A62-015. Traveling China with My Wife and Daughter: Summer 2015 East & North China Combo Tour (Days 4–6)

Day 4 (July 28)

A. Tai'an—Qufu (took the 8:10–8:38 G279 high-speed train, first-class seat 54.5 yuan; at Qufu East Station, luggage storage 20 yuan/piece.)

B. Visited the Temple of Confucius (apparently only one bus route runs from Qufu East Station to the city center, and it doesn’t go directly to the temple, so we ended up taking an unlicensed cab straight there for 20 yuan.)

C. Visited the Kong Family Mansion.

D. Hot pot lunch at Little Sheep restaurant on Jingxuan Middle Road, Qufu.

E. Qufu—Qingdao (boarded the 17:43–21:19 G316 high-speed train, second-class seat 179 yuan.)

F. Arrived in Qingdao and checked into the hotel (stayed at 7 Days Inn Qingdao Railway Station Zhanqiao Branch on Guancheng Road, booked via Ctrip, 336 yuan/night; about a 10-minute walk from Qingdao Railway Station. The Guancheng Road area has several hotels like Home Inn and Jinjiang Inn, making it a hotel cluster; there was a late-night snack restaurant next to the hotel.)

Qufu, once the capital of the ancient State of Lu, is now a county-level city under Jining in southwestern Shandong, about 135 km from Jinan. It covers around 895.93 km² and has a population of roughly 639,200.

The Temple of Confucius, Kong Family Mansion, and Cemetery of Confucius (collectively the “Three Kongs”) have a combo ticket priced at 150 yuan; guided tours cost 150 yuan.

The Temple of Confucius is a shrine dedicated to the worship of Confucius and the veneration of Confucianism. First built in the Zhou Dynasty and completed during the Ming and Qing dynasties, it is the largest of over 2,000 Confucius temples worldwide. Covering 140,000 m², it is laid out along three routes with nine successive courtyards on a central axis, with symmetrical arrangements on both sides. The complex comprises five halls, one pavilion, one altar, two halls, and 17 stele pavilions—466 rooms in total—built during the Jin, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and Republican periods. The main hall, Dacheng Hall, with double eaves, nine ridges, yellow glazed tiles and soaring eaves, is surrounded by a cloister and regarded as one of the three great halls of the East.

Known as the Supreme Sage, Confucius gave his name to the temple, which is also called the Temple of the Supreme Sage. The plaque bearing these characters was inscribed by the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

Expanded over many dynasties, the temple feels vast, and the squares between halls are planted with ancient groves of pine and cypress.

Dacheng Hall is the temple's centerpiece, one of the three great halls of the East.

“Interlocking brackets” (hook heart and fight corner) normally describes people scheming against each other, but it’s actually an architectural term. The temple has interlocking architecture: the upper image shows the “hook-heart” style; the lower image shows the “fight-corner” style.

The Kong Family Mansion is the hereditary residence of Confucius’ direct lineal descendants, the oldest, largest, and best-preserved ancient complex combining government office and family residence in China, known as “The First Family Under Heaven.”

The mansion sits next to the temple. Although eldest sons and grandsons had lived near the temple in their hometown before the Ming Dynasty, the mansion’s present scale mostly dates from Ming-era planning, driven by official reverence for Confucius.

It is said that the two characters “Sheng Fu” (Holy Mansion) were written by a notorious treacherous minister of the Ming Dynasty.

The mansion blends office and home: the eldest branch of Confucius’ descendants inherited titles, received stipends, and lived here.

The mansion’s back garden is also quite large. Legend has it that a Qing Dynasty princess married a descendant of Confucius, and the garden was expanded as part of her dowry.

Five cypresses embracing a single locust tree—”Five Cypresses Embrace a Locust”—is said to be a natural formation.

Near the garden exit hangs a painting done by a mansion servant, a primitive 3D artwork: from any angle, the road in the painting points directly at you.

Out of respect for graves, we skipped the Confucius family cemetery—Kong Lin.

Qingdao, abbreviated Qing, also called Jiao, is a sub-provincial city in Shandong located at the southern tip of the Shandong Peninsula. It administers the districts of Shinan, Shibei, Huangdao, Laoshan, Licang, and Chengyang, as well as the cities of Jiaozhou, Jimo, Pingdu, and Laixi. Its area is about 11,282 km² and population around 9.0462 million.

Day 5 (July 29)

After breakfast at the restaurant next door, my daughter complained of exhaustion. It turned out she had a fever, so we swiftly cancelled all Qingdao sightseeing. She took some medicine and we rested at the hotel all day. Fortunately, the seafood platters from the Guancheng Road restaurant for lunch and dinner still left a lingering impression on dad.

Day 6 (July 30)

A. Rested at the hotel.

Although our daughter was much more energetic, she still had a slight fever. Mom suggested dad go out for a walk alone, but sightseeing without wife and daughter felt pointless, so I took it easy at the hotel.

B. Lunch at a restaurant on Guancheng Road.

C. Qingdao—Weihai (took a 14:30 bus at Qingdao Long-Distance Bus Station on Wenzhou Road—also called Sifang Bus Station—to Weihai; ticket 100 yuan, about 4 hours.)

D. Arrived in Weihai and checked into the hotel (stayed at Jinjiang Inn Weihai Bus Station branch on Qingdao South Road, booked via Ctrip, 219 yuan/night; about a 10-plus-minute walk from the bus station.)