City In Brief

Qufu, covering an area of 895.93 square kilometers, is situated in the southwest of Shandong Province, with 2.5 hours driving to Jinan and 1.5 hours driving to Tai'an.

As one of China's most famous historical cities, it is also the hometown of Confucius--- a great thinker and educationist at Spring-autumn period. It is where Confucius gave his lectures and where he was buried in 479BC. Another famous thinker and educationist, Mencius was also born here.

In Zhou Dynasty, nearly 2, 500 years ago, Qufu used to be the capital city of Lu State, with advanced culture development. Even today, travelers can still find some traces of Ancient Lu State in the downtown area.

There are more than 17 cultural relics under government protection. The Temple, Mansion and Cemetery of Confucius are the most famous ones, which were put on the list of World Cultural Heritage in 1994. Besides, more than 1300 ancient architectures, 5000 stone steles and 100,000 historical relics are still preserved.

Qufu is rich in three treasures and five specialties. Three treasures are sweet paddy, Guodan apricot and mineral water. Five specialties are Confucius family liquor, woolen carpet, dragon-head stick, Nishan ink-stone and wooden ornament of good luck (called Ru Yi in Chinese)

If you are want to explore more about Confucius, you can start your travel from Jinan, the provincial capital city of Shandong province. You can travel to Jinan from Beijing by bullet train, which spends just more than 3 hours.