Temple of Literature

The gate to the entrance of the Temple of Literature; included in the compound is the first University of Hanoi.

Before we went to VN, we visited Bejing and the tourist sites in and around that capital. The thing that struck me about the Temple of Literature was how old it was (built in 1070, if I remember correctly), that it was still up (save for a section in the rear that has been reproduced after suffering bombing damage during the war), and how few souvenir hawkers populated the periphery of this place.

Except for the Great Wall, most of the sites you see in and around Beijing were from the Ming era (400ish years ago?) and some things, like items within the Ming Tombs, were recreations because so many of the antiques were either raided or destroyed. Plus the sites in China were overrun with other tourists and folks selling wares - one hardly had a peaceful moment to take in the place, much less get a picture uncluttered by other tourists (like oneself).

Here are the stone stele - kinda like tombstones, but not, each dedicated to a particular noted scholar and inscribed with a poem of their work. There are about 80 of them or so and a number of the turtles were unique to one another. Artists come here to sketch them and students come by before their placement exams to garner luck and fortune in their studies.