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Quote of the Month
This Month's Quote
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Images copyright Michael A. Scott. Click to enlarge.
Beijing,
Day 1 | Tiashan | Ji'nan
| Qufu | The Great Wall | Beijing
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Qufu
At so many entrances, there are a pair of lions
to keep evil away. This is the left and female lion. Both of these
lions are at the entrance to the Kong family mansion, Kong being
the family of Confucius (Kong Qui). Qufu is the birthplace of Confucius,
who lived from 551-479 BC
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This is the male lion, on the right side. The Kongs
were a privileged family througout the centuries. Confucius is highly
revered as the father of all teachers, and one who laid the foundation
of one of the major Chinese philosophies for the past 2500 years.
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As soon as we got out of the car, this cart and
driver approached us. We took it for a bouncy, slow ride through
the town of Qufu, to the entrance of the Confucius temple. |
This is the south entrance to the temple area, called
the Gate of Respecting the Saint. It was only opened for visits
by emporers. The temple complex is 1.3 kilometers long, 327.5 acres,
being built up over the centuries in honour of Confucius. The site
is now a World Heritage Site protected by the United Nations under
UNESCO. |
| Xing and Wendy wave just inside the main gate, the Gateway to the
Temple of the Saint, built in the Ming Dynasty, named in 1729. The
temple grounds are peaceful and quiet, as if the walls closed off
the rest of the world. I wish I could have spent all day there. The
complex is covered by temples, gates, tablets and steles dedicated
to Confucius and the Kong family. |
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This is the Apricot Altar, the site where Confucius taught his 72
disciples under an apricot tree, over 2500 years ago. |
The Hall of Integration, the largest of the buildings
on the grounds, in fact the largest wooden building in the world.
It stands 31m tall on the podium. The stone columns and the complex
painted roof structure is absolutely stunning. The original building
was built in 1021, this one was built in 1724 in the Qing dynasty. |
Incense burnings and prayers to Confucius. The
sense of history is powerful here. |
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The statue of Confucius looms large in the Hall. The room is gigantic,
but closed off so all we can do is look through the door. It has a
very strong smell of old wood. Breathtaking! |
| All through the grounds are vendors selling souvenirs, which makes
this sacred place a little tacky. The irony is that Confucius did
not like merchants. Still, I had to get a name chop done on a soft
stone stamp. |
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Probably the most amazing architectural element
throughout the complex are the roofs. Every roofline was covered
by sculptures of small animals, each one bringing good luck or repelling
evil spirits. |
After visiting the temple area, we walked over
to the Kong Family Mansion, home of the Kongs until 1948 when they
fled to Taiwan. The mansion is like the temple, a complex progression
of rooms, gates, buildings, and gardens. Here is a stone column
that is full of holes. I am told that fires were lit under the rock,
and the smoke would flow in and out of the holes. The more complex
the stone, the more valuable it is. |
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At the rear of the complex is a long array of gardens. The whole
complex is a world unto itself, and I wish we had more time to explore
and soak in the atmosphere. |
We leave the mansion by rickshaw and enter the town to eat lunch.
We come to the 77th Generation Kong Family Mansion Restaurant, which
turns out to be quite the adventure. We are taken up to a room on
the second floor. Mr. Han orders the dishes, which are delicious.
Cool dish of the day was a carving of Confucius in some vegetable
overlooking a ginko seed plate, and a tofu suprize dish which Mr.
Han and Xing took delight in lifting the top.
From here it was a couple hour trip back to Ji'nan, and to the
Batou Springs (previous page). |
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The Great Wall |
Pictures were taken by a 5MP Pentax Optio 550, and
were processed with ACDSee v. 3.1, and reduced to 1024X768 by Shortcut's
S-Spline v. 2.2 for the web. Thumbnails were created by S-Spline as
well. |
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