Today started with a two-hour drive to Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, who lived 500 BC. The city itself has a 5,000-year history. Confucius was born to a poor farming family but had achieved great fame by the age of 30 for his wisdom and teachings. We toured the grounds where he lived and taught. Some of the trees in the area ranged in age from several hundred years to more than 1,800 years. Numerous additions were made over the centuries by various emperors in order to honor Confucius or to increase their own power. The Confucius family tree spans some 80 generations and has an estimated two million descendants living today. We visited the site of Confucius’ tomb located in a nearby large cemetery restricted to descendants of Confucius approved for internment. The cemetery is natural forest and brush and is quite beautiful and peaceful. Unfortunately, there was significant destruction on the grounds and in the cemetery during the Cultural Revolution. Much has since been restored when possible.

After the return drive and a quick refreshing shower, we headed out of town to the home of one of the teachers in a farming village. The village of 1,000 families sits on the side of a hill with marvelous views. Dinner was in the home of her parents, which also included her father’s mother, a delightful lady of 81. The home was modest but they prepared a meal that would have fed a group three or four times larger. The entire village was aware of our presence, as we were the first westerners to ever visit the village. They had been talking about the visit for weeks and will continue for weeks to come. We promised to send them photos of a couple of the pictures we took with postage stamps from the United States. We were not sure which they were more excited about, the pictures or the postage from another country.

Gary