Confucious temple

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I was very excited when I arrived to Qufu which is the birth place of one of the most influential philosopher of ancient China.

The city of Qufu is a typical Chinese city and the main reason to head here is to admire the beautiful temple dedicated to Confucious.

It is very interesting that, even though, he was a thinker of the ancient times, during the Zhou dynasty some 2,500 years ago, he is still very revered in the Chinese culture nowadays, too.

Also very interesting to know was that Confucious influenced the Chinese to eat with chopsticks and practice filial piety which are the two great traditions in Chinese culture.

There are many Confucious temples spread allover China, but I thought that visiting the one at Qufu was probably the most interesting one, since that Confucious was born in this place.

The biggest temples dedicated to this philosopher are: one in Qufu and the other one in Beijing which I did not visit it.

When I was there some parts of the temple went under renovation and were closed to the public. The most striking halls I visited were the original rooms that were built in 478 BC and then all the others were gradually added over the years. The Qufu temple also has got a state library and the ancient Chinese architecture is just superb.

I was utterly fascinated by the great shrines and the architecture I found in this great historical place.

Also stunning were the dragons scultped on the pillars with other imperial symbols and relics like stone tablets and commemorative stele.

The time I was there was off the peak season and I had most of the site for myself even though, as I was saying, some parts of the temple were inacessible. Definitely a very interesting place that everyone should visit passing by the beautiful Shangdong province.

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