Shandong is a sacred place of the Chinese philosophy and culture. Confucius, the Sage, Mencius, the Second Sage, Sunzi, Master of Military Strategy, Mozi, Master of Science, Jia Sixie, Master of Agriculture, Lu Ban, Master of Engineering and Invention, Wang Xizhi, Master of Calligraphy, Liu Hong, Master of Mathematics, and Zhuge Liang, Master of Strategies, and literary legends, including Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Sun Bin, Bian Que, Yan Zhenqing, Zhang Zeduan, Li Qingzhao, Xin Qiji, and Pu Songling, were born in Shandong. The masterpieces of these eminent men and women of the past have exerted profound influence on the formation of China’s national spirit.

Shandong has numerous natural sceneries, represented by one mountain, two waters and one coastline. One mountain refers to Mount Tai, the most revered one of the five sacred mountains in China. Two waters refer to the Yellow River, the mother river of the Chinese nation, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the longest canal in the world. One coastline refers to the one in Shandong, which takes up 1/6 of China’s entire coastline. By the end of 2018, Shandong had 1,291 tourist attractions at or above A level (11 5A-level tourist attractions), 46 tourist resorts at or above provincial level (4 national-level tourist resorts), and 637 starred hotels. In 2018, the revenue in tourism stood at 989.24 billion RMB yuan and received 865 million tourist arrivals in total.