.jpg)
It was about three hours drive from my city. So we got up early this morning, heading to the place that I've been longing for. It was such a bright sunny day. Everyone in the tour bus was laughing and talking about this fabulous trip. About 3 hours drive, we were there- everyone was standing in awe in front of the temple, the gate was bringing you back to the ancient times, I could almost see Confucius students come and go through that gate.
Just everyone was sinking in their own special world with Confucius, our tour guide started screaming," Chop! Chop! Guys! Enough for meditation time! Time for going in!" When I first laid my eyes on those ancient architectures, I felt like I'd seen it somewhere. Then I heard people say, actually, the temple of Confucius resembles with the Forbidden City in so many ways. I thought to myself, ah yeah, that makes sense. Those impressive structures are mostly with yellow tiles,(yellow colors was a symbol of emperors in ancient china) and red-painted walls, they are surrounded by dark-green pine trees to create a color contrast with complementary colors.
Everything inside the yard was built for the purpose of indicating Confucius great knowledge. We came to Lingxing Gate after coming across a small arch bridge. The gate got such name because ancient people connected Confucius knowledge with the god who was in charge of knowledge and culture up in the sky, meaning worshiping Confucius was like worshipping god.
Stepping in, first thing that came to my eyes is Hongdao Gate, which was built in Ming Dynasty. A red gate attracted all my attention as we went forward. Our tour guide told me it was "Dazhong Gate", which referred to Confucius perfect thought, like a libra in the middle. Turning left from Dazhong gate, there was a four meters high rock that's carved with ancient Chinese.
In the left front of the rock, there was "Apricot Platform". The rock name was written by an emperor named Qianlong in Qing dynasty. Ancient emperors used to rest in here when they came to the temple of Confucius. I hurried over there and took a seat, trying to see if by any chance I would feel like a king, nope, nothing special. I guessed I wasn't being focused enough, haha!
The temple of Confucius was so big, almost like an emperor's palace. We visited other famous spots like Thirteen Stele Pavilions, Dacheng Gate, Shengshi Gate and Kuiwen Hall. I had a great time today.