Xidi & Hongcun

Today we are visiting two villages near Huangshan: Xidi and Hongcun, both of which are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. These villages are quite popular among the Chinese. Based on the recommendation of our hotel, we did not visit these villages on Saturday as it would be less crowded on Sunday. It is indeed not too crowded, but compared to Chengkan and Huizhou, there is still significantly more people. However, these villages are also much larger.

First, we visit Xidi. Buying tickets and taking the bus goes smoothly. After about 1 hour of travel, we arrive there.

The increasing heat bothers me a bit. For comparison: in Yangshuo it was only 13 degrees, while in Huangshan and its surroundings it is 28 degrees today. I don't feel particularly well, but Xidi has enough interesting history to distract from that. We really like Xidi. The village was essentially built by the Hu family, who initially came to power and wealth as merchants and later as influential politicians during the Ming Dynasty. About 140 buildings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties have been preserved, which testify to the wealth of the Hu family. However, the English labels are scarce and not very informative, which is why some of the gems remained hidden from us.

After a strengthening lunch, we continue to Hongcun. Hongcun was built according to Feng Shui principles. In addition, the infrastructure (with lake, pond, sewer system, streets, trees) represents an ox. We couldn't quite see that, once again the English explanations were quite sparse. Additionally, there are large tour groups here, which becomes a problem when visiting the narrow rooms and alleyways. We are a bit worn out: we realize that you probably don't need to visit 4 villages. If you go to this area, you can choose 2, that should be enough.

After a long wait for the bus, we return to Huangshan - in a very bumpy bus ride, which is not particularly helpful against nausea. Today, I better skip dinner!