Ancient Examination Academy
The Ancient Examination Academy is located near the Confucius Temple Scenic Zone in Nanjing. Originally it was a private house, then in Ming and Qing Dynasty it was changed into the examination academy in Nanjing. It is an ancient examination academy which is difficult to be seen at present.

 
The Ancient Examination Academy having antique flavor only has the Mingyuan Building, the Feihong Bridge and so on constructions. The little rooms for the examinees to prepare for examinations before exist no longer. The Mingyuan Building is the highest construction in the ancient examination academy. There are all windows in four sides upstairs. During the past examinations, the officials would investigate upstairs in order to avoid the cheating of examinees and guards on duty.

On the four corners of the ancient examination academy's fence, the watchtowers are also built for investigation and watch. The Feihong Bridge was the forbidden area to separate the examiners at that time. Since the examinee's paper was firstly checked by the outer officer, then sent to the inner officer to check and estimate the position in a name list, the outer and inner needed strict compartment, so people regarded the Feihong Bridge as the central compartment line. At that time the imperial examination was really strict like "strict castle".

In order to provide convenience for nowadays Chinese people and visitors from home and abroad to understand the examination systems of ancient Chinese and the conditions how scholars took an examination, the ancient examination academy also has history exhibition hall now. There are a lot of books and historic relics in the exhibition hall, recording conditions of having ancient examinations and explaining the aim and significance of having ancient examinations in each dynasty clearly.

Now this way that was once the best method that emperor selected outstanding people has already been into the history. The ancient examination academy is a good place for modern scholars to cherish the memory of history and understand the changes of examination systems.