Just one subway stop away from Wong Tai Sin is the Chi Lin Buddhist Nunnery, founded in the 1930s to provide religious, cultural, educational, and elderly care services to the Hong Kong community. Reconstructed in the 1990s in the style of Tang dynasty monastic architecture (A.D. 618-907), the nunnery is an amazing union of ancient building techniques and modern technology. Imported yellow cedar from Canada was carved in China by skilled artisans and craftsmen and then reconstructed here like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle; no nails were used, but rather a system of wooden doweling and brackets that is nothing short of remarkable. The main hall was modeled after the Foguang Monastery in Shanxi Province, while the double-eaved Hall of Celestial Kings is designed after the 11th-century Phoenix Hall outside Kyoto, Japan. On nunnery grounds are a lotus pond, sculpted bushes and bonsai, and statues of the goddess of mercy, god of medicine, and others. A better garden, however, the Nan Lian Garden, awaits across the street, styled in imitation of a famous classical garden of the Tang Dynasty and with a very good vegetarian restaurant. Plan on at least an hour to see the nunnery and the garden.