Located in the southeast corner of Nanjing City, the Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall is a large-scale imperial examination venue from ancient China. It is the place where scholars were selected in the southern regions of China and one of the three major ancient architectural complexes in the Confucius Temple area, an important part of the Qinhuai scenery belt. According to ‘South Window Records’: The Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall was first established in the fourth year of the Qiandao period during the Southern Song Dynasty (1168 AD) by the prefect Shi Zhengzhi, initially serving as an examination venue for the county school.
It did not occupy a large area, and the number of candidates was also not high. When the number of candidates increased, monasteries were borrowed to hold examinations. After continuous expansion during the Ming and Qing dynasties, by the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall had developed into a complex with 20,644 examination cells, plus more than a thousand official rooms for the chief examiner, supervisors, proctors, inspectors, and other officials, as well as rooms for catering, storage, miscellaneous services, and security. It also included land for ponds, gardens, bridges, passages, and watchtowers, making it the largest examination venue in the country in terms of scale, land area, and number of houses. The opening hours are from 09:00 to 21:00 all year round; during New Year’s Day, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Labor Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and National Day, the opening hours are extended to 09:00 to 22:00.Preferential policies include free admission for children under 1.4 meters in height or under 6 years of age, and for elderly people aged 70 and above with a senior citizen card; discounted admission for elderly people aged 60 to 70 (please show your ID when exchanging tickets), students over 1.4 meters in height and under 22 years of age (please show your student ID when exchanging tickets); free admission for those with a certificate of bravery, firefighters with a fire rescue certificate, and blood donors with a blood donation honor certificate; free admission for retired cadres with a valid retirement certificate (one accompanying person allowed), and retired military personnel with a valid retirement certificate; free admission for people with disabilities with a valid disability certificate (those with disabilities level 1 and 2 can bring one accompanying person for free), and for active-duty military personnel with a valid military ID (officer’s ID, soldier’s ID, civilian staff ID).
Service facilities include a parking lot: [Laiyan Shopping Center Parking Lot] with a reference price of ¥8 per hour; located at the intersection of Laiyan Road and Wuyi Lane; with 61 parking spaces. Luggage storage is available at no cost. The scenic area provides guided tours, which can be purchased at the ticket office.
Stroller rental: Reference price: free. A deposit of 500 yuan is required.
Address: Tourist center
