Ming Ya Jing Wei Hotel Jining

So I haven't updated in a while because i just had a test! I'm so happy for it to be over with! So last weekend the whole program went on a trip to the Shangdong province, specifically to two cities, Tai'an and Qufu. We took a sleeper train there, and that was really cool! The beds were in compartments of 6, with three attached to each wall and stacked on top of each other! In Tai'an we got to climb ...

... platform for sacrifices. The present-day tomb is a cone-shaped hill. When it was opened by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution no human remains were found in it. Tombs for the descendants of Confucius and additional stela to commemorate him were soon added around Confucius' tomb. Since Confucius' descendants were conferred noble titles and were given imperial princesses as ...

... I’d best change from my shoddy fifty Yuan a night flea pit and head to the hostel and book in for a few nights.

We always eat at the beautiful hostel in Xian and we then head back to our usual hotel……why?

Our hotel is half the price of the hostel and we get free towels, a kettle, tea, cups glasses, soap, shampoo, conditioner, combs, toothbrushes ...

... People would stop and others would gather around and stare at him (at not me for once) and when he snapped back into reality they would all go about their day as if nothing had happened.

Nothing to see here!
Nothing to see here!

As usual trying to get anything that resembled sleep was out of the question, this time it wasn’t due to selfish people on the phone or listening to their MP3 ...

Not long left now so it was time to start heading back towards Beijing, a trip that has taken me through various parts of northern Shandong province, home of a number of sites that are just how you imagine imperial China from the movies. My first stop was Qufu, the hometown of Confucius (Kong Fuzi). The first highlight of arriving here was my first sighting of a real dragon. Well, the dancing lantern type anyway. It was the last night of the Spring Festival ...

... to see what had happened. After about 10 or 15 minutes, another bus came, and we all got off to transfer to the other bus. As we walked across, we could see that a car had hit the side of the bus on the back corner. The front of the car was crushed and the hood had buckled, but I couldn't tell if anyone was hurt. When we finally arrived at the long-distance bus station, we tried to buy a ticket to Nanjing, and the woman ...

... the legs.

Qufu is the hometown of the ultra famous philosopher, Confucius. As such, the old town has been well preserved and had money showered on it. I had to read the Analects in second year uni. While I didn't much like them, there is no denying the man's influence, especially in this part of Asia. People from Korea and Japan often come to Qufu on pilgrimage to pay their respects to the sage.

Mum and I are neither of us big museum or temple people (ok, so that ...

... the main sights 74 times..... Qufu is a lovely little town, very pretty and touristless since we have come at the coldest time of the year. The main sights in Qufu are called 'San Kong' which means 'Three Confuscius' or something similar and includes a temple, a mansion and a forest all of which either celebrate or actually hold Confuscius. On the second day, we made our way to a mountain called Nishan which is supposedly where Confuscius was actually born. Nishan is ...

... stash their bags in my compartment for safekeeping until they got their bikes on the train. Sure. To make a long story short (also not one of my strong suits, as you surely know by now), Simone, Clizia, and I chatted on and off over the next nearly 24 hours, until they got off the train in Jining. A few months ago, they quit their jobs as a medical intern and a midwife, respectively, to bicycle from the ...

... have taken me from Jinan to Qingdao and back which was a trip I'd chosen to scrap on the basis that we wouldn't have time. A cruel irony, but not a touch on what was to follow. What I didn't know at this point was that Michelle's father had laughingly predicted at dinner 2 days before that we were going on a wild goose chase. He is obviously a wise man who I will listen to carefully future! I think it might have been the dawning of the ...