This last week, my school, Jiao Tong University coordinated trips to various different cities in China including Beijing, Xian, Shandong/Ji’nan and Zhenzhou. Since I had been to Beijing and Xian before, I decided to sign up for the Shandong/Ji’nan trip. Below are some of the highlights from the trip.
Monday evening, we take an overnight train from Shanghai to Ji’nan. The train ride is about 10 hours, however, you could sleep through most of it (if you could sleep). My classmates and I take up most of one of the hard sleeper cars. A “hard sleeper” is one in which there are 6 beds per compartment with three beds stacked up on each side. The beds themselves are indeed pretty hard. Many of the westerners including myself had a little trouble falling asleep on them… others choose to stay up most of the night anyway.
Tuesday morning, we arrive in Ji’nan. We take a bus to the city of Tai Shan (Tai Mountain) where our hotel is. From the hotel, we travel to Qufu, famous as the hometown of Confucius (Kongzi in Mandarin). At Qufu, we see the temple, mansion and burial site of Confusion. The one thing that stands out is the natural beauty of the area. All around are various types of trees that look like evergreens and redwoods. The air smelled so fresh… to the great delight of this group of students from Shanghai. The temple and mansion themselves are very nice examples of historic Chinese architecture, though the burial site itself is somewhat nondescript.
Next we are taken to a manufacturer of precious stone carvings… anything from jade bracelets to statues. We are caught a little off-guard by this initially. Upon our arrival at the building, we are taken to a room with a couple of representatives. They speak about some of the stones’ characteristics and some of the more famous precious stone artifacts in China. Thinking we are on some sort of museum tour, they then take us to a store floor where a dozen or two salespersons are waiting to take orders. We hadn’t been quite expecting that. None-the-less, some of my classmates do buy some of the store’s jewelry. For me some of the statues are pretty interesting, but they are a little bigger and more expensive than what I want to buy.
As the final activity today, we go to a tearoom. This is similar to the previous event. We are seated in a large room where we sample various types of tea. Then some sales representatives go around and take orders. I must admit that I’m not much of a tea drinker, but the tea is pretty good, so I buy one of the teas I liked best. From these last two events, I begin to suspect that the stores help to subsidize the cost of the trip… the cost of the trip seems to me to be a pretty good deal at about 800 RMB. After this we head to dinner with entertainment (live singers singing Chinese versions of some classic rocks songs like Joan Jet… actually pretty fun).
Wednesday morning, after breakfast we head to Tai Mountain… this is what I had really be waiting for. Tai Mountain is the most sacred of 5 sacred mountains in China. And the mountain itself is very impressive in its size. Upon getting off the bus, the weather is freezing. Most of us hadn’t been prepared for this (the weather had cooled down quite a bit from the prior day and is unseasonably cold). However, there are a couple locals near the start of the trail selling mittens and hats at a nominal price… much appreciated by all. The route that our group is to take is a 700-meter staircase consisting of more than 1,600 steps… doesn’t like that much until you do it. It takes about 2 hours, but is scenic the whole way. Instead of trying to describe the beauty of this mountain, I present some photos (for more go to http://spaces.msn.com/ventureinternational/) .
After Tai mountain we are taken to a pottery/ceramic store… similar experience as the other two stores. Some nice cup sets, etc., but would definitely weigh down my luggage.
Thursday, we drive to Ji’nan and are taken to Baotu Quan, a park famous for its springs. It contains gardens, ponds and canals along the lines of those in Suzhou. Very pretty. We have about 4 hours here, so some of us wonder around for awhile inside and then go out strolling through the local Ji’nan neighborhoods. I end up practicing Chinese with our tour guide… she is a good teacher.
To end the day we go to Daming Lake, a famous lake in Shandong. Cherry blossom trees are in bloom, making this a picturesque setting. The sun starts to set and we go to dinner at a restaurant on the grounds of the park.
After dinner, we head to the train station. The train is much like the one that brought us here. Though some of us stay up pretty late, not I. I am pretty tired and actually sleep pretty soundly.
Overall a very nice excursion, thanks to our tour guides and sponsoring teachers/administrators at Jiao Tong. My appreciation goes out to them.