Reflections of Qufu

Secondary students in grades 9 and 10 visited Qufu on November 18 and 19 as part of their participation requirements for the International Baccalaureate focus on service in action in the Middle Years Programme. Qufu is the birthplace, hometown, and final resting place of Confucius. He died in 479 BCE.

Our students left at 6:30 AM Tuesday morning to take a bus, a bullet train, and another bus to our hotel in Qufu. The city, the hometown of Confucius and his descendants, is a walled city with a population of about 90,000 people.

We visited the Confucius Temple on Tuesday after having a Chinese meal of shared ordering and communal eating. This is China’s largest imperial building complex after the Forbidden City and began as Confucius’ three-room house. Today the temple has nine courtyards, examples of calligraphy, and mythical tortoise statues.

Early Wednesday we walked from the south wall through the north gate to the Confucius Forest where Confucius and more than 100,000 of his descendants have been buried over the past 2000 years. The
Forest was peaceful and beautiful.

We also visited the Confucius Mansion, where male heirs lived and held the title of Duke Yan Sheng from the Song Dynasty through 1935.

Qufu offered us other sites to see.

And of course, it was fun to be with each other on a learning day outside of school.