Meeting Laotse and Confucius

After another three weeks in Tianjin, the second long weekend away led me to Taishan, a Taoist mountain. The climb was tough, as the stairs were not adapted to my legs, but the view from the top was awesome, and it was worth spending a weekend there. On the second day, the destination was nearby Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, with plenty of museums dedicated to the scholar. Though overpriced, the place was a great learning experience. While waiting for the train to Beijing, I stopped at a restaurant dedicated to the Chairman Mao, a statue of him could be seen in a corner. On Monday, I stopped at the Taoist monastery of Dongyue, which features displays of the afterlife according to the imagination of the local people of centuries ago. Strangely, the sky looked very blue and the weather seemed a relief from the damp heat of Tianjin.