The ancient villages of Wannan in southern Anhui reflect the unique regional culture and the harmonious unity of man and nature by ancient Chinese people.
Xidi and Hongcun are representatives of these charming ancient villages.
Hongcun is located in the northeast of Yixian County, 10 kilometers away from the county seat.
Hongcun was built in the Southern Song Dynasty and is where the Wang family lived.
With a history of 800 years, Hongcun is shaped like a cow and is a miracle among today’s world cultural heritage.
The lakes and mountains here are unique, integrating cultural landscape and natural landscape, so the artist calls it "the countryside in Chinese paintings".
The village adopts a "cow" shape layout.
From the site selection, planning to the construction of buildings in Hongcun, people started from certain cultural and religious concepts and consciously strengthened the "cow" form in nature, which reflected the worship of cattle by the farming people. and dependence.
Hongcun has a street and alley system similar to a square grid, paved with granite, and artificial water systems running through every household to form a unique water street and alley space.
The village is centered on Moon Marsh, a half-moon-shaped pond "ox heart", and is surrounded by residences and ancestral halls.
The moon marsh and the water surface of Nanhu Lake reflect the simple buildings. Surrounded by green mountains, Hongcun, Baoyi County, is full of vitality, which further demonstrates Hongcun’s unique residential environment value and landscape value.
The Ming and Qing architectural complex in Hongcun retains its historical prototypes and is basically well preserved. It includes academy buildings, ancestral hall buildings, numerous residential buildings and private gardens. It is an outstanding representative of Huizhou’s architectural culture and has a very high historical, artistic and scientific value.
Due to the local mild climate, which is suitable for plant growth, ancient trees and ancient buildings complement each other.
Most residential houses have flower beds and bonsais set up in combination with water sources. The landscaping is exquisite and is a masterpiece of private gardens in ancient Huizhou.
Private gardens represented by Deyi Hall and Biyuan, and academy buildings represented by Nanhu Academy, collectively reflect the prosperity and prosperity of Huizhou's Confucian culture in the 18th century.
After 800 years of planning and development, Hongcun has become a classic Chinese ancient village.
It can be said that the integration of Hongcun’s ancient buildings and its landscape environment has become the most important historical symbol of Hongcun.
Xidi is located in the southeast of Yixian County, Anhui Province. The whole village covers an area of ??13 hectares, 700 meters long from east to west, and 300 meters wide from north to south. It is a typical village based on clan blood relations and has been reproduced for several generations. The same ethnic group lives in villages.
The village is dominated by the Hu clan.
Viewed from a distance, its building shape resembles a ship.
The scenery and mountains and rivers here are charming. It is a rare geomantic treasure land, and cultural landscapes can be seen everywhere.
As early as ancient times, the traditional Chinese concept of attaching importance to studying and becoming an official and despising doing business has begun to waver.
Most of the scholars in Xidi Village began to abandon books and engage in business, bid farewell to their hometown, and joined the powerful "Hui merchants" team.
Because most of them are well-read and have relatively scientific business ideas and methods in the process of doing business, they can often make huge profits by "taking one to get ten".
For this reason, Xidi gradually turned into an ancient village with strong financial resources.
With the decline in population and other reasons, this ancient village with thousands of years of civilization began to decline.
Today, there are only more than 300 households and a population of more than 1,000 in Xidi Ancient Village, most of whom make a living by farming.
Fortunately, there are still more than 120 relatively complete preserved residential buildings in Xidi. It is one of the relatively complete preserved ancient residential buildings in modern China. Therefore, it is called "the art of ancient oriental architecture" by experts. treasure house".