Hongcun Village – a Glimpse in to Country Living

Total Miles Traveled: 39,138

Hongcun Village is a short drive away from Huangshan mountain in the Anhui province.   It’s an UNESCO heritage site, featuring a town that has preserved the look and feel of Ming and Qing dynasty era housing.  It’s also the subject of choice for many local art students.  It’s said that the scenery in this village is very idyllic and reminiscent of old Chinese paintings.

Despite the village having a ticket booth for visitors and people selling thing to tourists, it still feels authentic, with the locals going about their daily lives.

Here’s a tea merchant roasting her tea leaves.  Neat, except we found out later that roasting is more of a way to “revive” the taste of tea that has been stored too long.  Hmm…  kind of a downer.   We bought some tea anyway to try.

These guys look like they do this every day…

And finally, we found this woman beating these dried bushes with a stick.  Can you guess what she’s doing?

These are dried yellow bean bushes.   Beating them releases the bean from their shell on to the floor which she later collects.   Even though she was moving quickly, she said it does take a lot of time to get through the bundles.  Yellow beans are then used in desserts and other foods.  Interestingly, she later invited us to stay with her in her house overnight.  I’d read that it was “illegal” to stay in the village, but that several villagers would offer up a bed in their house – for very cheap – in case someone wants a very authentic experience.  No English spoken though.

Here’s the postcard picture you’ll most often see representing Hongcun village – a semi-circle pond in the center of the village.

We thought it was neat when the lady below sat herself down at the edge of this pond and started washing her vegetables and stripping the fat off a piece of meat.  So while the village feels touristy with all of the tourists walking around, people were really living here.

Later we saw a woman carrying two buckets filled with …. sewage.  Yup, it’s authentic, people really do live here.

Here are some more shots from the village.  Narrow alleyways are the norm.  We thought this reminded us of the town of Toledo outside of Madrid, Spain.

We also visited the largest mansion in the village:

This is a well that still looks like it functions:

A feature of the house that’s not quite captured here is that rooms and hallways are separated by a 1 foot high mini-wall that you have to step over.  We’ve seen it in Tony’s grandfather’s house in Tainan as well.  There’s probably a reason for this, but we forgot to ask.

Finally, on our way to the airport, we stopped at “lao jie” (Old Street) in Huangshan City. It’s a pedestrian street lined with old buildings that have been renovated to become shops selling souvenirs. There were tons of “mao bi” or Chinese paintbrush sets if you’re looking for one… But I think it’s more for the domestic and overseas Chinese tourists.

Here’s the slideshow of all the photos:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157625207744667″]

Next, we’re headed to Shanghai for a few days, to check out the sights and see the world famous Expo.