Situated in the southwest of Shandong Province, Qufu is one of the first of 24 famous historical and cultural cities announced by the State Council. It is 160 kilometers (about 99 miles) from the capital of Shandong Jinan and 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Jining City, Shandong. Qufu was the capital of the kingdom, Lu, in the Spring and Autumn Pe...

After a two-day pit stop at Suzhou to dump my luggage, I hopped onto another long distance bus and headed for Qufu, Confuscius' birth and deathplace, in Shandong province. Being the only foreigner on the bus, I was stared at, prodded and questioned in heavy accents for the next 12 hours before being dropped off on the side of the highway to (luc...

The last time my dad was in Confucious's hometown was in 1987 leading a bunch of Australian Med Exchange students around. They kept on saying "Confucious, confucious" and my dad had no idea what they were talking about. Only after leaving the Confucian forest did he realise that Confucious was Kong Fu Zi (Confucious's real Chinese name). So, mor...

Confucius...Chinese Idenity and Culture...Feudal Hierarchies...Respect and Deference... They are all embedded in the continuum of Chinese Dynastic History, the unspoken and unquestioned realities of modern day Leninist Corporate China, and will remain so in whatever happens in the nation's future. After all this is not a fly-by night fashion, it...

Qufu We had been told to go to Qufu firstly, because it was Confucius' home and secondly, because it is a little smaller, quaint and quiet. "Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar?" Confucius, long time ago. It was a great change in pace, we stayed in a nice hotel right in the middle of everything and we were at the point of needing a ho...

Our First Excursion in Jinan was a visit to the Birth Place of good old Confucius. What a trip that was, two hours by bus through the worst smog I have seen thus far, it was an interesting place, lots of things to buy, and a lot of history. Despite that the Temple we visited that was dedicated to Confucius and his Teachings wasn't even built unt...

Arriving in a new city late at night by public transportation is never fun. Add a thundershower and a hefty language barrier and I was a little anxious as my train pulled into Taishan around 11:30 PM Monday night. My legs weren't really working properly after Huangshan's pounding and I guess my brain was a bit foggy from the 13 hour train ride, ...

The birth place of Confucianism and a world heritage site by mistake

Sitting here writing this on a bloody freezing Thursday morning after classes were unexpectedly cancelled. "Unexpectedly" as far as we were concerned that is - the students and Chinese teachers were completely aware there would be no classes, but unsurprisingly no-one mentioned it to us. Writing this on Word instead of directly to the web as we ...