Temple of Literature (Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam)

Address: Van Mieu, Hanoi

Open Hours: Monday – Sunday 8:00 – 17:00

In 1070 King Ly Thanh Tong founded this temple to pay tribute to education and to those of high academic achievement. Six years later, it became home to Hanoi's first university. Even now, more than 200 years after the last national examination, the site's five courtyards still enjoy an atmosphere of higher learning. Today, art students sit on the grass and try to reproduce the traditional Vietnamese architecture on paper. Stone steles record the names of successful doctorates of the past at this quiet retreat into Vietnamese educational history.