Situated at the southern tip of Anhui province, Huizhou villages is a place where you can revisit its heyday from 400 years ago just by strolling along its old streets, picturesque countryside, and enchanting villages.
Abundant ancient towns and villages in Huizhou region are well-preserved and maintain the original appearance and features, offering us a great opportunity to get to know this unique culture and the particular Huizhou style architecture. The most representative ancient villages must be Xidi and Hongcun villages in Shexian County, which was named together as World Cultural Heritage Site.
White walls, black tiles against serene water and clear skies, the ancient Huizhou village would settle any restless soul with its soothing charm. In old times, the rural population of Huizhou was planned around water. This is especially true here in Tangyue. In front of every household you can find flowing canals and this whole village centres around this pond, half-moon shaped pond here. This is actually a man-made pond dug about four hundred years ago when this village was established. And word is the Fengshui of this village functioned extremely well because of its water planning.
Most of the houses in the village were built during the Ming and Qing dynasties of some 600 years ago, a time of strict social hierarchy. The floor plans had to follow strict building codes, down to the door opening, the room size, and wall height. The structure of the house was also shaped by the local culture and way of life. As men of the family were away from home doing business most of the time, the houses were all protected with high walls and tiny windows. Without the freedom to build the houses any way they wanted, businessmen from Huizhou lavished their wealth and creativity into the extravagant details of their houses.
In the ancient Huizhou area, the Xinan river was the only way connecting local people with the outside world. Therefore the river became extremely important for their daily life. Being washed over by water for thousand years, the shape of these stones defines the weight of history, or shall we say the wave of history. And it's right here, this ancient Yuliang dock, that millions of teenage boys bid farewell to their hometown. They didn't have time to be sentimental, because for them, this was the starting point for a bright, promising future career. Without their efforts, there probably wouldn't be so many old streets, and old towns.