EcoLog18 - Home of Confucius

Day 12 – Qufu; Home of Confucius - 30 June 08 (2km walk)

We all had a lazy morning trying to catch up on some sleep and to rest our weary bones. We went off to reception to try and get them to organise our flights out of Jinan. Yuji was phoned to come and interpret then we also managed to collar a person who was actually a Japanese guest who happened to speak fluent Putonghua. With his help we organised our e-tickets and decided we would catch the train to Jinan the next afternoon and stay one night there before flying out at lunch time the following day.



At 3pm we all set off on the final leg of our walk, through the old town to Confucius tomb…total distance 2km. It was great to have a leisurely wander through this ancient town. There are many modern shops but these are housed inside the old buildings so it really gave us a view of old China.



Outside the walls of the old town we walked the gauntlet of the souvenir sellers set up on both sides of the road to the cemetery. The cemetery is also walled off and is set in a forest that boasts some 20,000 trees – Cypresses, Chinese Junipers, Elms, Chinese Scholar Trees, etc. -- and occupies some 200 hectares of land. We had deliberately left our visit to late afternoon as we wanted to avoid the large tour groups of locals being lead around by megaphone wielding tour guides.



We made it to the tomb just before one such group and waited out their loud commentaries to then have some quiet time beside the large mound that is Confucius grave. Then we wandered through the forest which is dotted with tall concrete grave stones as this is the cemetery for all of Kong family, with over 100,000 Confucius descendants buried there. It really was a peaceful wander as most of the locals are driven around the roads in the cemetery park on electric cars and would not think of walking around the tracks between the graves. Did you know that the name for Confucius in Chinese is Kong Fu Zi? When we said Confucius to most Chinese they did not know who we meant though they certainly knew the name Kong Fu Zi.



We left the cemetery and had a superb dinner at a Korean restaurant. This was a welcome change from the Chinese food that we have been eating in local restaurants over the past 12 days. We have been sticking to a mainly vegetarian diet as the meat options look a little dodgy to say the least. Most restaurants have a selection of vegetables on display that we can go and choose from. Depending on the restaurant you either get exactly what you see i.e. sliced cucumber with no condiments or veges served with various condiments such as vinegar and copious amounts of garlic added. Our staple while travelling has been cucumber vinegar and garlic, small beans that you chew off the pods, and other bean sprout type dishes. These are served cold and are then accompanied with a variety of veges cooked in copious amounts of low grade oil.



After dinner we parted ways with Paul, Konomi and Yuji and went off to a performance in an outdoor stadium entitled “Confucius Dream”. This is a nightly performance in a purpose built out door theatre. The large cast perform a dance and acrobatic routine telling a story of how Confucius’ vision was of a world where all peoples live in harmony. It is a very visual performance with fantastic costumes set off by a great light show. We enjoyed it as did the other 100 or so attendees in the 1000+ seat auditorium.

Grow well
Dr Merrin