erect a living shrine to himself on the lake, but the plans were not executed due to Zhang's fall from power. During the Battle of Jinan in the Chinese Civil War, the commander of the city's defense against the communist People's Liberation Army, Kuomintang General Wang Yaowu had his command post near the lake shore.
  From March 2006 to April 2007, the Daming Lake Park was renovated and extended to connect all portions of the park for unified access. To achieve this, 1788  housing units (including 1639 residential units) were demolished. Since the expansion, the Daming Lake Park covers a total of 103.4 hectares, 29.4 hectares (land: 20 hectares, lake 29.4 hectares) of which were added in the expansion.
caption: Photo of Daming Lake from an early 20th-century postcard
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