Shandong Province

Shandong is part of the eastern block of the North China Craton, which means it consists of crystalline and metamorphic rocks. Since the Mesozoic, Shandong has undergone a crustal thinning which is typically a sign for a forming divergent rim. In Africa this caused the Great Rift, a graben system. Here it caused a thinning and resulted in extensive volcanism during the Tertiary. But the province also has some overlying sedimentary rocks which are karstified and/or rich in fossils. The Zhucheng area in southeastern Shandong is famous for many dinosaur fossils including Tyrannosaurus and Ankylosaurus. Shandong has extensive oil fields, especially the Shengli Oil Field (Victory Oilfield) in the Dongying area in the Yellow River delta. As a result, it is one of China's richest provinces.

Most show caves of the province are located in a valley which has about 40 caves within a radius of 1.5 km. It is called 沂源溶洞群 (Yíyuán Róng Dòng Qún, Yiyuan Solutional Cave Group). Again the naming in chinese is a little off, we would call this a karst area, here they say it is a "cave group". It is named after Yíyuán county where it is located, sometimes it is called Lushan Cave Group after Lushan Mountain. It is located inside Lushan National Forest Park at the foot of Lushan Mountain. This is said to be the biggest karst area north of the Yangtze River, and it covers about 10 km². Four of the caves are open to the public.