Qufu and Taishan: Following the footsteps of Confucius

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A handful of us ventured out to Qufu and Tai an the last week of May. Qufu is the birthplace of Confucius. Tai-an is home to Taishan, one of five sacred mountains in China, and a mountain that Confucius himself climbed.

We took the train to Qufu, and this was my first time on a "regular" Chinese train. My trip to Beijing was on the "fast"train - new high-speed train - which is quite luxurious. The "regular" or slow train is how most Chinese get around China. That or the travel bus. The regular train has banquettes where 4 or 6 people are facing each other around a table. The fast train is like an airplane, where everyone is facing the same direction. So on the regular train, you are staring at others, or being stared at by others, the whole journey. Plus the regular train is supposed to be no smoking, but men in China smoke everywhere, so there are always people smoking around you. On the fast train, they enforce the no smoking policy. So we found our seats and were off on our adventure. It was Dan, Laura, Rachel, Joel, Jess, and Dan's friend Ben just travelling through China.

We landed in Qufu at the train station, which is outside of town. We took a city bus into the city, instead of the taxis that were lined up ready to charge us foreigners a fortune. The city bus was small and cramped and only one kuai! We landed at the center of the city. Qufu is a small city, not much to see and do outside of the Confucius stuff. So we went to the bus station in town to buy our tickets out of there, and walked over to the Confucius Temple and Mansion. The temple area was a series of traditional Chinese buildings and courtyards. We wandered around taking it all in and sweating -- it was a very hot day! We found a nearby restaurant for lunch, then headed into the Confucius Mansion area. More traditional Chinese buildings and courtyards. In the back was Confucius' garden. We walked out the north end and caught a taxi to the Confucius Forest, where Confucius and his family are buried. The forest was my favorite part of Qufu. There is a giant burial mounc where Confucius is buried, and next to that is his brother. There are large grave markers noting the site. The forest is quite large and was cooler than the other parts of the city, since were were under the shade of the trees. It was still hot and sticky, but better than the city streets. We finished our walk around the forest and headed out, back toward the bus station. Qufu can be seen in an afternoon easily, and that's what we did.

Laura and Rachel and I took the bus to Tai-an, while the others got on the bus back to Jinan. Tai-an is the city at the foot of Mount Tai - in Chinese it's Taishan. We found a hotel and put our bags down and headed out for an evening stroll. We were looking for a restaurant, and took in the sights of the city at night. We wandered for a while, and stumbled upon a night market alongside a river. Because we were tired from the hot day and because we knew we had a long day ahead of us the next day, we headed back to where our hotel was and finally found a restaurant for dinner.

The next morning, we got up and took the bus to the base of Taishan. I wanted to climb the mountain, Laura and Rachel wanted to take the bus up, so we compromised and walked halfway. The thing in China is that you are never really on a hike like we think of in the US. The Chinese mountains all have steps built into them, so you are climbing steps the whole way up. It's a different kind of climb than I am used to, but a good challenge regardless. I had more energy than Laura and Rachel, so we had to stop a lot to rest. Don't get me wrong, I needed to rest too, it's just that I would've walked further between rests than they did. But since they had wanted to ride up, the fact that the three of us were walking up was a good thing! It was so nice to be somewhere with fresh air and green trees. Such a nice change from Jinan's pollution! The only thing missing was the water. The rains haven't come yet -- the rainy season is July and August -- so the creek beds were all dry as a bone. You could tell that it would be that much more scenic in the fall after the rains come. I will definitely go back in September or October to see Taishan in its full glory!

The steps seemed never-ending, we were climbing for what seemed like hours and hours, but was in fact only a couple of hours. The steepest part of the climb that we did is at the end, just as you are approaching the halfway point. We were quite tired but kept on trucking til the mid-point. Finally, there it was! We were amazed by the people who climb the mountain as part of their work, bringing the food and drinks and supplies to the food stands and temples along the pathway, and carrying down the trash. How is it possible to traverse up and down these steps time and time again? I don't think I could do it!

At the mid-point, beautiful vistas and lunch hour awaited us. We ate and rested and found our way to the cable car. There is a cable car to the top of the mountain - hooray! The steepest part of the mountain is the top half, so we were grateful to have the cable car to save our legs from the remainder of the climb. The cable car was fantastic, more amazing views awaited us as we dangled over the treetops. When we landed at the top, we walked around taking pictures of the views and soaking up the somewhat cooler air. We were told that it can be much colder at the top, but after the climb and the hot day, the slightly cooler air felt great! We had no need for a sweater, though we had brought an extra layer just in case.

After we took in the summit, we headed back down the back side of the mountain, our goal being Peach Blossom Park on the other side. We got off the cable car and got on a bus down the mountain. The bus ride was an adventure! Careening down the winding road, narrowly missing the buses going up. Yikes! We got off the bus at what we thought would be a park entrance, but we only saw a parking lot and buses and not much around that looked interesting. Besides, the day was getting later and we had a bus to catch back to Jinan, so we simply hopped on the city bus to take us back to downtown and to our hotel. We got on the evening travel bus back to Jinan and called it a day. We were tired but felt like we had accomplished something. Indeed, climbing Taishan is a rite of passage in China. I hope to go back and climb the whole thing in the fall, provided I can find fellow adventurers who are willing and able. It's not a climb I'd want to do solo. I am so glad that we ventured out of Jinan and down to Qufu and Taishan, following in the footsteps of Confucius.

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