Temple of Confucius gets first facelift

The Temple of Confucius in Qufu, a World Heritage site honouring the ancient Chinese philosopher, is undergoing a full-scale renovation, the first in a century.

The Qufu Confucius Ancient Building Engineering Management Office launched restoration work on Saturday. The facelift is expected to take three to five years and cost $48 million, reports Xinhua.

Qufu, in east China's Shandong province, is known as the birthplace of the sage, who lived from 551 to 479 B.C.

Confucius founded the philosophical system that has dominated Chinese social and political life for most of history after him.

His temple and family mansion have been preserved through feudal dynasties, including more than 1,300 ancient buildings, some 5,000 stone inscriptions and about 100,000 relics in the city.

In 1994, the Temple of Confucius, Cemetery of Confucius and Kong family mansion in Qufu were put on the World Heritage List of the UNESCO.

According to the Qufu Bureau of Relics, the complex contains 140,000 square meters of ancient painted buildings.