The Confucius Temple and Cemetery, Qufu

Qufu was Confucius's home town, and three linked sites here have been maintained and enlarged by successive dynasties. The temple is the largest: a sequence of nine courtyards on a north-south axis, with avenues of old cypresses, hundreds of stone steles carried on carved tortoise plinths, and a main hall whose stone columns are worked with dragons so deeply cut that they were once covered when emperors came. Beside it stands the Kong family mansion, a rambling compound with official halls in front and private quarters behind. A shaded avenue leads north to the cemetery, a walled woodland where the family has been buried for many generations.

What you actually see

• Dacheng Hall - the main temple hall with its deeply carved stone dragon columns.
• The stele forest - rows of inscribed tablets on carved tortoise bases, spanning many dynasties.
• The Kong family mansion - the residential compound of halls, courtyards and back gardens.
• The cemetery grove - a walled woodland of grave mounds, spirit paths and ancient cypresses.

When to go

Spring and autumn are pleasant and the cypresses give shade in either. The temple opens early and is quietest then; coaches arrive from Jinan and Tai'an mid-morning. The cemetery is a long walk or a short cart ride north of town and takes a couple of hours on its own. Late September brings ceremonies and much larger crowds.

Honest expectations

Three sites on one ticket is a lot of walking, and the courtyards start to blur together without background reading. Costumed performances and photo stalls sit oddly with the setting. The cemetery is large, flat and repetitive, and electric carts tout for business along the route. Qufu's rebuilt old town is largely shops.

Nearby

Mount Tai is about an hour north, and Qufu's small walled old town encloses the temple district.