C & C globetrotting around the world…

Jinan was another forced stopover because of the train ticket situation. We have been warned that traveling in summer could be a little difficult, now we know why. Anyway, from Jinan we went to Qufu for a day trip, where Confucius, the great scholar, and his family come from. We visited the Confucius Temple but there was not that much to see. The architecture is the same as the Forbidden City although it’s 2500 years old. The town itself is quaint and I guess if you follow Confucianism it’s like going to Mecca, but for us it was too little time to investigate more of the many sites.

In Jinan itself, we walked through the Botanical Garden (which is actually a nice park and does not have so much in common with the botanical gardens we are used to) and hiked up the 1000 Buddha Mountain. There were sooo many Buddhas, all very different one from the other. The hike up the mountain was strenuous (we really have to get in shape!). There were lots of small temples along the way with Buddhas and smoking incense. And as the reward for getting at the top, there was a temple with Buddhist monks chanting. According to Chris certainly a highlight of our trip.

During our stay in Jinan we realized that traveling in China is a lot harder than we expected. We went on this world trip not only to take pictures with us in front of famous buildings and amazing landscapes but also to experience the country’s culture and to exchange our thoughts and ideas with the “locals”. Arrived here we found out that it’s actually hard to find people who speak English (except the occasional “Hello, can I take a picture with you?” we get from people on the street) and Cecilia’s Chinese skills are too limited to make actual conversations. But we are also only at the beginning of our trip and till now her language skills got us food, bus tickets and hotel rooms, which isn’t nothing. We have at least another two months in front of us here in China and we are probably now in the phase of “learning to travel” as we expected before we left. So we are looking forward to what the future brings us.