Now a mere tourist attraction, the Temple of Literature, dedicated to Confucius, in Hanoi, Vietnam, once served as an Imperial Academy for the Chinese during the Ly Dynasty, where admitted students would go to study the disciplines of: Chinese, Chinese History and Chinese Philosophy.

It was on these grounds that students came to not only study, but live (not unlike our modern day universities), while undergoing rigorous scholarship for the duration of 3-to-7 years. Students who had successfully completed internal examination would then be moved on to national examination, where the monarch himself would pose each student their own set of questions. Though highly stringent, it was here that future leaders and heads of state would be formed.

Interestingly enough, the Imperial Academy was also the largest centre for study in the whole of Vietnam during its time.