Kong Lin, the Forest Cemetery

Kong Lin, first called Zhisheng Lin, is the burial ground set aside for Confucius and his descendants, lying north of the old walled town of Qufu. The city's axis, Drum Tower Avenue, becomes North Gate Avenue after the north gate and runs 1,266 metres as a boulevard lined with cypress and pine, past the Wan gu chang chun arch, to the cemetery's main gates. Confucius lies under a cone-shaped hill near the Sishui river; the tomb first raised for him there was shaped like an axe. Around it the dukes of Yansheng lie in ordered rows, each with his own spirit way. The Chinese record calls the place the longest-lived and largest family cemetery in the world. It now encloses 183.33 hectares inside a wall 5,591 metres long.