Yuexiu Park

This guide to Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou follows the watchtower known as Zhenhai, first raised in 1380 by Marquis Zhu Liangzu after he folded three smaller cities into one, and knocked down and rebuilt on the same footprint again and again by typhoons, wars, and cannon fire. It traces the last rebuilding, in 1928, when the city quietly swapped timber for a modern material behind the same Ming-dynasty walls and tile roofs. You'll pass the pair of red sandstone lions that have guarded the entrance since the tower really was built of trees.