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Guangzhou's most perfectly maintained religious building is inside the temple grounds of Liurong Si on Liurong Lu (daily 8.30am-5pm; Y6; Gongyuan Qian or Ximen Kou metro). Originally called Bao Zhuang Si, the temple's name was changed to Liurong (Six Banyans) in 1100, after a visit by the dissident poet-governor Su Dongpo . Inspired by some beautiful trees then growing in the temple grounds, Su drew the huge characters for "Liu Rong" inscribed on the two stone steles just inside the gates. There's a contemporary carved portrait of Su here, too, casually attired in clogs and bamboo hat. Hua Ta is a Flower Pagoda that rises 57 metres above Liurong's halls. An eleventh-century replacement of an earlier structure built to enshrine holy relics brought from India by Emperor Wu's uncle, Hua Ta's wooden eaves are adorned with carvings of lions, insects and birds; of its seventeen storeys, nine have balconies and eight are blind. The interior stairway is not spiral, but a series of flights between floors, and you have to exit onto each balcony and circle ninety degrees to the right to ascend the next, lower-ceilinged level - watch your head. Landing niches are full of golden Buddhas in various poses, and at the top is a gigantic bronze pillar covered with over a thousand reliefs of meditating figures rising up through the roof, solid enough to support the five-tonne begging bowl and pearl that you can see from ground level.
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