Qufu

At a rest stop on the side of the highway. That's our bus. We traveled in it for about five hours from Qingdao to Qufu.
This is where the bus dropped us off...pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We were about an hour's walk away from downtown Qufu. We walked for about ten or fifteen minutes, until a nice man with a mini van and a son in the front seat took us to our hotel.
A view of the first people we saw once we got off the bus. They stared at us for about as long as we stared at them.... Notice how the road isn't paved. We just got off the highway. The road to Qufu was paved, of course.
We were walking in the hutongs (alleyways) when we saw this man feeding his dog - he tied up his dog's ears before giving him anything to eat! It was too funny. He used a clothing pin to tie up his dog's ears (it's light blue in the picture). Older men also often have birds - they carry their bird cages with them everywhere, it's like they're "walking" their bird.

A noodle-maker in Qufu's night market. This is where we ate our first night in Qufu. That's noodle dough in the forefront, where he strings it and suddenly noodle-shaped noodles appear before our eyes. Then he puts them in that black cauldron-type thing that he's going towards in the picture. He adds some herbs and meat to make a delicious soup. Nobody got sick. It was nice to sit outside.
A dragon on the ceiling of a pagoda in Confucious' temple.
A young girl praying at Confucious' temple.
Chinese kids are so cute. Chinese people don't use diapers. Kids have holes in the bottom of their pants and simply squat whenever they feel like doing anything. That's why you gotta watch out for puddles on the street... It also means that kids' butts are continually feeling a slight breeze...
Confucious' residence: full of temples and parks. Apparently the Residence takes up one fifth of the size of Qufu's area.
A Chinese family - only men. In front and to the right is the garbage can (nicely disguised, no?). Behind them is an old tree...
One of the gates leading to Confucious' forest that we passed under... I don't know what the horse was doing there. Confucious' forest, to the North of Qufu (about a half-hour walk away), where Confucious and some of his descendents and many important Qufu people lie burried.

Confucious' tomb
Guillaume's head got cut off by the date & time. We're in Confucious' forest.