Eight new museums opened in the ancient city of Qufu in east China's Shandong Province Tuesday, adding more cultural flavor to this hometown of Confucius, a great thinker and educator in ancient China.

The eight museums respectively house Chinese and foreign drinking vessels, badges of late Chairman Mao Zedong, paintings and stone figures, Chinese coupons, Chinese and foreign currencies and coins, old photos of Confucius' family, sculptures of sages and men of virtue, and the ancient city of Qufu.

Qufu City also plans to build a museum to Number One Scholars and a museum for folklore to bring more traditional Chinese culture to Qufu.

The ancient city of Qufu was built between 1512 and 1522 during the Ming Dynasty (1644-1911). The city wall of ancient Qufu is 5,339 meters long, about eight meters wide at the bottom and 4.5 meters wide at the top, and nine meters high.

The Ming dynasty city of Qufu remained one of the best-preserved ancient cities in China until the mid-1970s. The city wall was demolished in 1978 and rebuilt from March of 2002 to September last year.

(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2005)