Guangxiao Si- Temple of Filial Piety

On Sunday I was able to meet up AGAIN with the wonderful family of Emme Lu! What a treat for me! 2 days in a row! I felt like one lucky girl, and what a wonderful way to spend Mother's Day, than with the newest Mother of them all, Her wonderful Husband, and the one who "made it all happen"- Miss Emme Lu!
Emme Lu is a wonderful traveler from what I've seen. We spent the entire afternoon out in the heat, and she was immensely patient the whole day! Such a calm and happy little girl!
This is a temple I had never been to before- but is right here in Guangzhou. The name of it is Guangxiao Si- the Temple of Filial Piety. Lonely Planet says it is one of the oldest and most attractive temples in Guangzhou, and I have to say I think I agree. The earliest temple on this site dates to the 4th century AD-before the city of Guangzhou was a City proper, but most of the buildings were destroyed by fire in the mid 17th century, and are therefore much newer. Regardless, it's still quite impressive, and for a temple in the city of Guangzhou, amazingly clean.

These are two of the statues you see as you enter the main gate to the temple. I've seen these primarily in Korean Temples, but not quite so often in Chinese temples. They are usually 4 large statues guarding the entrance, but situated inside a building or a passageway as you enter the temple grounds. I don't know the significance of each of the 4 guards, but they are really quite beautifully painted statues, and quite big. I would guess they are at least 25-30 feet tall.

This was one of the buildings in the temple grounds- inside there were monks chanting a prayer.
Emme Lu in the sunshine...
The Monks- I know it's not a good photo, it was one of those "on the sly/at my hip" sort of photos, and I only got one off before another monk waved me off. Not too "on the sly" after all...Emme Lu was completely fascinated with the Monks chanting. She recognized it instantly as singing and at first started to clap her hands, but listened for a long time quite intently, just watching and absorbing.
I really love the enormous urns that people put incense into at temples. You can see incense burning from so many different people at one time- some has been burning for a long time & is practically burned out, some barely started. It's always a mystery to try and envision what are the various things people may wish for before putting their incense into the urn. Health? Fortune? Love? A new Job? You could spend months imagining all of the things people pray for, and you probably still could not imagine all of the things.