Memories of famous son live on at home

Seeing is believing. Two things that happened at Qufu East railway station during my recent visit to Qufu, Shandong province, impressed upon me how deeply the city and its people have been influenced by the teachings of Confucius, the city's best-known son and China's most-famous ancient sage.

Qufu is a tourist city thanks to the presence of the Confucius Mansion, a Confucius Temple and the Confucius Family Cemetery. High-speed trains take just 30 minutes to reach the town from Jinan, the provincial capital, and Qufu is two and a half hours from Beijing.