It has been several decades since a tiger was last spotted in Hong Kong. But big cats were far more common in the city and for far longer than most realize, a new book claims.
By Claire Turrell 23 December 2020
Nestled within a narrow valley of the Meihuashan Nature Reserve in China’s south-eastern Fujian province, the ancient Hakka village of Guizhuping is sheltered from the cold north wind by a sacred forest.
A crescent-shaped cluster of broadleaf evergreen trees climbs up and down the mountainside, hugging the village’s white-washed mudbrick cottages and scarlet-coloured temple at the bottom of the slope. Thanks to the forest that surrounds it, this remote community that battles typhoons and receives up to 200cm of rainfall per year has remained intact for the last 400 years.
This
fengshuilin, or feng shui forest, is one of tens of thousands of pristine, preserved woods scattered across China’s southern and central provinces. These patches of old-growth heritage trees are believed to bring prosperity and good health to the communities that protect them, and have been utilised by the native Han people (mainly Hakka and Huizhou