Fodor's Expert Review Guangxiao Temple

This is the oldest and most charming Buddhist temple in Guangzhou. The gilded wooden laughing Buddha at the entrance heralds the temple's welcoming atmosphere. A huge bronze incense burner stands in the main courtyard. Beyond the main hall, noted for its ceiling of red-lacquer timber, is another courtyard with several treasures, among them a small brick pagoda said to contain the tonsure hair of Hui-neng (the sixth patriarch of Chan Buddhism), and a couple of iron pagodas that are the oldest of their kind in China. Above them spread the leafy branches of plum trees and a banyan tree called Buddha's Tree, so named because it is said Hui-neng became enlightened in its shade.