Foreigners Who Can Recite Five Confucian Quotes Get Free Tours of Qufu City

Dec 28, 2014 08:02 AM EST

(Photo : Reuters) Chinese men dressed in the Ming Dynasty-style costumes take part in a ceremony in Qufu, east China's Shandong province, September 28, 2005. A memorial ceremony is being held in Qufu, the birthplace of Confucious (551BC - 479BC), to mark the 2,556th anniversary of the great Chinese thinker. According to organisers, memorial activities are being held simultaneously in six cities in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, the U.S. and Germany, as well as in Taiwan and Hong Kong. CHINA OUT REUTERS/China Newsphoto PP05090328

More than 110,000 foreign tourist could recite at least five quotes of the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, taken from his Analects. The 110,000 represent the 65 percent of the more than 170,000 who took the challenge and won free tours of Qufu since the dare was launched in 2013.

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Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius and located in Shandong province in east China, attracts about 150,000 foreign visitors yearly. The challenge aims to improve interaction between these overseas tourists and the Confucian culture, according to an official of the city's cultural heritage administration.

To further encourage more visitors, Qufu said on Friday that they amended the challenge by offering free tickets for three Confucius-related UNESCO World Heritage Sites but still with the same condition, reports Wantchinatimes.

The verses could be in English, Chinese or even the native tongue of the foreign visitor. If they passed the challenge, they would be issued a certificate of honor that exempts them from paying tickets to enter the Temple of Confucius, the Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion.

Confucius lived from 770 BC through 476 BC, more known as the Spring and Autumn Period. The known educator and philosopher wrote a lot of sayings that were compiled in the Analects of Confucius.

TagsConfucius, qufu