The Confucius Temple is a place to worship and offer sacrifices to Confucius, bearing cultural heritage for more than one thousand years. Known as the cultural hub in the world, the Confucius Temple is one of the four most famous Confucius Temples in China as well as a great tourist resort at home and abroad. The scenic area is an agglomeration of historical sites, gardens, pleasure boats, markets, towers and folk customs, and echoes with the lively modern commercial streets around.
>>Dacheng Hall
Dacheng Hall is the main hall of the Confucius Temple as well as the main hall for worshipping Confucius. In the middle of Dacheng Hall is consecrated with a huge portrait of Confucius whose sitting height is 3.35 meters and sitting width is 3.15 meters. There are a total of 38 stone wall murals named the Sacred Relics of Confucius around. The murals are relief sculptures made of precious jades such as chicken-blood stones, Shoushan stones, Qingtian stones, and agates. In the murals, 408 lifelike statues are telling different ideas, representing the exemplary images of the most influential teacher in China.
>>China Imperial Examination Museum
China Imperial Examination Museum was built on the foundation of Jiangnan Examination Hall. It is just like exploring a historical treasure box for visitors. Here, you can find the scholars rushing to take the exam, the small exam rooms for candidates, the scene of the palace examination, and the carp fish leaping over the dragon’s gate. Visitors feel like a part in the promotion process from the county-level scholar to the Number One Scholar. There are also precious cultural relics faintly visible such as the answer sheet of the top scorer and the list of successful candidates. On both sides of the footpath, there is an outer wall made of fish scale-like tiles and an inner wall made of book slips, which means carp leaping over the dragon’s gate and reading more than ten thousand volumes of books.
>>Qinhuai gaily-painted pleasure-boats
When the evening lights are lit, visitors take a gaily-painted pleasure boat in the dim light of night to seek their dreams on the Qinhuai River. The boat departs from the Panchi Wharf of the Confucius Temple. Along the way, it passes Bailuzhou Park, Color Water Street, Dongguan Gate and Zhonghua Gate. At last, it returns to the wharf. The whole voyage is about 4.8 kilometers and takes 50 minutes. The Jiangnan-styled buildings are outlined by the warm yellow light bands. It seems that the riverside historical sites, gardens, pleasure boats, markets and towers are layer upon layer, like a dream back to the ancient capital Jinling (the old name of Nanjing).
