Ji'nan is a sprawling place. The biggest shopping streets are located just south of the huge lake, Daming Hu, but the most interesting streets are the ordered blocks west of here, south of the train station. Most of the attractions are in the southern suburbs.

Ji'nan's airport , with international connections to Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, is 40km east of the city, and served by an airport bus which drops you outside the CAAC office. Taxis into the city cost ¥150. The large and noisy main train station , at the junction of the north-south line between Beijing and Shanghai, and a line that goes east to Yantai and Qingdao, is in the northwest of town; the long-distance bus station is even farther out of the way, directly north of the train station.

Most of the city's bus routes begin from the train station; bus #3 is the most useful, heading east into town along Quancheng Lu. The mob of taxi drivers at the station are some of the most aggressive in China - as ever, don't let yourself get hussled into a cab, it's better to walk some distance away and hail one yourself. Yellow taxis are cheap with a ¥5 basic fare, which will just about get you around the city centre.