Indiana Jenny

The next stop on our trip was Qufu, the hometown of China's very own Confucius, or Kong Qiu as he is called in Chinese. We stayed at a cute hostel where everyone had a room overlooking a little courtyard, and there was a really nice common space where we all gathered to play cards and pool and watch movies in the evening. All in all, in was a huge step up from the previous hotel, and we were greatly relieved.

The main attraction in the town of Qufu is its Confucius Temple, the largest in China. It was built in 487 BC during the Zhou dynasty to honor Confucius. We visited it on the second day, spending the afternoon wandering among the complex of courtyards, shrines, pavilions, and giant cypress trees scattered throughout the temple. It was much less restored than a lot of the other temples I've visited, so it felt more authentic, in a way.

 

We also spent half a day at Yishan Mountain, a historic site which emperors used to visit to make sacrifices and convene with heaven. Supposedly great scholars would come to the mountain as well and leave all sorts of articles, poems, and inscriptions, so there's all sorts of mysterious wisdom floating around up there.

We hiked up the rocky hillside like intrepid explorers, scrambling over boulders and hopping crevices. There wasn't much on the hill that qualified as a pathway, so it was really up to us to forge our way up however we could manage. It felt like a maze, or some kind of intense obstacle course; At the top, we celebrated our successful climb by sprawling exhaustedly on a large, flat boulder which overlooked the surrounding area. A hazy fog had drifted in and hung in the air, giving the scenery a mysterious sort of feeling, which seemed appropriate given the mountain's strange history.

Imbibing wisdom

and sitting on giant rocks

We lingered a little too long at the top and managed to get ourselves lost on the way back down to the bus! After a lot of trial and error, running into dead ends and large boulders which we decided were best left un-climbed, we finally found a way down via a little dirt path that cut through the masses of scraggly bushes covering the hillside. Every now and then I would slip on the loose rocks on the pathway and start skidding down the hill. I'd come sliding right down next to my friends feeling like Indiana Jones or something (after I got done hyperventilating about almost flying off a cliff)! We made it back down to the bus without incident, congratulating ourselves on our feats of daring. I took a nap on the bus ride back because, frankly, being a daring adventurer is exhausting.

The evening was spent at the hostel playing Uno and several aggressive games of "Spoons," and we departed the next morning for Qingdao.