QUFU, a dusty rural town in the south of Shandong, easily accessible by train from Tai’an( 100km north) and Ji’nan (180km away) is quiet and pretty with an agreeably sluggish feel, but of great historical and cultural importance, Confucius was born here around 551 BC, taught here - largely unappreciated - for much of his life, and was buried just outside the town, in what became a sacred burial ground for his clan, the Kong.
All around the town, despite flurry of destructive zeal during the Cultural Revolution, is architectural evidence of the esteem in which he was held by successive dynasties - most mon, umentally by the Ming, who were responsible for the two dominant sights, the Confucius Mansion and the Confucius Temple, whose scale seems more suited to Beijing.

Qufu is a great hassle-free place to stop over for a few days, with plenty to see concentrated in a small area. It’s small enough to walk everywhere, along unpolluted streets with little traffic - there are even benches to sit on, and trei full of singing birds. The compactness of the centre, however, also means that it’s hard to blend in with the crowd, and you may be the object of the usual tourist hustle. If it all gets too much, remember the words of the master him- self: “A gentleman understands what is moral, a base man understands only what is profitable.”You could always escape to the Confucius Forest nearby, where you can lose yourself anfid the eerie, twisted cypresses. Around the end of September, on Confucius’s birthdate in the lunar calendar, the pace 0fthe town picks up when a festival is held here and reconstructions of many 0fthe original rituals are performed at the temple.

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