山毛榉

Botanical name with a literal feel: 山 ('mountain') + 毛 ('hairy') + 榉 ('beech-genus tree'). The 'hairy' refers to the fine hairs on young beech leaves. The shorter 榉树 (jǔshù) is the general 'Zelkova / beech-family tree' term - Chinese gardeners distinguish 榉树 (the native Chinese Zelkova serrata) from imported 山毛榉 (true Fagus beech).

Beech features heavily in European folklore - Yggdrasil's neighbor, Caesar's Gallic Wars 'silva Bacenis' - and Chinese translators of fairy tales reach for this tree specifically when they want that European-forest texture rather than 'tree' generically.