6th day in China

Yes, today we are going to visit qufu. It took us half a day to reach Qufu, the birthplace of Confusius. This has become my routine everyday... woke up early, check out and on the road again going to a new unknown place. So far, the journey is through highways but once in a while, I would be travelling through the countryside. I managed to get a glimpse of villagers washing their clothe along the streams. I had never seen one live before.. well that was the first time. Another scene which I can't forget is that men would wear jackets, the one we use to wear to office to work in farms. I remembered my guide Wei, told me that many years back, when the Chinese go out from the country, the government would sponsor them RMB 300 to buy jackets/coats to wear overseas so as to enhance their image. No wonder, back in Malaysia, I would see Chinese men wearing jacket/coat.

Back to Qufu, I reached the small town around noon. It's a busy town. I was very excited to see Confusius birthplace. I was told that it's a town within a town. In the middle of the town, there would be a fortress and his house, temple and mouseleum lie within the fortress. There are no personal cars inside the fortress, only those authorised vehicles are allowed within. So, wherever you go in the town, u would get the glimpse of the fortress. Best still, the famous Emperor Qing Long of the Ch'ng dynasty always stepped foot here so as to pay homage to the great teachers. He would always dined at his home and his favourite dish was........ fried taugeh with dried shrimps. The story was that he was fed up with the usual lavish dishes that he always had that he asked the family cook what other dish which has not been served. The cook got angry and so he took a bunch of beansprouts (taugeh) and fried them with dried shrimps, which is the food for the workers. The Emperor loved this dish so much and thus every time he came to Qufu, he would request this dish to be served.

Even the town is old, but one can see a lot of modern facilities here. Hahaha I even found a machine which polish shoes. The first place, I went is to pay homage to the great teacher Confusius at his temple. Since cars are not allowed inside, I have to take the local trams.

The first stop is the temple for Confusius. There are 3 walking paths leading to his temple. In the photo on the left, I was sitting at the path meant for the Emperors hahaha... cool right. Imagine, sitting on the path where the Emperors of China set foot.

The temple house a lot of pillars which would have dragons carved on them. It was considered wrong to have pillars carved with dragons as they were meant only for the Emperors palace. So, whoever did this would face death. However, the Emperors of China considered him to be a superior teacher, thus, his family was allowed to have these pillars. It was said that the family's first son is considered to be the first grade officer, second to the Emperor, thus his words were the words of the Emperor.

Next stop, was his family's first son house. which was very near to the temple. Only the first son of the family can stay here. I was told this descendents still live on today, which is his 76th descendents. One is a professor teaching in a university in Beijing and another is in Taiwan. The last place was his mouseleum. It housed 3600 of his offsprings. Our guide didn't bring us there as that place was vast and there were some old members in our groups.

We checked into our hotel which is a 4 star hotel. Surprisingly, it is a double storey building. The lobby is huge but the room is small. I never like it here as it looked so depress. What to expect as the surrounding buildings are built from ancient times. Many anguishes, tensions can still be felt here.







This is also the first place I found my first gold coin and the first glimpse of the the original graphic paper cutting.


Anyway, I stayed only a day in Qufu, woke up around 4 and by 6 am on my way to Jinan International Airport which was a 4 hours drive from Qufu to catch a flight to Beijing, my last stop.