Hongcun Scenic Area Travel Guide 2020
For many tourists, Hongcun Scenic Area is really worth studying. You can set up a special roadmap here for effective gameplay. As a thousand-year-old city, Huizhou's architectural complex is still preserved today, and it is a good tourist destination.
But whether it is ancient Huizhou or today's Huangshan, they are all external manifestations of Huizhou culture. If you want to trace the past years, you have to go deep into the countryside and see the traces of the past.
I once wrote an article to share with you the story about Xidi. Today I want to show you another famous ancient village, Hongcun, a 5A-level ancient village listed on the World Cultural Heritage List.
Hongcun's fame is becoming more and more widely known, which is inseparable from the promotion of the movie "Unintentional".
In the summer of 2000, a Chinese-directed movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" appeared on the screens of major theaters. The film has a huge cast, including famous actors such as Chow Yun-fat and Zhang Ziyi. It is also one of director Ang Lee's famous films.
One of the important locations of this movie is Hongcun in southern Anhui. First of all, the scenery of Hongcun is known to more people. Coincidentally, at the end of the same year, Hongcun was also included in the World Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO.
Approaching Nanhu
Before coming to Hongcun, I made a special trip to Xidi. I thought Hongcun and Xidi would be similar next. After all, they are both ancient villages in Huizhou. I can find that Hongcun is relatively more agile. And this special spiritual feeling is brought by water.
Before entering the village, a beautiful lake appeared in front of me, which made me very excited. The distant mountains are vaguely visible, rolling up and down, and the beautiful scenery of South Lake in front of you makes people fall in love at first sight. The beauty of the lakes and mountains was my first impression of Hongcun.
The Huizhou-style buildings with blue tiles and white walls by the lake are quiet and calm. This is a landscape painting, but this landscape painting is added with human creation, the smell of fireworks, and an affinity.
Such a beautiful scenery, in addition to being recorded with eyes and captured with cameras, also has rich artistic elements, and some people will choose to depict it with brushes.
Many are art college students from all over the country. They come to Hongcun because it brings them creative inspiration. What you see in front of you can be turned into colored ink on paper. This is a sense of accomplishment and a long-lost beauty.
Inadvertently, I found that not only travelers found the scenery of Nanhu beautiful, but even the dogs passing by were attracted. Seeing their dazed look, as if they were deep in thought, I couldn't help but raise the corners of my mouth and quickly took this photo. It felt so beautiful.
Looking for ancient buildings in Hongcun
Hongcun has a long history, about 900 years ago. I lament that it is a thousand-year-old village, and it is well deserved.
The village still retains hundreds of ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which can be called the "Grand View Garden" among ancient buildings. In view of this, I decided to walk across the Painted Bridge and take an "ancient journey" to the other side of the South Lake.
I have always been interested in Huizhou architecture, and the exquisiteness of the "three carvings" in detail is amazing. Before coming to Hongcun, I visited several ancient villages in Wuyuan and was attracted by their magnificent ancient buildings. During this trip to Hongcun, it is natural to visit several well-known old houses.
When talking about the old houses in Hongcun, we have to mention Chengzhitang. This is the private residence of Wang Dinggui, a famous salt merchant in the late Qing Dynasty, and it is also the most luxurious ancient building in Hongcun. How luxurious is it? It can be said that this mansion is made of real money. The construction area is up to 3000 square meters. Nowadays, today’s luxury homes are child’s play.
It is said that Huizhou’s carving art is very exquisite. You should go to Chengzhitang to have a good look. All the carvings here took 20 craftsmen 7 years to complete. It is said that "slow work produces careful work". This kind of ingenuity that can take several years to settle down and do well is rare in any era.
Look carefully at the wood carvings on the doors and windows. Breathtakingly exquisite. Compared with records in books, wood carvings are more concrete as a carrier, and stories emerge one after another. This is not only a beautiful craft, but also a huge sensory enjoyment.
Influenced by traditional Chinese culture, families attach great importance to ancestral halls. Not to mention the old days, now many villages still have ancestral halls to worship ancestors and pray for blessings.
The Wang family’s roots are in Hongcun, where they have lived for generations. Of course, they also have their own ancestral hall. The Wang Ancestral Hall was built in the inner lake of Hongcun, close to Moon Lake. It has a nice name, "Tang".
People gather here happily to reminisce about old times and talk about the big and small things in the village. These are very common things.
Ordinary things are often the most touching, which contains the traditional thought of "harmony is the most precious". "Happy Narrative" also pursues a stable and peaceful small society.
Although there are many Ming and Qing buildings in Hongcun, most of them are left over from the Qing Dynasty. The only Ming Dynasty building is the Wang Ancestral Hall. It is precious, so the ancestral hall is of great significance. No matter from the perspective of historical era or people's beliefs, its status is irreplaceable.
In addition to Chengzhitang and Wang Ancestral Hall, there is also Nanhu Academy near Moon Lake. The role of Nanhu Academy is particularly easy to understand. It is an ancient school, also called a private school.
Many students regard Confucius as their teacher, so a portrait of Confucius hangs in the center of Wenchang Pavilion of the academy. I don’t know if you have ever heard of this saying: “There is Confucius in the north, and Wenchang in the south.” It is said that Wenchang in China is the god of good fortune in reading exams. The statue of Confucius in Wenchang Pavilion now shows how much people look forward to fame and fortune.
Yonum Lake
Unconsciously, I have arrived at the center of Hongcun. There is a pond here, shaped like a half-moon, hence the name "Moon Pond".
Like Nanhu, the existence of Moon Bay makes the whole village more feminine. The water surface is as calm as a mirror, surrounded by ceramic tiles and pink walls. It is neat and orderly and outlines a beautiful picture.
Because Yuetang is not as flowing as South Lake and is actually a small pond, it is also called "Yuetang". Don't underestimate this pond, it has a long history.
It is said that Moon Bay was built during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty and has a history of five to six hundred years. At that time, villager Wang Siqi and his wife Hu Chongniang accidentally discovered a natural spring in the village, so they hired a Feng Shui master to re-plan the village's water system, and finally introduced the spring water to build a pond.
Remember what I said about Moon Pond? There is also a mystery here. At that time, many people advocated digging a full moon pond, but the lady who discovered the spring had different opinions.
She believes that everything cannot be perfect, saying, "When the water is full, it will overflow; when the moon is full, it will be lost." If the pond is dug too perfectly, there will definitely be consequences. In this way, Moon Bay became what we see now. Although not "complete", it is still very attractive. Isn't this "half-moon" the norm in life?
In life, nine times out of ten things will go wrong. How do you make everything run smoothly? In this case, it is better to face it calmly. Even if it's not perfect, it has a purpose.
Murakami is also particular.
The entrance to Hongcun, also known as the pavilion. It turns out that there are two pavilions at the entrance of the village, facing each other in the north and south. They were built in the Ming Dynasty. If it can be preserved, it will also be a precious cultural relic. Unfortunately, it has been destroyed and only two towering old trees remain.
These two trees are Feng Shui trees in Hongcun, one is red poplar and the other is ginkgo, also called ginkgo tree. Two red and white trees correspond exactly to one red and one white. Villagers believe in Feng Shui. Whenever there is a happy or trivial event in the village, the villagers will circle around the tree and pray for peace.
If it is a happy event, the red sedan chair of the wedding will pass by the red poplar tree to seek a happy life; if the old man dies, he will pray around the ginkgo tree and pray for peace for the living.
Wander around the ancient villages and miss the old days.
Hongcun is really "old". She's like an old man wearing an eyepatch. She didn't like to talk, so she just watched people coming and going quietly. Mottled walls can be seen everywhere, and the honest shops are too big
But I just like this feeling. When I came to Hongcun, I didn't have a strong feeling that I was in a scenic spot. Instead, it feels like going home.
In every child's heart, there must be a corner, which is a familiar hometown that makes people cry. Over the years, I have been busy outside and have been to countless ancient towns and villages. Hongcun is one of them that makes me feel warm.
It’s nice to go out for a walk during the day. There is no nightlife in the village. Basically everything is dark after dark. I have always felt that working at sunrise and resting at sunset is a good state. This is the original law of nature.
There are no bright lights of the city here, nor are there tasks that will make you breathless and never complete.
After dark, I find a small shop in the village to have a hot meal and chat with the proprietress when there are few people. This is my usual style.
When traveling, it is best not to close yourself off and give people a feeling of being unapproachable.
It is a pleasure to chat with local people and listen to them talk about some local specialties or folk customs.
Compared with many domestic attractions, Hongcun is not very playable. There are almost no exciting amusement facilities in Hongcun, no bars and dance clubs where you can stay up late, and there are no check-in points for various Internet celebrities. There is something here that is seclusion and tranquility, the "paradise" that a restless heart needs.
I don’t know what Hongcun will look like in many years. See you next time, will you recognize who you used to be?
With the gradual penetration of commercialization models, more and more ancient villages may soon change their souls. Before exhaling this breath, every encounter will be precious and worth savoring slowly.