Songshan Ciyou Temple

This guide to Songshan Ciyou Temple in Taipei opens with a barefoot monk crossing from Quanzhou in the seventeen thirties, a gilded statue of the sea goddess Mazu strapped to his back and no money to his name. You'll hear how he and local villagers spent a decade begging door to door for a temple, and about the eighteen-oh-three stone lions that still flank the entrance, and the nineteen eighty-one fire that gutted the main hall the community rebuilt. Listen for the Taoist chanting drifting through its six floors.