By Ms. Irene Indriasari
In line with the government program of Visit Semarang year, Sam Poo Kong is one of the tourist spots recommended by Semarang Municipality. As we know, Sam Poo Kong temple was the landing place of Great Admiral Cheng Ho, a famous sailor from China. He was sent by the Chinese Emperor to sail and explore the world. You can imagine that when he landed in Simongan, it was near the sea and probably the sea level was up to that place at that time. Besides the history, the Chinese culture and the practice of Kong Hu Chu religion were our focus of interest. A lot of questions roamed our mind.
Thus we had a field trip for ET6 students visiting Sam Poo Kong. It is expected that they could make story, and give tips to traveller since ET 6 has a lesson discussing about the tour, trip and giving tips for travelers. Our trip took place in the evening. Students gathered in LIA Candi, then the tour leader came to the class, explained that the students have to observe and later make a class project, making a wall mag article about Sam Poo Kong. We went together by LIA’s car to Sam Poo Kong. There are two ticket boxes if you want to go there, the first is the outer box, where you pay Rp 3.000,- per person. Then if you want to go inside the worshiping temple, you have to pay Rp. 20.000,- per person. Different rates applied to foreign tourists. We went to the main gate, the inner yard, the west gate and the front of the temples. We observed the souvenir and praying equipments and explored the place. Students were happy taking pictures in almost every corner of the place eventhough it was drizzling.
The students were very excited to be able to join the field trip. They were enthusiastic in observing Sam Poo Kong and its history. Eventhough they live in Semarang but they haven’t got sufficient information about the history of Cheng Ho and everything about Sam Poo Kong. They were surprised to see the giant candles priced Rp.6.000.000,- and all the praying apparels. Those giant candles lit every day, 24 hours in one year. The rich families contribute the giant candles to the temple. Everything about Sam Poo Kong can be associated with the word “enormous”. Besides the enormous candle, they also have the enormous gate and also the enormous Great Admiral Cheng Ho statue as enormous as his famous name. We ended the trip after one hour, it was quite a field trip and maybe next time we will make a more interesting one!
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