Bikes in Qufu

So it turns out the qufu isn't really celebrated his birthday today but just waiting until next week's national holiday. But it's a pretty buzzy little place gearing up for what seems to be quite the festival.

 

Yesterday we made sure to get our train tickets to Beijing, seeing as how everything is selling out very quickly, then we went to the Confucius gardens where he is buried along with 2,000 of his descendents. All the little pedicab drivers are wearing these little vests for the festival and since yesterday was a bit rainy we found these two who took us to the garden and waited for us to come out since they didn't think they would get any more work that day...felt like we had our own personal drivers. Lining the entrance to the gardens are heaps of people selling chops (seals) that they will engrave for you right then and there " many signs that say" The job is done in 2 minutes") we checked them out but went in the gardens first. Just in the gate a woman gestured to her bike and said 30. She was trying to do it sort of hush hush so we actually had no idea what she was doing. We walked on and looked back and there were three women with bikes gesturing so we asked how much and they said 20 a piece (4$ NZ dollars, 2.80US) and we walked away because that was too much. They got us to come back and suddenly they were just insistent that we take them and offerered them for 10 a piece and just pushed us on them and told us to get going...it was really weird. felt like I was in the middle of something illegal. But it just turns out that they get in trouble for doing it...bit it was SO MUCH FUN on bikes. We had these sort of beach cruiser bikes and we just zoomed all around the gardens stopping when we wanted along these pathes that meandered amidst thousand year old graves. The only way to do it! Got some cool pix amidst the stone statues and visited the tomb luckily the women emerged from nowhere and stopped us before we took the bikes to his grave which was another funny story...these three women were hilarious...a little bike hawking gang, but their own bikes! Turned out to be a really fun afternoon. and we did get a chop on the way out.

 

I actually have to go now because we have to check out but we are headed to Tai-an and to climb the most sacred Taoist mountain called Tai-shan with 6,000 steps! Whoa. We will stay there until Sunday and then we have a train to Beijing.

 

Until then.

 

c& M

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