Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

WOW, so many foreigners!
Damn those Olympians, they owe me so much money!

Today was another day mazing my way down through the back streets from the north of the city to the south to check out the Fuzi Temple and when I arrived wasn’t I in for surprise. I cannot count the amount of Confucius Temples I have visited but this one was like no other. Most are solitary and peaceful and a nice place to rest after many hours walking there. This one I found out was like someone who has never been to Yangshuo (in Guilin Province) thinking they were going to check out a nice and peaceful temple and when they arrive in Yangshuo they find themselves surrounded by not only so many tourists that they can barely walk a single meter in five minutes but also bars all the glitz and glamour of a big city all squeezed into a single block.

The area around the temple is very much your typical tourist area;

So many tourist shops, snack bars, restaurants and tea cafes which are all built in the typical Ming and Qing styles. All in all though, it was rather nice to be back in the Yangshuo comforts. It also seemed that half of the tourist population was made up of the Olympians who were all dressed in their countries Olympics colours. When the buses arrived and they all got off the Chinese were simply not ready for it. It actually felt strange to try to take photos of foreigners for a change but they were always surrounded by groups of Chinese who were also trying to take photos of them so I guessed that it was more polite to allow the Chinese the opportunity seen as though I am a foreigner myself.

Also it was good not have my photo taken for a change.

The Confucius Temple in Nanjing was originally constructed in 1034 (first built over one thousand five hundred years ago) during the Song Dynasty. It was a place to worship and consecrate Confucius, the great philosopher and educator of ancient China and is also known as Fuzimiao in Chinese. It was repeatedly damaged and has been rebuilt on several occasions and in 1937 it was almost totally destroyed by Japanese soldiers. In 1984 the temple was rebuilt under the support of the local government. During the long process, the original building expanded to be a complex of buildings in the architectural style of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties, including the Confucius Temple itself, the Jiangnan Gongyuan (the place of imperial examinations) and the Xue Gong (the Imperial Academy).

The complex is still called the Confucius Temple due to local habit.

Beers N Noodles toya…..shane

PS: Why only forty five photos for this blog?
Some dumbass forgot to charge his battery last night!
Who me? Couldn’t be. Yes you! You stole the cookie from the, cookie jar!
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The soundtrack to this entry was by Lemon Jelly
The album was 'LemonJellyKY’
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