The Cultural Sites of Qufu and its Surroundings

On my first day in Qufu, right after arriving from Tai’an, I set out to see the three Confucius sights spread around town. I had already seen these in 2005, but with the exception of the forest, had forgotten everything else. The temple was quite good, featuring a hall reminiscent of those built at the Forbidden City, and the mansions were also very interesting. The forest was as I remember it, but by then I was too tired to walk around much, and just went to see Confucius’ tomb.

The next day was perhaps more interesting, but rain put a bit of a damper on things. I biked the 25km to nearby Zoucheng, which was Mencius’ hometown. Mencius was another Chinese philosopher from around the time of Confucius, but his ideas did not gain the same traction. His temple was much smaller, and so were his mansions. I liked them better however, as I was the only person there and I had no blaring Chinese tour groups to contend with.

On the way back to Qufu, I stopped at Prince Lujian’s tomb. He was a Ming prince from the 15th century and his tomb is quite large impressive. Like the Ming and Qing tombs of Beijing, there is a large above ground portion of gates and other buildings. I was also able to actually go inside the tomb, which was very interesting. Alas, I would have liked to stop at Mencius’ forest on the way back as well, but there was no obvious sign indicating the turn-off and it was raining. Of course, the next day when I took the same route on my way to Xuzhou, I did locate the sign, which was minuscule. Oh well. Perhaps next time?