History of China's Shandong Province Quiz

Answer: Qingdao

The brewery, now China's largest was founded in 1903 as the Germania-Brauerei. Today the city is called Qingdao, but the beer is marketed under the older spelling of the city's name, Tsingtao.

Answer: Confucius

Confucius was born near Qufu, then the capital of the state of Lu, in 551 BC. His descendants continued to reside there, and today a large percentage of the city's population bears the same surname as Confucius (Kong). The Kong Family Mansion is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Answer: Qi

Linzi in northern Shandong was the Qi capital. Qi was the last state to be conquered by Qin; its fall in 221 BC marked the unification of China.

Answer: Long-lost military texts written on bamboo strips

They found a Han-dynasty tomb containing a large number of bamboo strips, from which much of the lost "Military Methods" of Sun Bin was reconstructed. There are two translations of this book into English, one by Ralph Sawyer and the other by Roger Ames.

Answer: Manchuria

Manchuria, the original Manchu homeland, was off limits to Han Chinese for most of the period of Manchu (Qing) rule in China. By the late 19th century, however, restrictions were lifted and there was a large influx of Chinese, mainly from Shandong. Today the majority of the people in China's Northeast (that is, Manchuria) are Han, with the Manchus only a small minority.

Prior to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, most Chinese immigrants to California came from Guangdong province. Australia was largely closed to the Chinese during this period, and Taiwan did not receive significant immigration from northern China until Chiang Kai-shek's forces retreated there in 1949.

Answer: Germany

Hence the beer. The Germans landed at Jiaozhou bay in 1897 and soon made Qingdao their headquarters, extracted from the Qing government as a "concession" in 1898. Plenty of German architecture can be seen in the city. In 1914, during World War I, the Germans were evicted by the Japanese, who then maneuvered to inherit Germany's privileges in Shandong.

Answer: True

The Boxer movement began in Shandong in 1898 and later spread to Hebei (then called Zhili). The locals were riled up by overbearing German missionaries, among other grievances.

The origins of the Boxers are described in great detail in Joseph Esherick's book, "The Origins of the Boxer Uprising" (University of California Press, 1987).

Answer: Taierzhuang

The Battle of Taierzhuang was fought in southern Shandong, March 24-April 7, 1938. Two Japanese divisions advancing on Xuzhou were repulsed with heavy losses by Chinese Nationalist forces including units from Guangxi under General Li Zongren.

Pingxingguan is the place in Shanxi where the Chinese Communists ambushed a Japanese column on September 25, 1937.

The local Shandong warlord Han Fuju abandoned Jinan to the invaders, for which misdeed Jiang Kai-shek later had him shot.

Answer: Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing was born Li Shumeng at the Shandong town of Zhucheng in 1914. She went on to become a movie actress in Shanghai, with the stage name of Blue Apple. She joined the Communists in Yan'an in 1937, and married Mao Zedong in November 1938.

Answer: Mount Tai

Mount Tai (or Tai Shan), located north of the city of Tai'an, is one of China's five sacred mountains. Emperors of some dynasties, such as the Han, performed the Feng and Shan sacrifices to Heaven and Earth here. Today it is a major tourist attraction, of course.