Head in the clouds on a holy mountain

I HAD a sinking feeling as we approached Luofu Shan, the mountainous tourist destination 120 kilometres east of Guangzhou.

Not only did the entire area seem to be a massive military base - there were soldiers everywhere - but also the mountain's lower slopes were badly scarred by logging. Even higher up the forest was patchy; it certainly did not look a promising start for what was supposed to be a 2,400-hectare forest nature reserve.

When my motorbike taxi pulled into the park's tourist area, however, my spirits lifted. I was in a narrow valley with a calm, green lake, the buildings of the resort almost lost among trees, and the whole overlooked and dominated by Luofu Shan's craggy peaks.

In fact some of the buildings were so well hidden I had trouble finding a place to stay.

I had come here, on the northern banks of the East River, and just outside the plains of the Pearl River Delta, to climb this 1,296-metre mountain. It has been a popular Chinese tourist destination for centuries, but few foreigners have ventured on to its slopes.

The tourist area, called Zhuming Dong, or Pearly Cave, centres on an ancient Taoist temple, Chongxu Guguan and its associated fengshui forest, preserved from the depredations of the axe for the geomantic protection of the temple.

Legends about the mountain abound. The very name refers to its mythological origin as a result of the fusion of two mountains. Luo and Fu, that floated across the seas to their present location.