China Pics 4

I've collected pictures from two different cities: Ji Nan and Confucius' hometown. These cities are in the west part of China.

...You've never heard of Confucius??? Confucius was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese thought and life. He's very famous in China, mostly for his amazing teachings long ago. (...About as famous as Christopher Columbus here.)

Anyways, here are the pictures. Enjoy :)

The first pictures are from Ji Nan. We visited this little cave... filled with Buddhas!! Painted onto the wall, carved out of rock, HUMONGOUS and taking up the cave, it's allll Buddhas. It was very interesting. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures (not allowed to :[). It was so comfortable!! The inside of the cave was freezing (there are actually people who stay inside all day, wearing giant overcoats) but outside it was BOILING HOT... so the cool air was nice.


After I got out, I had an ice cream... it was purple :) And DELICIOUS... I think the flavor was some sort of bean that I tasted... a million years ago... when I was 4 or something... I had a strong wave of de ja vu... but it was SOO good!


These weeping willows are from a park called Baotu Spring Park, in the same city.


A fake mountain (literal translation from Chinese).


There were statues of royalty, such as this. The room was PACKED!! I was soo lucky to get this shot when people rushed by.


Here's another statue.


This is APPARENTLY a famous willow or something... some other people were taking pictures holding the leaves, and my dad and I had some time left, so we were all, "Why not??" and so this picture was taken. hahahah


This was a beautiful pond filled with spring water constantly running into it... it was so clear.


This is a VERY famous engraving... see that little temple? People (including me :) take the one dangerous step to stand on the base of the carving. The sign says Baotu Spring Park. By the way, those dark spots are spots that people rubbed shiny, since so many people have clutched the stone for dear life :) Just kidding


On the wall behind that temple, there's this... brass (?) carving of some men, some temples, some clouds, and some horses hahahaha... people rubbed the horse's muzzle so much that the blackish part on top was totally rubbed and the gold part underneath was rubbed smooth and shiny.


These willows were beautiful.


This was an interesting place... the sitting area was draped entirely in bright green vines... it was so pretty.


At dinner, we were served this HUGE fried fish... how in the world did they get it so bent, so stiff?? Its position never slacked during the entire dinner :)