| Night Train | Dai Temple |
| Mount Taishan | Farm Stay |
| Tomb of Confucious | Night Markets |
| Tomb of Shao Hao |
Night Train
Chinese trains are a pleasant experience (at least in our class). We went soft sleeper overnight out of Xian towards Qufu, stopping along the way for a day in Taishan. With four to each sleeper it's pretty snug, but after a few rounds of cards we had the total up to twelve. The restaurant car was just along the corridor so we had an ample supply of beer (until they ran out) whilst we whiled away the evening. At lights out we went on mozzie murder alert, squashing as many of the little suckers as we could find before bedding down for the night. Rain lashed down through the night and the train stopped frequently. In the other cabin classes the train lights automatically come on at each stop and the tanoy announcements are braodcast loudly. Luckily that didn't happen in our cabin and we emerged in the morning well rested and ready for the day.
Taishan is revered in China as a sacred location. It is beleived by Doaists that the river running through Taishan marks the dividing line between heaven and earth. The Daoist tradition goes like this: a person dies and their spirit leaves their body. The spirit finds it's way to the Dai Temple in Taishan and then one of two things happens. Either the spirit drinks tea made from the water of the sacred river and becomes mortal again (is reborn as a baby), crossing back to the earthly realm, or they ascend to heaven, never to return. As you can see in the thumbnail, it was a very rainy day when we entered The Dai Temple, the rain producing rivers around our feet in a couple of hours. Very soon we were all drenched and then a very strange thing happened, we found dead fish and frogs on the pebbled floor. It was something I had only heard about (and not believed) before so actually seeing it was astonishing. Maybe the spirits were sending us some sort of message ?
Mount Taishan is the most sacred mountian in China. It is traditionally climbed on foot, using a staircase with 4500 steps. To reach the summit this way is a pilgrimage for the Daoists, who believe they will live to be 100 if they manage it. At the end of the stairs, the pilgrims pass through the south gate to heaven, where they enter the spirit world. Close to the summit is the Azure Cloud Temple. This is the focus for the pilgrims who stop here to pray. For lovers it is a chance to put a lock on a sacred incense burner and then throw the key away. By tradition this shows their bond is for eternity, with Daoist blessing. From the temple pilgrims then continue to the summit where there are numerous inscriptions old and new but many left behind by the emperors themselves. It is known today that only one emperor ever ascended the mountain without being carried in a sedan chair, an endevour that lasted two days. These days it will take an average person 5 hours to make the climb from the foot of the mountain although there is an annual race to the summit and the record is currently 57 minutes. At the summit of the mountain is a garden area set aside for spirits. This area is venerated by those wishing for children. By tradition this is the home of Bixia; Princess of the Azure Clouds. She is a deity that can help women conceive so believers come here to pray for a child and leave a stone in the branches of a tree. They believe Bixia will turn the stone into a child for them.
The farm stay was an education. We stayed with a host family who spoke no english at all. In addition, you soon discover your phrase books might as well be toilet paper because of the four tones of the language. So unless you're a chinese speaker or an expert on written phonetics (and mean expert), you'd better get ready to draw a lot of pictures. An average five minute conversation easily takes an hour. But that actually turns out to be a lot of fun, especially when you combine that hour with plenty of beer. We spent many wonderful hours that evening with our hosts and a dozen neighbours' children, exchanging a surprising amount of information. The warmth of these people was so great it was impossible not to feel affection for them, we were glad we were advised to bring gifts for them because we would have been giving them our souvenirs otherwise.
Qufu (pronouced Chufoo) is the home town of the Confucious family. The family, called the Kong family, were advisors to the emperors right up to the end of the empire itself. As a result, they became very wealthy and were given their own graveyard in Qufu. Today there are some 100,000 living descendants of Confucious (about 90 generations down the line) and all them hold the right to be buried in this enormous cemetary. Moreover, the chinese government has no objection to this and the site is visited continuously by tourists who come to pay their respects. The power and wealth of the Kong family is evidenced at the Temple of Confucious. The carvings at the temple had to be covered up every time an emperor visited because these reliefs were superior to those in the Forbidden City. The tomb of Confucious himself is a smallish grassey mound, undecorated except for a stela standing in front stating the obvious. Despite this unimpressive 5th century BC grave, Confucious' legacy was a book of sayings that formed the basis of government in China for over two thousand years, and is still popularly followed today.
In every part of China there is a speciality cuisine. In Qufu, that's bugs. This was one of those times when you didn't ask what had just been put in front of you because you couldn't believe it. Having been used to eating without question (and without getting ill) for about a week, this was a major test of anyones faith in hygiene. But then again, how many times have you had the chance to eat a plate of fried crickets ? Well with a bit of mental effort I had the first one and chuckled to myself when I realised they tasted just like chicken (although inside a prawn's shell). After the first I went on a bit of roll and polished off half a dozen then a crayfish and washed it all down with plenty of beer (yummy!).
The tomb of Shao Hao is very unusual. It is a pyramid, albeit one with a the top cut off. It was built around 2000 years ago for this legendary emperor. It must have been designed to look like the pyramids of Egypt because it has sloping faced sides, but on top is a room with Shao Hao's statue - something like a Mesopotamian Ziggurat. Who knows ? But it could only happen in China. The sides of the pyramid are not too steep so it's relatively easy to go up to the top. However, coming down presented a very different prospect. Asking how it should be done, I was told 'go down exactly the same way as you came up'. So I did that, being first down taking it very slowly in case I slipped. It proved to be very difficult and as I saw someone else start down (the other way round), I realised 'go down exactly the the same way as you came up' meant the same route, not the same method. Oh well, it was too late to change and my slow, ungraceful descent caused much tittering amongst the rest of the group. To make matters worse, as we walked away from the site, I saw a child walking down the pyramid cleverly placing her feet in the grooves between the facing slabs (if only she'd Shao me Hao to do that!).
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