Two months and a half without blogging. Waste US$2.2452421473532432 of my domain fee. So let’s start now.

I heard that Hanoi was damn hot these days. It must be even hotter for the coming days because of the university entrance examinations. Pressure, stress, sweat, tears, and I’m sure lots of young ones are willing to donate some blood as well to secure a place in a tertiary education institutions.

Good luck to them!

But well, my “good luck” doesn’t count. They need something more. Erm, more tangible, i guess.

From Straits Times:

‘All of them want to touch the head of the tortoise because they think that it makes them perform well at the exam,’ she said in an open-air pavilion with rows of 20 tortoises and attached stelae, some of them cracked. ‘We just try to encourage them not to.’ Some are content to squat down beside the tortoises to have their photos taken.

Others insist on dashing in to slide a hand quickly over one of the heads, the smoothness attesting to the numbers of students who have sought their inspiration.

link

Yup, they touch tortoises’ heads for luck! The place is our Imperial Academy and Temple of Literatue. Considered to be our first university founded a thousand years ago, it was the place scholars studied. Those who passed the final exam to became doctors would have their names engraved on stone stele which are held on the backs of stone tortoises. Since long ago, touching the tortoises’ heads has been believed to bring good luck to students. As a result, this place attracts a crowd at this time of the year.

Lots of pupils coming to visit

From year to year, the tortoises’ heads have been polished and some words on the stele vanished. Tourists are adviced not to touch them now.

This kind of inconsiderate tourists is destroying our heritage!!

However, to those who believe their performance in the exam base largely on luck, nothing can stop them. And they do even more funny things.

Money thrown onto the roof for luck (??)

Anyway, it’s my most favourite place in Hanoi. Only crowded in Lunar New Year and examination time. Other than that, it was a nice quiet place.

Human chess played in Lunar New Year

Peacefully beautiful

University entrance exam is stressful not only in Vietnam. As far as I know, the same happens in China and Korea. I have seen on the news. Some cry, some faint. Things some people do when they face a tragedy now they do when facing an examination. My Korean friends, during their high school time, started a school days at 8 and ended at 8. After that, tuition and homework. They only finished at 1am. Just for the exam. “Nope”, they would say, “it’s for a good job, a good spouse and a good life later”. Sound good, but they agreed with me it was crazy.