Xidi and Hongcun Ancient Villages

Wondering the opportunity to explore China's ancient culture and arts? Check out the two ancient villages around Huangshan.

Xidi Village

Xidi Village is a very beautiful village located near Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province. It is the perfect place for visitors to see typical folk houses where residents have lived as they have for centuries.

With a history of over 900 years, Xidi Village is segmented by over 40 ancient winding and narrow lanes that are paved with bluestones. Visitors strolling through this ancient village will discover traditional Hui-style houses, ancestral temples, academies of classical learning, stone archways, white walls and grey tiles, beautifully paned windows, projecting horse-head walls, and a stone slab bridge.

Xidi Village

From that moment when visitors step into this village, they feel that every inch of it was designed by artists. On the marble doorframes, flowers, birds, and beasts can be found carved on them. The carved bricks feature pavilions, human figures, and scenes from local operas.

Xidi Village appears like a page in a fairy tale. Embraced by mountains, with clear streams flowing through it and goldfish ponds scattered throughout it, and with paddy fields placed in front of it, Xidi Village looks too picturesque to be real. Recently architects, planners, sculptors, industrial artists, and painters have discovered the untouched beauty of Xidi and have been heading to this village as it provides them with abundant sources of inspiration.

Hongcun Village

Hongcun Village is located in Yixian County, located near the southwestern slope of Huangshan Mountain. It is listed as one of China's top 10 charming villages and together with Xidi Village, it was added to UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage List in 2000. Morning mists, gray tiles, white walls, stone bridges, water lily ponds, and hills in the background, are all elements of traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Hongcun Village has all of these features and has been named "a village in Chinese painting".

This well-preserved centuries-old village is unique. What makes Hongcun Village so unique is that the village was designed by a Feng Shui master.

Hongcun is unique among all Chinese villages for its very sophisticated water system. Water is the main feature of this village. Its two large ponds are connected to a series of flowing streams that pass by every house, providing water for washing, cooking, and bathing.

Hongcun Village

Visitors to Hongcun Village can leisurely ramble around, chat with villagers, listen to the ancient stories, taste local delicacies, shop for antiques, admire the wisdom of the ancients from poetry pasted on house columns, Hui-style architecture, the exquisite wood and stone-work, and the subtleties of the Fengshui arrangement. For anyone who loves to paint, don't forget your art supplies.

Auspicious couplets hung during Chinese New Year wishes residents and visitors good luck for each day of the year.