Confuscious and 6666 Steps to Heaven

Qufu, the birthplace of Confuscious. Also a tourist hot spot. I think it's important to mention that "tourist" in China doesn't mean the same thing it did in most of SE Asia. Tourists here are mostly Chinese - not European, Australian or American.
The tour guide had a tiny loudspeaker attached to her hip, which at first seemed silly, but later proved necessary to be heard over the other tour guides who also had tiny loudspeakers on their hips. As part of our ongoing artistic expression in China, Brooke and I did a short photo commentary on the foolilsh and awkward ways that westerners try to use everyday chinese objects. On many occasions throughout China and southeast Asia, locals have had to patiently (or not so patiently) explain to us how to eat food, catch a bus, use a bathroom, etc. For example, we went to a hotpot restaurant, with a menu partially in english, and proudly ordered a giant bowl of broth, and a small dessert plate.

The woman looked at me inquisitively, waiting for me to finish my order... Then she fired off a few sentences in Chinese, pointed at a bunch of pictures of meat and vegetables, and waited again, pen in hand. So it was that I learned how to order a hot pot - start with a broth and order each ingredient seperately. Oops. The small stools at Qufu are not difficult to understand and use, but just to make a point, Brooke and I behaved as awkwardly as possible. We both think those stools are awesome, and we might have to bring a couple home since they're sold at nearly every tiny hardware store. Speaking of tiny hardware stores, as far as I know, there are only tiny hardware stores. And they are packed to the brim with miscelaneous parts and tools. Browsing is hugely entertaining and also futile if there is something in particular you're looking for.

Getting back to Confuscious, I opted out of seeing the Kong family cemetary (that's Confuscious' family name), and instead saw a display of women's shoes from the era of feet binding. I have one word - brutal! I read somewhere that the last shoe manufacturer specializing in shoes for bound feet went out of business sometime in the last few years. That time has past... we have entirely new forms of bizarre body modification. According to our tour guide, the reason for feet binding was simply that one Emperor had a fetish for small feet.

Lunch was huge - nuf said.

The afternoon took us up a mountain, which I think is called Tian Shan (literally "heavenly mountain"). We went most of the way up via an impressive cable gondola. If we'd had more time we might have walked up the 6666 steps (why 6666? because 9 is Confuscious' favorite number) I was amazed to see the amount of concrete work done at the top of a mountain where there appears to be no roads, only stairs and a gondola. There's a full fledged hotel, several large communication towers with antennas galore, four heavenly gates facing in the four cardinal directions, a temple to make offerings, and gift shop after ridiculous gift shop for your shopping pleasure.

For a short time we were clear of the smog, but that only lasted about twenty minutes. The sun is so dark and red most of the time, it feels very ominous.

Perhaps the most intriguing site was the huge piles of locks with chinese characters engraved on them. We later learned that these locks are placed here by couples wanting to immortalize their devotion to eachother. Strange, but very adorable.