Chùa Phúc Khánh

This guide to Chùa Phúc Khánh in Hanoi opens with the six-lane Ngã Tư Sở junction outside its gates, where thousands once knelt on the asphalt for an annual prayer ceremony too large for the temple grounds to hold. You'll hear how the pagoda began as a Trần-dynasty training ground for monks, burned down when Tây Sơn and Qing armies collided nearby in 1789, and was rebuilt by a monk named Chiếu Liên with help from a Tây Sơn admiral who donated a bronze bell still hanging inside today. The guide traces that bell's inscription and the crowds it has drawn back through the centuries.