Qingzhou (青州) is the ancient capital of Shandong province, China. It survives to this day as a smaller city to the west of Weifang.

Tourism

• An old church
• Muslim district, including at least two large and historic mosques
• Ou Yuan, a Ming Dynasty garden turned zoo and performance area
• Qingzhou Museum, featuring some of the Buddhist statues unearthed in 1996/1997
• Tuoshan ("Camel Mountain"), which includes an ancient collection of Buddhist grottoes under national protection.

Timeline

• 412: The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Faxian landed on the south of Shandong peninsula at Laoshan, and proceeded to Qingzhou to translate and edit the scriptures he had collected in India.
• 1986: The name "Qingzhou" is recovered from "Yidu".
• 1996: The discovery of over 200 buried Buddhist statues at Qingzhou was hailed as a major archaeological find. The statues included early examples of painted figures, and are thought to have been buried due to Emperor Huizong's Song Dynasty repression of Buddhism (he favoured Taoism).

zh:青州 de:Qingzhou