Day 8 afternoon: Qufu market and cemetery

After lunch we had some free time to walk around Qufu. Several of us went to see the local market.

Then we drove to the Confucius cemetery which is a huge forested park. Storytime: The bridge in the picture below goes over a river that was not always there. When Confucius was alive, he chose this place to be buried because Tai'shan mountain was to the north and thus the spot had good feng shui. However, after he died, the Emperior ___ (?) who did not like Confucius and wanted to mess with him, created the river in-between Confucius' grave and the mountain, to break the feng shui. What a guy...

As we left, we had to once again walk through the gauntlet of shopping opportunities. At least in this one the sellers were in their stalls instead of grabbing at our elbows!

Tonight we take the overnight train to Shanghai.