Wutong Mountain

This guide to Wutong Mountain in Shenzhen opens with the ancient belief that a phoenix would settle only in a wutong tree, and the peak, at nine hundred forty-three meters, that took its name. You'll hear how the mountain was protected as one of China's first national forest parks even as Shenzhen's skyline rose below it in the nineteen eighties, and follow the Ming and Qing era stone paths laid by Taoist monks past half-hidden temple ruins. Look south from the summit toward the hills of Hong Kong across the water.