Guangdong Haizhu National Wetland Park

This guide to Guangdong Haizhu National Wetland Park in Guangzhou opens with the trillion-yuan valuation city planners once put on this land, and the 2012 decision to keep it as an orchard rather than clear it for towers. It follows the Ten Thousand Mu Orchard through its decline, as factories and food stalls crowded in and the water fouled, and the return in 2014 of farmer Lei Zhixiang, who found the place he remembered buried under garbage and stayed to help pull it back with a neighbor who tore down his own barbecue stand. Stand among the raised beds and quiet channels the old growers dug, and listen for how far the bird count climbed once the land was given back.