The Alumni Gate is located at the Baotuquan campus of Shandong University in Jinan. [Photo/Dazhong News]

In 1924, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Tengchow College, the predecessor of Cheeloo University (the predecessor of the Baotuquan campus of Shandong University), thousands of alumni donated funds to build the Alumni Gate, which still stands to this day at the Baotuquan campus.

The gate is designed in the traditional Chinese style of a three-bay, three-tiered archway, and has become a landmark of Cheeloo University.

The plaques on the front and back of the gate, inscribed with "Cheeloo University" and "Alumni Gate", were written by Wang Shoupeng, then the director of Education Department of Shandong province, later the president of Shandong University.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of this historic gate.

The gate's story begins with a man named James Boyd Neal (1855-1925) from the United States.

In 1883, Neal engaged in medical teaching in Tengchow (a historical prefecture located on the Shandong Peninsula), and in 1890, he came to Jinan to establish Sino-America Hospital and a medical school. This school later merged into the Union Medical College, which later became the medical school of Cheeloo University, with Neal as its first dean.

In 1908, Neal founded a temporary hospital on Nanxin Street in Jinan and purchased land to establish a formal hospital. By 1911, he had completed the main lecture hall (now Xinxing Building) and the clinic (now Qiuzhen Building) of Qilu Hospital and built the north gate of the hospital. He also purchased extensive land to establish the campus of Cheeloo University.

Although the university was founded in 1917, it did not have an official gate until alumni donations in 1924 funded the construction of what became the Alumni Gate.

The campus inside the gate features a Western garden layout, combining elegance and antiquity. It contains numerous buildings of significant cultural and historical value, earning it recognition as a key national heritage site.

The architectural style is predominantly influenced by German, British, and American designs, incorporating many traditional Chinese architectural elements and symbols.

Shaded by trees and filled with flowers year-round, it was considered one of the best campuses in the country at the time, described as an "informal park" by Lao She (1899-1966), an iconic modern Chinese writer.

The 1930s were the golden age of Cheeloo University, with renowned scholars such as Lao She, Qian Mu, and Gu Jiegang taught here.

The Alumni Gate encapsulates a century of evolution in higher education in Shandong. The name on the main plaque has since been changed from "Cheeloo University" to "Shandong University". Through it all, the spirit "We practice medicine for the people; we do research to pursue truth and enlightenment", which is the school motto of Cheeloo College of Medicine today, has never faded.