莲花塔

This guide to 莲花塔 in Guangzhou opens with an unremarkable lump of grey stone by the south gate and the legend behind it: a dragon that once flooded the Pearl River, and the bodhisattva Guanyin who is said to have pinned it under the current with her lotus. It follows that legend into the sandstone hills that took the lotus's name, and into the pagoda merchants built directly above the stone around sixteen twelve, a landmark European traders sketched into their charts as the Second Bar Pagoda. You'll hear how sailors bound for Canton used a monster's grave to find their way to port. Look for the second guardian rising over the water behind you.