In Hong Kong we visited a place in the new territories where they have a wishing tree shrine. At the Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree facility they have a shop where you can buy what you need for making your wish or incense for burning in the shop shrine or for your shrine under the wishing tree. They also have the incense rings for sale here as well for use on the property. We stopped in here for those that wanted to make a wish by the new wishing tree.
They also had what the tour guide called the “first class” Restrooms. They were updated, air conditioned and super clean. I got to see my first Squat restroom here. They were very nice. And after being in some scary restrooms while traveling I would agree this place was first class.
After our restroom break our guide took us to the tree and explained the history of the Wishing Tree and the shrines near by. In the past the tradition was you would write down your wish/prayer on paper and you would tie the paper to and apple or orange (keeping with the color themes red = happiness, gold/orange = power, green= money/prosperity). Once attached you toss the fruit letter over the branches on the wishing tree. This method was very popular tradition especially for holidays. So popular in fact that is recent history during a holiday that an older tree was not able to support all the wishes and fruit and lost a branch and people got hurt. In order to allow the practice of wishing tree to continue is a safer manner the government allowed the erection of boards with pegs corresponding with the animals of the zodiac so people and place the wishes there instead. The do have some younger trees that were supposed to replace the aging one but they are not sure if they will allow people to use the tree like they did in the pass because of the fear of more injury. There were also little shrines in use for other daily practices outside of wishes. It’s a very positive feeling place and a great stop on our traditional heritage tour.
