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.