Before I came to Hanoi, I had read up a lot about its places of interest and the Temple of Literature (entrance fee of 30,000 VND/person) was one of the must-visit attractions.
Temple of Literature
58 Quoc Tu Giam
Van Mieu, Dong Da
Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: +84 4 3747 6013
Also known as the Temple of Confucius. This is one of few temples in Vietnam that’s dedicated to Confucius, sages and scholars. That’s probably the only reason why we’d want to visit the Temple of Literature – to gain extra ‘wisdom’ and ‘cheemness’ (depth), lol.
Apparently, many of the local students would come here to pray before their examinations, hoping to pass with flying colours.
First Courtyard
Second Courtyard and Khue Van Pavilion
Third Courtyard and the Thien Quang well
No, we didn’t know her. I took this shot because it was graduation season and these students were like everywhere. Seriously, to take a shot without having someone posing in their graduation gown (and blocking your view) isn’t an easy task – just gonna wait till they’re done and you need to snap away really fast.
Congratulations to this graduating class!
Crane on a tortoise back – symbol of longevity
Fourth Courtyard
Live cultural performance
Gigantic drum
Some art exhibition at the Fifth Courtyard.
Overall, our visit to the Temple of Literature wasn’t anything special because there wasn’t much to see anyway. It was really noisy and crowded with (too many) graduating students. Temple buildings and courtyards – that was about it. Huge temple space but small place of interest.
Estimated time required: 1 to 1.5 hours
The Temple of Literature is open from 8.30am to 11.30am and 1.30pm to 4.30pm from Tuesdays to Sundays. It is closed on Mondays.