Aug 16, 2006 - Continue on to Qufu

The train station wasn't quite as bad here in Nanjing as it was in Suzhou - at least we only had one flight of stairs to maneuver our luggage down! Long day on the train from Nanjing to Qufu - 7:30 til 2:30. 7 of us were in a cabin for 4 - they're called sleepers, but they're hard benches (triple decks). The Chinese people slept well all day; Judy, Rick, Martyn and I played bridge using a suitcase for a table. The toliet was the WORST. Eastern toilet - what they call a squat pot! We finally arrived in Qufu. Confucious was born and died...

Sep 13, 2004 - Confucius says...

Got up and put on my weird peanut smelling lotion I bought for my sunburn. So last night I did some clever planning that I thought may avoid another bad train expereice, only to find that when I went to the train station this morning they said no to all my options. Trouble is (as I learnt in Beijing, and it says in my guidebook) I don't know whether to believe them. So at least sticking with part of the plan, I got a minibus to Qufu (pronounced Choofoo, sort of). Birth and resting place of Confucius and the whole Kong family (his...