June 15, 2009

After a 7 hour bus ride from Qufu I am back now and exhausted from such a busy weekend. We left last Friday around 1pm and driving around China’s countryside was really neat to see. I have seen the city life of Qingdao and Shanghai but driving in the car on highways in the mountains was relaxing. It was a very nice way to decompress from such a busy week. The hills had crops growing on them all the way to the top and almost every farm that I saw the farmers (wife, husband and child) were tending to their crops.

We stayed in a hotel in Taishan which was a nice change from the dorms. Saturday we all awoke and were ready to climb the mountain! 9 out of the 15 of our group chose to climb, I was one of those who decided to climb and it was so worth it. I really would do it again today if I could…I just really enjoy outdoor activity and have never experienced outdoor activity like that before! The climb was tough and my legs were and still are sore from those 6,000 steps. When we all met at the top we had a quick lunch and then were able to walk around to the shops and walk, “All the way to heaven” as our guide, “Tiger” called it. I don’t remember his Chinese name but apparently it means, “Fierce Tiger” haha. The view was beautiful from the top and all of the religious/sacred areas to pray to Buddha were amazing to observe. Many people stopped to bow and pray for good luck. Also, there were thousands of gold hand locks linked together that symbolized good luck within a marriage. Basically, a married couple can bring a lock to Buddha and it would bless their marriage to have everlasting love and luck. After climbing back down the mountain we then traveled to Qufu which is about an hour drive from Taishan.

The city of Qufu was small and of course the main attraction to the city is the Emperor Confucius’ temple, home and tomb. They were all so fascinating to see and also to learn about. Our guide did a great job, but at times I found it very hard to understand what he was saying so unfortunately I and other in the group feel like we missed out of some history. One thing he did mention that I thought was really intriguing was how the people (or really the slaves) transported huge rock columns all the way from Beijing to Qufu on ice! History like that and people building Mount Tai or the Great Wall is so mind boggling to think about. This was also more, “touristy” spot than I thought it was going to be. Most of the tourists were Chinese so you can imagine their excitement to see an American. Maybe it was their excitement or maybe they are just very strong people but I was tugged and pulled on so much it definitely got a little tiring towards the end! So as you can tell the weekend was a lot of fun.

This week is going to be another busy week…school, test on Thursday, visiting the Tsingtao brewery, visiting the Qingdao museum, meeting with my conversation partner, having a nice dinner at a restaurant where they perform classical Chinese music and finally Beijing this upcoming weekend! I will post sometime in the next few days probably before I head out on Friday.

Until then I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all! Because I cannot post pictures onto this blog like I had hoped, if anyone would like to see some you can go to:

www.photobucket.com
Username: abenny12@neo.tamu.edu
Password: aggie2010

Love you all!
-Alison