Confucius Temple

Confucius, China's legendary sage, has lost. The advocate of respect, restraint and order is now associated in Nanjingers' minds with one thing--shopping!
　　Centered around the ancient Confucius Temple (Fuzi Miao), this neighborhood in southern Nanjing is the place to be on weekends and holidays,especially Spring Festival. Clothing shops and restaurants dominate the main streets (closed to vehicular traffic) while street stalls in the alleyways sell stuffed animals, plants, CDs and even more clothes. The daily night market brings these stalls out onto Gongyuan Street, the main drag between the Confucius Temple and Pingjiang Fu Street, a lively scene even if most of the goods on sale are simple household items. Try the yuanxiao元宵, jelly-filled dumplings whose round shape and sweet taste symbolize happiness and harmony.
　　Tourists not interested in bringing a cactus back home as reminders of their trip to Nanjing can load up on souvenirs at shops clustered closer to the Confucius Temple complex. In addition to the usual selection of jade goodies, teapots and paintings, vendors display yu hua shi雨花石, multicolored rocks special to Nanjing.
　　With all the garish consumerism on display outside, it's little wonder that the actual Confucius Temple is the quietest place in the neighborhood. The temple was first constructed in 1034 during the Song Dynasty to complement the Jiangnan Examination School (see below), where the imperial examinations were administered. Scholars came to the temple to pray for success and demonstrate their humble respect for Confucius. Burnt down and rebuilt several times, the current structure dates from after World War Two. Its traditional sweeping eaves give the architecture a Ming and Qing flavor.
　Fuzi Miao is perhaps at its best around the time of the Lantern Festival (fifteen days after the Lunar New Year), when a special exhibit of multi-sized and multi-colored lanterns themed around the twelve animals of the lunar cycle lend a festive air to the temple.
　　If you think that your long, cramped journey was some form of torture, a visit to the Exhibition of the History of the Jiangnan Examination School (Jiangnan Gongyuan江南贡院), should set your mind at ease. Founded in 1168 (the Song Dynasty), the school was used to administer the rigorous civil service exams used to choose officials during China's imperial age.
　　The modern exhibit contains forty examination cells plus a small museum that claims to be the only specialized museum in China dedicated to the imperial examination system. Unfortunately, all the explanations are in Chinese. The exhibit is a short walk east of the Confucius Temple at 1 Jinling Lu.
　　It was my feelings , just to me like that.However,what is your experiences?~

Nanjing University ART EXHIBITION

“It was my first time to have a look at a sculpture exhibition. However, at least, these artworks were absolutely brilliant and made me feel excited about it. In the future, I wish I have an opportunity to dig more ability about arts. I like it." ——said by Claude
Some weeks ago, 10-C students and us went to Nanjing University for an exhibition called Wu Weishan Cultural Figures Sculpture Gallery. It was a wonderful trip that I had taken, which perfectly showed the artworks, the sculptures made by Mr.Wu. Many of the artworks described a couple of famous artists, authors and famous people from the past in Chinese history.
Looking around for a while, the sculpture which I was interested in was such a sculpture of a famous person in the ancient China named "Lao Zi". It was sculpted by Professor.Wu in the year 2005. The largest copy of this artwork is located in Jiang Su, Huainan. The most interesting thing is that there is also a famous paragraph called Tao Te Ching ("Dao De Jing" in Chinese) carved inside of the sculpture. With the empty area inside, it is big enough for a person to stand inside. Ancient Chinese words were carved in Lao Zi's body which are really archaic.
This kind of artworks made me feel very peaceful and broad. With thinking through the whole time, I realized many things, truths. As the main idea is said, "Empty" is the scene of the universe "Qiankun", and with no borders, it could share and embrace everything entirely. The thoughtful sculpture reminds me of an experience. Like the experience engraved in my mind, it also tells me how to forgive others and improve myself. Such a human nature, that like an old Chinese proverb, "the chest of a man is wider than the sky and is deeper than the oceans", so on the surface it says that the person has a kind and generous mind or heart. It makes me think of many senses such as how the world is, how we should treat others, how we should get along with others, and also the most necessary idea is about what our society is like. I guess that the artist's intention is to describe and represent the personalities of the famous Chinese philosopher, Lao Zi.
By showing his characteristics, which tells us what kind of person he is, let me know what the great person related to. For my curiosity, to carve the famous book of "Dao De Jing" inside the sculpture is a very creative skill or an idea of making artwork. Looking at "the high, even messy guy", my feeling is that the wise person is standing towards me,and for that, he tries to explain me something in his mind benignantly.
I feel the exhibition was a brain washing, it’s a kind of “fantasy” that I really liked, and from what I said, I knew a lot after the journey. In my mind, I promise I must be generous; I realize I still have lots of things to try and improve on; also, I will prove myself...

Fortunately, we met Professor Wu during the exhibition. A crowd of students rushed towards him, some asked for his signature, and some were taking photos around him. How thronged here was! Ha, art is so winsome, eh? Yep, I am fond of it.

Dinner in a western restaurant with Grade 12

Our class 10-A went to have dinner with grade 12 students on December 20th, 2008. We met at the gate of Tacos in Zhujiang Road at 6:00 p.m. During the first time without parents, most of our classmates could not wait to have this delectable dinner.
I reached by bicycle because the distance is so close. With all of our classmates mostly arrived in Tacos, at 6:30.we sat down with the grade twelve in the back of the restaurant where has a huge amount of big wooden tables , really enough for us to all sit down, even more comfortable .Then the waitress gave us the menu gracefully.

As the matter of fact, in other foreign restaurants, after having hors d'oeuvre, I was able to have pizzas, or something like that. I heard that they had ordered the diffident kinds of Mexican food, such as pizza along with some kinds of local food. So at last, I created a new way of eating there as I asked for a beefsteak. Waiting is so tough that I cannot bear the lure from the delicious food. Time faster and faster it went, hungrier and hungrier I was. After the “provoking” time, it was realistically such a delightful time with having dainty dishes in a good-surrounding restaurant which is clean but not very crowed.
At the end of this exiting activity, we took this experience of going out to have dinner together with our classmates indelibly. We laughed, played funny games and jokes together.