Yongfu Temple

This guide to Yongfu Temple in Hangzhou explores why its five courtyards climb the mountainside behind Lingyin instead of lining up along the straight axis every Chinese temple is supposed to follow. Founded in 326 by the monk Huili, the temple survived fire and centuries of rebuilding until a Ming-dynasty flood left the site empty for roughly three hundred years, with reconstruction only beginning in 2001. Stone staircases stitch its terraces together, bending around bamboo groves and trees older than the buildings themselves.