In my recent visit to Beijing downtown, I visited several tourist spots with my friend from Bangladesh, as we met after a long time and spent a great day together. One of our most important tours was in the Confucius Temple, which is a temple for remembering the great philosopher Confucius of the Eastern region of the world. As it is very close to the city center of the Beijing old area, I saw many people going to the Lama Temple,, which is very close to the Confucius Temple. Just a few steps to the west, we come to the Guozijian Street, a peaceful place where old trees let in soft sunshine, and I have already written a blog on the beauty of this street. The noise of the modern city died down in this area, and the Beijing Temple of Confucius is one of the most visited tourist spots here.
You can not deny the popularity of Confucius in Chinese history, so he is respected all over China. The Beijing Confucius Temple was built in 1302, during the Yuan Dynasty. As far as I read in the internet, this one is the second biggest Confucius temple in all of China and the largest is located in Qufu, which is the city where Confucius was born. It can be found in the history that Confucius was honored by the central government on this very spot for more than 600 years, during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. There are many layers of history in all the structures in this wholeTemple yard,, which is also full of many old trees that bear the history of centuries after century.
When we came to the closer area of the Temple, we found it a little bit crowded, but the good thing was that when we were standing in the queue for purchasing tickets, a lady caretaker told us that foreigners were free of charge for tickets that day as they were celebrating the International Tourism Day. So, we entered the Temple without buying the tickets.
The first thing that will come to your mind after entering into the temple is the colorful structures in the whole temple yard. There are also long, lush green surroundings with paths that are framed by magnificent, old trees that make the views so attractive. The thick and strong stems of these trees spoke of watching rituals come and go for hundreds of years. The air here was visibly cleaner, quieter, and filled with a deep sense of respect, making the whole environment a great one.
After entering into the temple ground, your eyes will be attached with the explosion of color that makes the main buildings stand out in the whole area of the temple. As I walked toward the main temple building which is the real entrance to the temple's heart, the bright colors caught my eye. The buildings are classic examples of imperial Chinese architecture which can be found everywhere in China. These are made with woods and so many textures with bright colors made them really eye-catching.The roofs of these architectures are covered with extremely bright imperial yellow painted tiles that look very shining with the bright sun.
There are also many complex wooden brackets painted in bright colors including blues, greens, reds, and golds with swirling clouds, flower designs, and mythical beasts like Chinese dragons and so on. The pillars are a deep, rich red that stands for both wealth and holiness. The deep greens of the old trees and the these colorful architectures made the effect stunningly beautiful. It was a visual symphony of traditional excellency in the architectural beauty and the respect for the great man of scholar.
Besides the colorful architectural beauty of the area, the whole temple yard is full of so many old green trees that reflect the love for nature of the Chinese people from very early history. Many trees were aged more than 600/700 years in this area, and they are properly taken care of here.
There are many stone chamber towers that are built on various events in Chinese history, which are preserved properly to this date. I have read some of them in detail, like they have successfully controlled some riots centuries ago, and these towers are kept as relics for those historic events.
I have found the longest rally of different animals in the corner of the roofs of the temple building, which denotes that this is one of the most holy places and a respected area for the common people.
In conclusion, visiting the Confucius Temple is one of the most historic place with the memory of great scholar who was renowned in the whole world. I have read about him in my high school and some of his teachings are my life-long guidelines that I still remember when I behave with any person. So, it was a great day for me to visit the Confucius Temple.
I hope you like my visit to the Beijing Confucius Temple, which is an important place of history and knowledge that reflects the thoughts of Confucius. I found the old yard with old trees and fantastic architectural marvels in the whole area, which is stunning. If you have any queries, let me know in the comments, and I will try my best to answer them as much as I can afford.
Thanks a lot for your time and attention. I will catch up with you at the next one.
Wishing you a good day!
I took all the photos, and these are my own property.
MD AL MAHADI HASAN
