『Qingdao and Mountain Tai and Qufu』

QingDao

Qingdao in east shandong is a fine harbor on the yellow sea. It is also a renowned beach resort. Numerous european style villas and churches have turned the city into a veritable world architecture museum. Qingdao boasts a lot of fine bathing beaches, one of them having been converted into a national summer resort –shilaoren (old stone man) national holiday resort, which is equipped with a 18-hole golf course, and international beer city and an amusement park-on-the-sea, in addition to some posh hotels, villas and apartment buildings. Zhanqiao(plank pathway), lesser qingdao and badaguan(eight major passes) are among the scenic attractions in the city. To the southeast of qingdao there is laoshan mountain, a national scenic zone and major taoist sanctuary with 10 well-preserved temples. As renowned as qingdao’s landscape is the qingdao beer. the international qingdao beer festival takes place in summer every year along with the international marine festival.

Temple, Mansion and Cemetery of Confucius in QuFu

Confucius (551-479bc), the world famous chinese philosopher, born in qufu, shandong province more than 2,500 years ago, has greatly influenced chinese society with his ideas passed from generations to generations, till today. The feudal rulers of subsequent dynasties used confucianism as a moral standard to consolidate theirs rule and constructed the town qufu and the confucian mansion as if it were a mecca. the result is a remarkable group of ancient buildings with valuable art treasures. In 1994, unesco had the confucian temple, residence and tomb registered on the list of the world cultural heritage.

The confucius temple first built in 478 bc, rebuilt and enlarged for many times during past 2,400 years. the temple takes an area of 21,8 hectares with buildings laid out symmetrically along a one-kilometer north-south axis. There are 53 magnificent gateways and 466 halls, pavilions and shrines elaborately roofed with glazed tiles.
To the east of the temple is the confucius family residence where confucius direct descendants lived. arranged around nine courtyards, all the buildings are brilliant example of chinese traditional architecture. From the rank of the building, as well as the furniture, decoration and insignias in the residence, one can imagine: what a kind of honor and favor the confucius family once received from feudal rulers.
Confucius family graveyard is the clan cemetery for confucius and his descendants. More than 7 kilometers in perimeter, the cemetery is screened by centuries old evergreens and stone panthers, griffins and guardians, indicating the highest funerary honors. scattered among the trees are 1,000 steles and 60 architectural structure with red pillars, green-tile roofs and colorfully painted beams. confucius family graveyard is the most extensive and oldest man made forest park in east china.

PengLai Pavilion

Sitting on summit of danya mountain and about 1 kilometer northward of the city of same name, the magnificent penglai pavilion was first built in 1065. Legend has it that emperor qin shihuang and emperor wu of the han dynasty once sought for the elixir to have a long life here. The famous folklore about “eight immortals crossing the sea” finds its origin here. It is a vast group of ancient buildings on a land of 32,800 square meters, composed of the six buildings and their attached constructions: penglai pavilion, tianhou and longwu palaces, luzu and sanqing halls and mituo temple. Attractively on display in these buildings are works of calligraphy of famous literary writers, couplet hung on the columns and stone inscriptions.

TaiShan Mountain

Located at the central part of shandong province and lying across Taian and Jinan, Taishan mountain, the east sacred mountain, was called Daizong or Daishan in ancient times. Covering an area of 125 square kilometers and with a height of 1,545 meters, it is famous for its intense grandeur and beautiful natural scenery and also has a reputation of “a natural museum of history and art” for its countless cultural relics and historical sites. The most spectacular features of the mountain are the cloud-sea and sunrise. As the royal object of cult, Taishan mountain was the venue where past emperors of various dynasties used to worship heaven and earth and was thought to be the most famed among the five sacred mountains in china. in 1987 it was registered on the list of the world heritage of the unesco. Atop the mountain are more than 60 main scenic spots including the dai temple, mid-heaven gate, south heaven gate, bixia temple, jade emperor summit and wudafu pines.