大佛寺

This guide to Dafo Si, the Great Buddha Temple, in Guangzhou opens with an act of penance: the Qing general Shang Kexi, whose ten-month siege and sack of the city in 1650 left tens of thousands dead and burned an older temple on this site to rubble, later poured his own money into rebuilding it. It follows the temple's reconstruction, finished in 1664, including whole camphor logs shipped across the sea from Annam to raise the roof, and the casting of three massive bronze Buddhas that gave the temple its everyday name. Look up at the camphor pillars before you look at the statues beneath them.