Dragon Shaped Trunk of a Cypress Tree at the Confucius Temple 孔庙
In these parts of China, no old building will be complete without the every present cypress trees. I first encountered these trees in the Ding Tomb which is part of the Thirteen Ming Tombs. Cypress trees are planted at someone’s tomb to show how important the person is, such as an emperor. In this case, what could be more fitting than the grace the Confucius Temple with these important symbols.
All Cypress Trees at the Confucius Temple 孔庙
More than just symbols, the cypress trees add a lot of atmosphere to the Confucius Temple. The temples are already authentic looking, but adding the gnarled trees add a lot of character to the area. Some of these gnarled trees have become attractions in themselves as some of them or parts of them were given names. These trees are hundreds of years old some of them are already dead though but more are still alive.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/ConfuciusTemple.kmz} zoom=19]