莲香楼

This guide to Lianxianglou teahouse in Guangzhou centers on a small act of correction: in 1910 the scholar Chen Ruyue ate a lotus-paste pastry here, decided the shop's name undersold it, and altered a single character in its signboard calligraphy, a change the owners kept. It traces the century of renovations that followed, as owners layered imported hardwood, carved screens and stained glass onto the same three-story frame instead of replacing it. Look up at the painted rafters and lotus lanterns above the tea hall, added long after the original interior was gone.