Confucius say, "Relax!"
Trip Start
Jul 17, 2010
1
6
24
Trip End
Ongoing
Qufu, Shandong, China
Friday, August 6, 2010
Sadly, Confucius died thinking that he had failed in his life's work to try and reform society, completely oblivious to the fact that his teachings would become the cornerstone for humanist philosophy for the entire World. Today, the temple complex built in his honour is the second largest Imperial building in the whole of China, behind only The Forbidden City, and his cemetery is the largest artificial park in China. Bummer eh?
Mooching around the temple took the best part of a day all by itself. It was huge. Not so big that we could completely avoid bumping into the annoying Tour Groups in their matching baseball caps and their even more annoying Tour Guides with their annoying microphones - but at least we had room to maneuver. The layout of the complex is very similar to the Forbidden City, in that, all the important stuff is further back, but we could spend hours just exploring the little alcoves and 'less important' temples on the way.
Now, unless you're a Goth, a visit to Confucius Cemetery may not sound like the best day out in the World, but it was lovely. Confucius and all of his disciples are laid to rest there, in a pine and cypress forest that covers over 200 hectares. Whereas your average annoying Tour Group in matching baseball caps will whizz around the perimeter in golf carts, Lucinda and I chose to walk, and found the whole experience very pleasant and peaceful.
Scattered all around the forest are little pavilions and stone statues of various animals that act as guardians to scare away evil spirits. They may do the job on the Boogie-Man, but they certainly didn't scare away the crickets. We'd never heard anything like it. In certain sections of the forest, we actually had to shout to be heard above their chirping. I know! Lucinda Wong not being heard! Crazy talk...
We shared our hostel with a load of Kung Fu students from a local school who train Monday to Friday and get the weekends off. They train from 6am till 6pm every day in the intense heat of the sun and understandably enjoy blowing off some steam whenever they get the chance. They came from all over Europe and some of them only looked about 14. Their taste in music left much to be desired, but I wasn't about to go telling a dozen Kung Fu students to keep the noise down. Not with my dodgy knee.
We learned our lesson from The Train Journey from Hell, so we ended up staying an extra night to be sure of a seat on the onward journey. Coincidentally, it meant another evening in the bar sipping 30p beers, but then, you have to take the rough with the smooth don't you?
Comments
Great photos in here. Especially love the garden/forest....looks peaceful. Lucy you look great btw! :-)
Onto the next blog...
fantastic.you two do an old lady's heart good. x