Qufu, Confucious say...

I arrived in Qufu and was walking around looking for the hotel I wanted wh en a kindly tuk tuk driver offered to drive me to the hotel for 1 Yuan. Bargain. I had a walk around town and it was a lovely little place. Quite restful and chilled.
Next day I went to the Confucious Temple and Mansions. Confucious (in China, known as Kong fu) was born (500BC approx) and died in Qufu. Although he himself died in abject poverty his teachings were recognised and his family became alost royalty. They set up the temple around where he thought. Later generations of the Kong family became dukes and owned the town of Qufu and built these amazing houses surrounded by walls. It was nice walking around the temple, mansion and the grounds of both. The Kong mansions were populated until the 50s. Howeer during the cultural revolution, Confucious among most other historical things became unpopular and Mr Kong the 77th direct decendant of Confucious fled to Taiwan.. It is amazing that 77 generations of Confuscious family over the past 2500 could be so fixed on one abode.

Later in the day I went in search of a train ticket office. In the LP it mentioned an office but I coudl find no trace of it or the bowling alley it was supposed to be next to. And I figure a bowling alley would be hard to miss. I went back to the hotel and asked them about it. The husband of the hotel owner brought me to the ticket office some way out of town and helped me buy it. It was so kind of him. I could not decide whether to go to Shanghai or Xi'an. So I thought I would let fate decide. Well it did. However, all I could get was a hard seat for the next day and I was lucky to get that. This meant another day in Qufu and only a seat instead of a bed all the way to Xi'an a 17 hour journey.
Next day, as I had time I walked the few Km to the Confucious family cemetary. The cematary is a little forest and has all the Kong family buried there including Confucious. Family members are still being buried there today. Some of the tombs are amazing. Although Confucious tomb was sedate and modest.
That afternoon I got on the train. I think there were a lot of surprised people when I arrived in the hard seat area. People were nudging each other to look at me. I was lucky to get a window seat and I even got to put my rucksack on the shelf overhead. I happend to be sitting next to some nice people although we didnt talk. I was doing fine and even had a snooze or 2 but after a few hours the conductor came around when they saw me they asked in sign if I wanted to sleep but I said I was ok. But a few minutes later. Another person came and they all had a discussion about me and my bag was taken down and I was frogmarched after this policeman through about 4 or 5 carriages. I was sooo embarrassed. I was puce passing through the carriages both from the embarrassment and the effort it took to cary the bag and keep up with a rather fast walkign policeman. I had to carry my rucksack in front of me as I thougth I was only going one or 2 carriages but no. I must have bumped into a hundred peopel who had their heads or legs in the aisles. I felt bad as I was treated like royalty and these poor buggers had to stay where they were. I didnt like being so privilaged. I was escorted to the dining car and presented with 2 seats. However, to be honest I was more comfortable where I was. It was bloody freezing. I tried to sleep and was able to snatch a half hour here and there but not a great nights sleep by any stretch. About 6am I gave up the ghost. The staff including the policeman, the chef and a few others called me down to where they were sitting. The chef spoke a few sentences and between this and my phrasebook we whiled away an hour and a half. I was delighted. It made up for the crappy sleep. They were sooo lovely and we had a laugh. The chef told me he loved me and was singing it while he started breakfast. It was so funny. His colleagues were talking the pee something cronic. I really do love China. It is incredible.