From Beijing to Kunming (via mountains, Confucius and Halloween)
October 31st, 2005 by Greg
After realising that I wouldn’t be able to leave Beijing for a week and with Cat feeling a bit bored too, we decided to go away a couple of days. We took the overnight train to Taishan (in Shandong Province), one of the 5 spiritual mountains in China.
Arrived at about 7am having slept quite badly on the train but still managed to get up the mountain in just over 3 hours, so it wasn’t too much of a test of our endurance. Our original plan was to stay in a hotel on the top overnight and get up for the sunrise but when we got to the top it was still morning and was absolutely freezing. We were really tired, there isn’t that much to see or do at the top and it was really grey and misty so we assumed there wouldn’t be much of a sunrise. We had some lunch, took the cable car down and got a ride to Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius.
Once in Qufu we were so exhausted that we went straight to bed, got up for dinner and then back to bed again – deciding to postpone the sightseeing to the following morning. Having realised that we had completely forgotten to buy train tickets back to Beijing (in China you can only buy one way tickets and we had planned to buy them at Taishan station as soon as we arrived) we had to get back to Taishan that afternoon to buy them. This turned out not to be a problem as there isn’t really that much to see and do in Qufu. Its a pretty little town but completely relies on the Confucius connection.
The townsfolk are milking it too as most people in town mysteriously have the surname “Kong” and are “direct” descendants of the Great Sage. Quite a U-turn from 30 years ago when everybody would have been vigorously denying any connection.
After a look round the Confucius temple, Confucius mansion and Confucius forest (where some of his descendants and the Great Sage himself are buried), we got the bus back to Taishan where we were unable to buy sleeper tickets back to Beijing. Its sometimes possible to upgrade on the train but it was so packed that we couldn’t do it. A restless night in an extremely crowded and noisy hard seat carriage was the best we could manage.
Back in the capital for Saturday morning, a few more hours sleep, and then off to the biggest Halloween party in Beijing at Yen Club, one of the warehouses in Dashanzi (the Hoxton of Beijing). It turned out to be a really good night. Got home during the early daylight hours and spent all day watching the 4th series of 24 on dvd before flying down to Kunming where I am now. Staying for a few days at the flat of a British guy I met in Ruili while I make some big decisions about what I’m going to do next as I’ve decided that playtime is officially over. Been spending far too much money and really looking forward to getting settled.
