Jining is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Shandong Province, People's Republic of China. Jining, which is located right to the north of the Lake Nanyang is today the northernmost city reachable by navigation on the Grand Canal of China. The prefecture-level city of Jining administers 12 county-level divisions, including 2 district, 3 county-level cities and 7 counties. Primitive villages were scattered around this region five or six thousand years ago. After the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC), Rencheng County was established here. Jining, as the name of the administrative unit set up here, first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).