Templo de Kun Iam
Ming-dynasty Buddhist temple whose garden holds the stone table of the first US-China treaty.
This guide to Templo de Kun Iam in Macau centers on the summer of 1844, when Caleb Cushing, America's first official envoy to China, found the gates of Beijing closed to him and instead sat down at a stone table in this temple's back garden with Keying, the Viceroy of Liangguang. It sets that meeting against the Qing dynasty's recent defeat in the First Opium War and the delicate question of how to treat an American envoy without conceding equal standing. The temple itself dates to the thirteenth century, dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy, and its incense-filled halls still draw devotees each day. You can still see the stone table roped off in the garden behind the courtyards.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.