Confucius temple: sober and quiet.

The Confucius Temple is one of the interesting places to visit in Taipei. An easy one to reach too: Just take the red line, get off at Yuanshan station and walk just a little bit. The temple was built on the model of another one in China, in order to honour Confucius. As such, and in order to match the philosopher’s teachings, the building is very sober for a Taiwanese temple. Colors are here, but some usual figures are missing, such as the stone lions at the entrance for instance. Columns, doors and windows are also deprived of all inscriptions, contrary to those in other temples.

The atmosphere here is really different. The place is quiet, and looks nice. Very often you will stumble upon photographers coming here to make portraits in a nice location.

Confucius temple is definitely a good idea, a nice walk if you want to see something a little bit different from the other temples. Very often some special exhibitions are held in some of the rooms, for free. Last time I came it talked about Chinese archery and it was really interesting.