Lam Tsuen wishing trees, Sacred trees in Fong Ma Po Village, Hong Kong

Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees are two ancient banyan trees located near Tin Hau Temple in Fong Ma Po Village, where visitors attach their written wishes to wooden frames surrounding the trunks. The site also features modern facilities designed to accommodate the large number of people who come each year to leave their prayers.

Lam Tsuen has been settled since around 1287, during the Song dynasty. The Tin Hau Temple beside the trees was built around 1768–1771 under the Qianlong Emperor and served as the highest administrative body for the villages of Lam Tsuen until a 1954 committee appointed Luk Wo Tong as its substitute. The first wishing tree was an ordinary camphor tree with a Pak Kung tablet; after it hollowed out, a legend that a slow-learning son improved after his father wished to it drew crowds. The current banyan was adopted after earlier trees were lost to fire, and in 2005 a branch collapsed, leading to a ban on throwing offerings.

Villagers once burned incense at the trees' roots and called them "Heung Jai Shue". Wishes are written on a bao die with name, birth date and a hundred-pacification talisman, tied to an orange and thrown; one that stays in the branches is granted. Since 2005 wooden racks replace throwing, though some still toss. The smaller tree is for children and marriage, the larger for studies, career, home and health.

Reach the site by taking bus routes 64K or 64P from MTR Tai Po Market station, or take minibus 25K directly to the location. Visit early in the morning or on weekdays to encounter fewer crowds and have more space to move around the trees.

The fourth wishing tree is a 25-foot plastic banyan ordered from Guangzhou in 2010, with a fiberglass trunk and plastic oranges for throwing. It stands at the former Lam Tsuen Public School, now the Wishing Square, where the 2011 Hong Kong Well-Wishing Festival began. The first tree is prayed to for career, studies and wealth; the second for marriage and pregnancy; the third for anything.