Ancient Villages of Southern Anhui — Xidi and Hongcun

UNESCO-listed pair of Ming-Qing Huizhou merchant villages in southern Anhui, renowned for whitewashed walls, inky horsehead gables and moon-shaped ponds.

Xidi and Hongcun were inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000 as outstanding examples of Huizhou vernacular architecture — the aesthetic tradition developed by prosperous merchants who built elaborate courtyard homes while trading far from home during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Both villages sit in a valley below the Yellow Mountains (Huangshan) and have remained largely intact because post-1949 rural poverty paradoxically limited the demolition and rebuilding that erased similar villages elsewhere.

Hongcun is famous for its planned water system. The South Lake was excavated at the village's south edge in the Ming dynasty, and a network of channels carries water through every household before exiting at the west. The ox-head-shaped layout — conceived geomantically — is best appreciated from the hillside above. The village's half-moon pond at the entrance, with whitewashed walls reflected in still water, is one of the most photographed scenes in rural China.

Xidi, about 11 km to the southwest, has a more linear layout along three streams. Over 120 residential buildings, 3 memorial archways and a dozen ancestral halls survive. The Jingai Hall is notable for its carved wooden screens and ancestral tablets, while the Dafudi mansion's decorative gatehouse exemplifies the wealth the Hu merchant clan accumulated through salt trading.

Both villages function as living communities with permanent residents, though tourism infrastructure now dominates the main lanes. Early morning visits — before tour-coach groups arrive — provide a sense of the villages' quieter rhythms, with residents preparing food in open courtyards and older residents playing cards beneath the gables.