Cultural Life

Bringing into full play the advantages of the inherited Qi and Lu cultures, Shandong province goes all out in promoting cultural undertakings. The province owes much to its rich traditional local folk operas, music, drama and dance, including drumming yangko (a popular rural folk dance), Jiaozhou yangko and Haiyang yangko, well known as the three famous yangko in Shandong. Folk arts are represented by a full variety of feature works such as Weifang block printed Spring Festival pictures, folk paper-cuts, and farmer's paintings.

Great progress has also been made in recent years in modern art and culture. There are now 25 national cultural counties, three State-Level cultural centers for rural children, 23 national-level townships of folk art, and 27 provincial-level townships of folk art.

Mass Media

Mass media in Shandong, such as news and publishing, has undergone constant development. In 2001, a total of 4,393 books and 268 magazines or journals were published. There are 18 broadcast stations and 18 television stations above prefectural level, and 74 broadcast & television stations at country level. The average daily broadcast time of all the radio stations amounted to 1,225 hours and 38 minutes, and the weekly broadcast time of television stations 8,349 hours and 42 minutes. Radio and television now reach 93.5 percent and 91.0 percent of the population respectively.

Dazhong Daily, launched on January 1,1939, is a newspaper with the longest history and widest influence in the province. With a daily circulation of over 400,000, it also publishes Qilu Evening News, Rural Dazhong, Life Daily and other papers.

Shandong People's Broadcast Station airs everyday on 15 different frequencies. Shandong TV Station, one of the earliest in China to transmit its programs via satellite, broadcast 24 hours a day, covering the whole nation plus 40 more countries and regions around China.

Making use of the most advanced public media, Shandong has set up such sites on the net as Dazhong Net (www.dzwww.com), providing fast convenient means for the entire world to learn about the province.

There are sixteen publishing houses plus three more for audio & video materials. Shandong General Publishing House, as the leading publisher, has under its administration nine specialized publishing houses.