Jinan, alternately romanized as Tsinan, is the capital of Shandong province in Eastern China. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the history of the region from the earliest beginnings of civilization and has evolved into a major national administrative and transportation hub; the city has held sub-provincial administrative status since 1994. Jinan is called the "Spring City" for its famous 72 artesian springs, its population was 6.8 million at the 2010 census. As the letter N can be both syllable-final and syllable-initial in Mandarin Chinese, Hanyu Pinyin recommends that the city's name be spelled "Ji'nan" to avoid ambiguity with words pronounced "Jin'an"; this practice is however ignored. The modern-day name Jinan means "south of the Ji" and refers to the old Ji River that had flowed to the north of the city until the middle of the 19th century; the Ji River disappeared in 1852 when the Yellow River changed its course northwards and took over its bed. The current pronunciation of the character "Ji" with the third tone was established in the late 1970s.

Prior to this, it was pronounced with the fourth tone. Older texts spell the name as "Tsinan" or "Chi-nan". During the times of the Zhou dynasty, the city of Lixia was the major settlement in the area; the name "Lixia" refers to the location of Jinan at the foot of Mount Li, which lies to the south of the city). Today, Lixia is the name of one of the city's districts; the Battle of An, fought in the area during the Spring and Autumn period between the states of Qi and Jin, is named for the ancient city of Ān which stood within the city limits of present-day Jinan. Marco Polo gives a brief description of Jinan under the name "Chingli" or "Chinangli". 19th and early 20th century texts give the name of the city as "Tsinan Fu" where the additional "Fu" comes from the dated Chinese term for a provincial capital. Jinan is referred to by the nickname "City of Springs", because of the many artesian springs in the urban city centre and its surroundings; the area of present-day Jinan has been inhabited for more than 4000 years.

The Neolithic Longshan culture was first discovered at Chengziya to the east of Jinan in 1928. One of the characteristic features of the Longshan culture are the intricate wheel-made pottery pieces it produced. Most renowned is the black "egg-shell pottery" with wall thicknesses. During the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period, the area of Jinan was split between two states: the state of Lu in the west and the state of Qi in the east. In 685 BCE, the state of Qi started to build the Great Wall of Qi across Changqing county. Portions of the wall still are accessible as open air museums. Bian Que, according to the legend the earliest Chinese physician and active around 500 BCE, is said to have been a native of present-day Changqing County. Zou Yan, a native of Zhangqiu City, developed the concepts of the Five Elements. Joseph Needham, a British sinologist, describes Zou as "The real founder of all Chinese scientific thought."During the times of the Han dynasty, Jinan was the capital of the Kingdom of Jibei and evolved into the cultural and economic hub of the region.

The Han dynasty tomb where the last king of Jibei, Liú Kuān, was buried at Shuangru Mountain was excavated by archaeologists from Shandong University in 1995 and 1996. More than 2000 artifacts such as jade swords, jade masks, jade pillows have been recovered within the 1,500 square meter excavation site, emphasizing the wealth of the city during the period. Cao Cao was an official in Jinan, his son, Cao Pi, overthrew the last emperor of the Han and founded the Wei Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms Period. Beginning in the 5th century CE, Buddhism flourished in Jinan; the Langgong Temple (朗公寺. The same period witnessed extensive construction of Buddhist sites in the southern counties of Licheng and Changqing such as the Lingyan Temple and the Thousand-Buddha Cliff. In particular, a large number of cave temples were established in the hills south of Jinan. Jinan remained the cultural center of the region during the Song dynasty; the Song rulers promoted Jinan to a superior prefecture in 1116 CE. Two of the most important poets of the Southern Song were both born in Jinan: Li Qingzhao, the most renown female poet in Chinese history, Xin Qiji, a military leader of the Southern Song dynasty.

Both poets witnessed a series of crushing defeats of the Song dynasty at the hands of the Jurchens who gained control over half of the Song territories and established the Jin dynasty in northern China. After Jinan came under control of the Jin dynasty, both Li Qingzhao and Xin Qiji had to abandon their homes and reflected this experience in their works. During the Civil War that followed the proclamation of Kublai Khan as Great Khan in 1260 CE, Jinan was at the center of a rebellion by Yizhou governor Li Tan against Mongol rule in 1262 CE; the rebellion was crushed in a decisive battle, fought not far from Jinan in late March or early April 1262 CE. After losing 4000 of his troops in the battle, Li Tan retreated to Jinan to

Aggressive Inline is a 2002 aggressive inline skating video game developed by Z-Axis, published by Acclaim Entertainment under their AKA Acclaim label, released for the PlayStation 2, GameCube. The game features professional inline skaters, including Chris Edwards, Eito Yasutoko, Franky Morales, Jaren Grob and Taïg Khris. A different game of the same name was released for the Game Boy Advance; the gameplay focuses on completing goals given by talking to characters within each level. While some goals involve gaining a certain number of points in a specific time, many of the goals involve doing tricks on and off of pieces of the environment. Another innovative feature focused on a player leveling system where the player would perform better in different areas of skating skill by practicing them repeatedly. For instance, if the player does many air tricks throughout the course of the game, each successful trick would create points in the player's air trick statistics; when the points reach a certain number, the player's air tricks will move up a level, making it easier to perform air tricks faster and more efficiently.

The same actions apply to grinding, wall riding, skating backward, etc. The game received praise for its wide and interactive environments, comfortable control scheme, innovative gameplay. At the time, it was considered to be a breakthrough competitor to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series being the first to include some elements that would become standard in the Tony Hawk games, most notably not confining players to rigidly timed play sessions. In addition, the ability to transition from one trick to another seamlessly without having to do any actions in between made for a more streamlined combo system than the Tony Hawk series and most other action sports titles at the time, where players had to perform transition maneuvers such as ollies or flips to link one trick to another - although some fans of the genre considered this aspect of Aggressive Inline's trick system "too easy." The game received good reviews for its style of play, with the average review ratio for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Gamecube being 85%, with the Game Boy Advance version receiving worse scores than the versions on consoles.

Aggressive Inline at MobyGames Aggressive Inline at IGN

Zane's Trace is a frontier road constructed under the direction of Col. Ebenezer Zane through the Northwest Territory of the United States, in what is now the state of Ohio. Many portions were based on traditional Native American trails. Constructed during 1796 and 1797, the road ran from Wheeling, Virginia to Maysville, through the portion of the Northwest Territory that became the southeastern quarter of the state of Ohio, it was interrupted by several rivers. After serving in the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War, Col. Zane traveled to Washington, D. C. in early 1796. He petitioned Congress for money to finance the construction of a road to encourage settlement in the Northwest Territory and speed up travel times to Kentucky. Zane would profit by construction of the road, both because he owned most of the land at its starting point of Wheeling, because he intended to buy tracts of land along the route. Nonetheless, it was in the national interest for such a road to be built.

Congress approved a contract financing the project in May 1796. Col. Zane was assisted in overseeing the construction by his brother Jonathan Zane and his son-in-law John McIntire, as well as by a Native American guide Tomepomehala. Col. Zane took advantage of existing Native American trails for some of the route; these included the Mingo Trail in the area between present day Fairview and Zanesville, the Moxahala Trail in the area between present day Zanesville and Chillicothe, Ohio. Chillicothe was the only settlement existent along the route before the Trace was constructed; the Trace was constructed through forested, hilly terrain and was not traveled by wagon. After Ohio became a state in 1803, the legislature levied a state transportation tax used in 1804 to improve the entirety of the Trace. Laborers widened the thoroughfare. Between 1825 and 1830, the segment of Zane's Trace between Wheeling and Zanesville was rebuilt as part of the new National Road; the rivers and streams along the Trace were first crossed by ferry.

Col. Zane ran a ferry across the Ohio River at Wheeling, where a bridge was not constructed until 1837. Ferries across Wills Creek in present day Cambridge, were run by Ezra Graham and Henry Beymer, John Beatty. William McCulloch and Henry Crooks ran a ferry across the Muskingum River from Zanesville to Putnam, Ohio. A bridge was built over the Muskingum River in 1813. A bridge was built over the Hocking River near Lancaster, Ohio, as early as 1809. Benjamin Urmston ran the ferry across the Scioto River at Chillicothe. Ferries ran across the Ohio River to Kentucky; the town of Aberdeen, was founded in 1816 on the Ohio side of the river. A bridge was not built connecting Aberdeen and Maysville until 1931; as part of his petition to Congress, Col. Zane requested that he be given the right to buy select tracts of land at three sites where the Trace crossed a major river; the rivers were, from east to west, the Muskingum River, the Hocking River, the Scioto River. Congress granted this request. General Rufus Putnam, surveyor general of the United States, surveyed the tracts, all of which were purchased by Col. Zane.

Col. Zane deeded the tract at the Muskingum River to his brother Jonathan Zane and to his son-in-law, John McIntire, on December 10, 1800. McIntire had laid out a town named Westbourne in 1799, the name of, changed by the postmaster to Zanesville in 1801. Col. Zane divided his tract along the Hocking River into lots, appointed his sons Noah Zane and John Zane as agents to sell the lots. A town was laid out here in 1800, was named New Lancaster at the request of resident Emmanuel Carpenter, Sr. in honor of his prior home of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The town was renamed Lancaster in 1805 to avoid confusion with the town of New Lancaster in Pennsylvania. Col. Zane's tract on the Scioto River was not as useful for development; the town of Chillicothe had been settled on the west bank of the Scioto River, land west of the Scioto River was reserved for Virginian veterans of the Revolutionary War. Col. Zane sold his tract of land on the eastern bank of the Scioto River to Humphrey Fullerton in 1804.

Schneider, N. F. and Stebbins, C. C. Zane's Trace. Zanesville, Ohio: Zanesville Chamber of Commerce, 1947. Wiseman, C. M. L. Pioneer Period and Pioneer People of Fairfield County. Columbus, Ohio: F. J. Heer Printing Co. 1901