With this video, I am starting a new mini-series: Ursula's Historical Recipes travels.
I had the great opportunity to join, as a guest, a photo festival journey to Shandong Province in Northeastern China, one of the cradles of Chinese civilization, to discover its culture, its history and its culinary traditions.

Home to some of the most ancient Chinese Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures, like the Longshan culture with its distinctive black pottery, and of Confucianism.
Kong Fuze (“Master Kong”), latinized Confucius, was born here around 551 BCE, and this is also where he and his successors taught his philosophy. The Confucius Temple and his family mansion in Qufu have been revived as part of the recent Chinese cultural renaissance, and are a popular destination and pilgrimage site again. Close to Qufu a 72 m tall statue of Confucius (he reached the age of 72) towers over Nishan Sacred Land, an impressive Confucius-themed visitors’ center situated at his birthplace and finished only in 2018.
Confucianism teaches respectfulness, social harmony and self-cultivation. I particularly like his quote “To learn, and then, when the time has come, put what you have learned into practice –isn't that a great pleasure? And to have a friend visit from far away – isn't that a great joy?”
The European philosophers Leibniz and Voltaire were influenced by Confucius. Voltaire praised his ethics: “Confucius has no interest in falsehood; he did not pretend to be prophet; he claimed no inspiration; he taught no new religion; he used no delusions; flattered not the emperor under whom he lived.”

Confucianism has also had great influence on food, focusing on careful preparation, moderation, seasonality and the importance of eating together with friends. This dish from Qufu represents Confucius’ teachings written down on scrolls. He also recommended not to eat too much kuai, thin slices of raw meat, if they are cut too thinly. Kuai is an ancient dish that has been lost in history.

The cuisine of Shandong Province, also called Lu-cuisine, after the ancient state of Lu (1042-249 BCE), which was geographically similar to today’s Shandong Province, uses much wheat in the form of flatbreads, dumplings, buns and pancakes, unlike the rest of rice-loving China. The climate in the North is more suited to growing wheat than rice. Some of these dishes might have survived from the Tang period (618-907), when Persian cuisine and culture had become fashionable through the silk road trade, and figs, pomegranates, pistachios and sesame were introduced. Milk products have gotten out of use after the Tang period, but are slowly gaining popularity again.
During my stay in Shandong, I managed to try a lot of different dishes, from street food to fancy banquets.

Balance is key to Chinese cuisine, balance between yin and yang, cool and warm. Food is medicine and medicine is food. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) uses a vast variety of herbs, fruits, animal products and roots, such as this polygonatum (also known as King Solomon's-seal), which after harvest is steamed nine times, dried and then processed into tea, candy or slowly fermented into a medicine believed to be beneficial to high blood sugar and as a general tonic.

And water is key to the first civilizations: Like the Nile, Euphrates and Tigris or the Indus Valley, the Yellow River has given birth to early cultures including early pottery, writing systems and social stratification. Water is omnipresent in Shangdong: its capital Jinan is nicknamed the City of 72 Springs. Waterways and canals crisscross the region. During the Sui Dynasty (around 600 CE), the Grand Canal that connects Beijing in the North with the Yangtse River in the South, was constructed. It is about 1,700 km long and allowed court officials to visit the Southern Provinces as well as to transport goods like rice from the fertile South to the Northern capital.

Mount Tai is the highest and foremost of the five sacred mountains of Taoism, and home to the temple of the godly Jade Emperor. Taoism is, together with Confucianism, the other major philosophical tradition if China, albeit with more religious features and a vast pantheon of gods. It was founded around the same time, in the 5th century BCE, by Laozi (“Old Master”), and teaches self-discipline, harmony with nature, compassion, frugality, and humility.
The ascent to Mount Tai is a pilgrimage that involves climbing 1545 m in 6666 stairs up to the peak temple. Several emperors, starting with the first, Qin Shi Huang (reigned from 221-210 BCE), payed their reverence to this holy sites over the centuries and left inscriptions there. Nowadays, there is also a cable car which takes visitors up.
In various temples, Taoist worshippers pray for good luck, healthy offspring or happiness.
The local speciality of Mount Tai is a kind of pancake which is stuffed with different ingredients.