Gem-quality garnets in Jinan, Shandong Province, occur in the northern margin of the middle basic rock mass in the urban area. Because of badly ruined profiles and the lack of gemological reference, gemological instrument, FTIR, EPMA and UV-VIS were used to investigate the characteristics of Jinan garnets. Jinan garnet’s host rocks can be divided into the early-formed skarn and late-formed pegmatite. Skarn garnet crystals are subhedral to unhedral, and their main component is mainly andradite with minor grossular, mainly colored black - palm red or orange red and minor green. The pegmatite garnets’ crystals are mainly euhedral rhombic dodecahedron shape, mainly colored green or yellow, and the component is mainly grossular with minor andradite. Inclusions of pegmatite garnets are mainly needle-like actinolite and feldspar crystal inclusions. Jinan garnet crystals can show obvious color bands in black - reddish brown - yellow - yellowish green - green from the early epoch to the late. Green garnets have the characteristics of abnormal extinction, uneven Cr content, high content of Fe-Ti-Cr in dark green rims and low content of Y. Black garnets have high Ti content and contain black spinel inclusions. The spinel and actinolite inclusions in Jinan garnets are different from other regions’ gem-quality garnets.