My first actual trip within China starts today, a three-day trip with Roman and Victoria. The first stop will be in Qufu, the temple of Confucius to be more precise.

At 6:00 a.m. my alarm was ringing and it was time to eat breakfast and to pack my stuff for this trip. About an hour later I was on my way together with Roman and Victoria, my classmates. First up, a one-hour bus ride to the train station in Jinan from where the train is leaving to Qufu.

At the train station we had a small breakfast to kill the time and went to McDonalds, I think it was. It doesn't matter which one of the fast food chains it was but at least it is so that the food there is different than what we have in Europe. They also have hamburgers for example, but according to Roman they are spicier and not the same as what we have. They also have a lot of different food, it is basically completely different.

When we arrived in the hotel in Qufu there seemed to be a problem again, the hotel we booked was available but all of a sudden it was more expensive. The woman there said that it was because of the national holiday week. After searching for some other hotels in the neighborhood we found out that everything is fully booked and that we didn't have any choice than to choose this one. Luckily the room was alright, although the bed didn't have a mattress (just bedsheets) and the shower was like rain. Not pouring rain, but some drizzle.

The hotel was right next to the entrance of the Temple of Confucius. Due to the holiday week it was super busy and throughout the whole area where this temple is located were so many people. Sometimes it was even impossible to go inside a building, not sure if I've ever seen so many people visiting the same place.

What about the Temple of Confucius? Confucius was a Chinese teacher and philosopher born in 551 BC. In short, he is believed to be the founder of what is still the base of the Chinese teaching methods. His approach to teaching was to teach every student in a different way, taking into consideration their personality, rather than treating every student as they were all the same person. After his death a temple was built to commemorate him and later the complex expanded with courtyards and classrooms. Right now everything is open to the public and many images are displayed, supporting the written texts about the history of that time.

I have made some photos there and posted them on my blog for those who are interested. And during my time there I am sure that I got photographed more often than that I took photos myself.

Other than the Temple of Confucius there is not much to see in Qufu. It is a small city which is completely focused on tourism. You can find all sorts of souvenirs on every street, from home-made candies to wooden sculptures of Confucius and there is a lot of street food. Still it is good that we were there for just one day, because after a few hours we had seen everything. Time to go to sleep and continue our trip tomorrow.