China

Xidi and Hongcun

WHS Score 3.42
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Votes for Xidi and Hongcun

1.0

  • xtopher33
  • Zoë Sheng

2.0

  • Tourb

2.5

  • DL
  • Jeanne OGrady

3.0

  • Els Slots

3.5

  • Alex Marcean
  • Allnamesused
  • Eric PK
  • Joyce van Soest
  • KoenigMarke
  • nan
  • patphilly
  • Shandos Cleaver
  • Stanislaw Warwas
  • tingmelvin
  • Xiquinho Silva

4.0

  • Alexander Lehmann
  • Bin
  • Christravelblog
  • Daniel C-Hazard
  • Dwight Zehuan Xiao
  • Elisabeth Fransisca Situmorang
  • Hanming
  • Kevin McFarland
  • lichia
  • Luke LOU
  • nathan
  • Pchxiao
  • ReallyDeepThoughts
  • Thomas van der Walt
  • YAO WEI

4.5

  • chenboada
  • Szucs Tamas
  • trekkie900
  • voyager
  • Zhenjun Liu

5.0

  • Dylan
  • Jeffrey Chai Ran
  • Khuft
  • PabloNorte
  • Yinming Zhang

'Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui - Xidi and Hongcun' comprises two exceptionally well-preserved traditional Chinese villages.

Their townscapes are developed in harmony with the natural environment, using the geomantic principles of Feng Shui. The Huizhou style is the predominant architecture in the villages: white walls, dark tiles, horse-head gables, stone drums or mirrors, and open interior courtyards are common features. It was the style favoured by the local merchant class.

Community Perspective: You should visit both towns. Although they are now firmly dedicated to handling tourists, especially for foreigners they provide a view into small-town China. Khuft has described their distinctive features well.

Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui - Xidi and Hongcun (ID: 1002)
Country
China
Status
Inscribed 2000 Site history
History of Xidi and Hongcun
2000: Revision
Formerly appeared on T List as separate entries: Xidi Ancient Human Settlements & Hongcun Ancient Human Settlements (1999)
2000: Inscribed
Inscribed
WHS Type
Cultural
Criteria
  • iii
  • iv
  • v
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
Related Resources
News Article

Community Information

  • Community Category
  • Urban landscape: Asian
Travel Information
Recent Connections
View all (12) .
Connections of Xidi and Hongcun
Geography
  • Yangtze Basin
    “Showcase traditional architecture and rural life in the Yangtze River valley.”
Trivia
Architecture
World Heritage Process
Religion and Belief
  • Confucianism
    "This culture has a special place in Chinese history, since it made major contributions to the development of Confucian culture and to commercial development in the 14th-19th centuries." - AB document
Human Activity
  • Irrigation and drainage
    Hongcun: "Around 1405, on the advice of geomancers, a channel was dug to bring fresh water to the village from the West Stream. Two hundred years later the water supply system of the village was completed with the creation of the South Lake." (AB ev)
Timeline
  • Built in the 15th century
    There are 29 Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and 3,611 Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) residential buildings and family temples in the county. Decorated with the typical local style of brick, wood and stone, carvings, they display the ornateness and elegancy of the traditional 15th-16th century edifices, boasting historical and research value, as well as being tourist attractions. The most typical of these are the residential houses of Xidi Village and the paleo-ox-shaped Hongcun Village. They have been referred to as museum of Ming and Qing residential houses in China." - china.org.cn
WHS Hotspots
18
  • Location for a classic movie
    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, won best foreign language film awards at BAFTA, Academy Awards and Golden Globes)
News
english.anhuinews.com 02/21/2012
Xidi village fireproofed

Community Reviews

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First published: 17/03/20.

Nan

Xidi And Hongcun By Nan

Xidi and Hongcun (Inscribed)

Xidi and Hongcun by Nan

In China, most sites are huge. Huge palaces, huge gardens, huge temples, huge fortifications, huge mausoleums, huge Buddhas, huge old towns ... As impressive and deserving of inscription as these sites are, I also enjoy the smaller and more intimate sites you find in other countries and was wondering when/where I could find one of those in China. Turns out, Hongcun fits the criteria.

Hongcun is a traditional folk village in the Anhui region that together with Xidi is the most representative and best preserved example of the local traditional villages. Note: There are more similar villages in the area.

Hongcun village dates back to the Ming dynasty and is largely intact, ignoring the tourist shops that have opened up in the old houses. It's remarkable intact and a joy to explore on foot with plenty of houses open for visitors to explore. The best bits to me was seeing how the city dealt with water, with water flowing below the walkways.

Getting There

The main transport hub for the area is the bullet train station at Huangshanbei (North Huangshan, the town, not the mountain). Around the train station, a small tourist town has developed with hotels and some restaurants. It's just a bit tricky to get to the hotel area on foot, even though it's just a 5min walk. You need to pass below the railway tracks via one deserted looking tunnel. In addition, google maps had it all …

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First published: 24/12/18.

Zoë Sheng

Xidi And Hongcun

Xidi and Hongcun (Inscribed)

Xidi and Hongcun by Els Slots

I disliked both villages. I came with a tour from Huangshan which is very popular. I found that now that visitors are coming the locals make this into a tourist trap, selling overpriced vegetables and herbs and making them seem special. I walked around the villages twice in the hope to see something special but in the end all I got were farmhouses and farmers working on the fields, washing clothes in the dirty water. If I wanted to see that maybe I could go to Romania too? Once I saw everything the tour guide said we spend another hour here for "shopping" - how frustrating!

For people who think China is all developed because of its economic standing in the world: most of it is still farming. So if I get to farm villages with some traditional housing it isn't special. You can see that in a lot of places. It maybe is not protected or in a good state but that doesn't make it worth seeing. Elite metropolitans maybe think it is something they have never seen before.

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First published: 24/12/18.

Khuft

Xidi And Hongcun

Xidi and Hongcun (Inscribed)

Xidi and Hongcun by Khuft

I visited Xidi and Hongcun in 2017, around the time of Chinese New Year. Both sites were thus very crowded - but on the plus side, most houses were decorated with red "chunlian" banderoles on each side of the door, which enhanced the experience in the otherwise very much black-and-white looking villages. 

Both villages are the most representative villages of the traditional region of Huizhou (where the "hui" part of the name of Anhui province comes from), and are just two of many. The region overall is more or less equivalent to today's Huangshan prefecture and somewhat off the beaten track - but during the Ming and Qing dynasties it was a centre of literati and brought forth many court officials. It was these latter who - once retired from officialdom in Beijing - would build the exquisitely decorated mansions in their home towns in Huizhou. Particularly renowned officials would even be awarded a "paifang" by the emperor - a ceremonial gate, such as the one at the entrance of Xidi.

Xidi, Hongcun and their neighbouring villages were thus relatively wealthy villages, and their architecture is far more elaborate and polished than what would be expected of "vernacular" architecture. In general, the buildings display a pretty plain exterior, which contrasts with extremely ornamented interiors - in particular the interior open-air courtyard which was used to receive guests, where no wooden beam or panel is left undecorated. In addition to wood carving, stone and brick carving are typical of …

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First published: 25/11/07.

Els Slots

Xidi And Hongcun

Xidi and Hongcun (Inscribed)

Xidi and Hongcun by Els Slots

Xidi and Hongcun can easily be reached from Huangshan City. Until quite recently, foreigners required a permit when visiting this region (and especially the little villages). This has been abandoned now so it seems, at least I wasn't bothered. Transport is abundant too. I was on my way to the bus station to take a bus to Yixian from where minibusses are leaving to both towns when I was 'highjacked' by a taxi driver. The friendly guy offered to drive me around for the day, and we quickly agreed on a price. The drive from Huangshan City takes about 45 minutes and is a pleasant one through the hilly and rural landscape of Anhui.

We first stopped at Xidi, where 124 traditional houses remain. Especially near the entrance of the village, every inhabitant seems to have opened a souvenir shop, which is a bit annoying. The highlight of the village is behind you then already: a great three-tiered stone arch.

The village is bigger than you'd expect, and one can easily spend 1,5-2 hours here. Besides the ubiquitous Chinese tour groups, I met many high school students painting the street scenes. Lots of local people were doing their laundry in the waters running through the village, probably taking advantage of this wonderful sunny day.

Hongcun, about 15 km away from Xidi, has several of the same features as Xidi but distinguishes itself by its pools and narrow streets. I found it a bit difficult to navigate here, …

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First published: 01/05/05.

Anonymous

Xidi And Hongcun

Xidi and Hongcun (Inscribed)

Xidi and Hongcun by Els Slots

My wife and I visited Xidi and Hongcun in January 2002 as part of our visit to Huang Shan. We both really loved the villages, as we do everything in China. They have been well-preserved, and what was so amazing is that people actually still live there, surrounded by tourists. It was far better than seeing an empty shell, even though many wanted paying for their photos to be taken! But then, how else can they make a living? I didn't mind that.

A visit here is thoroughly recommended, but be careful if you go outside the normal tourist dates - you have to get a police permit to enter the sites, and it took several hours finding the office and rousing up someone who could arrange the permits.

If you want to see more photos of the villages, have a look at the ever-growing web site of our travels in China: www.tingey.tv

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First published: 01/05/05.

Anonymous

Xidi And Hongcun

Xidi and Hongcun (Inscribed)

Xidi and Hongcun by Els Slots

Xidi and Hongcun are precious gems, getting there is fun! We had our own rented minivan, and left Huangshan very early. We passed the countryside covered in mist and bamboo forests, it looked like Switzerland with the river, the black-and-white ancient villages! I wrote this in the Huangshan section, but it's worth repeating. Try visiting some of the other villages enroute to Hongcun and Xidi, they are quite similar in style, minus the commercial atmosphere.

Having said that, I know that our group blends in with the local Chinese backpackers, so we never have problems with permits. I'm not sure if you don't look Chinese if there's a way around this.

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