There is a Minyun Water Town only 1 hour away from Xiamen. It has beautiful scenery but few people and it is free, but few people know it.
Beside Xiamen, there is one of the most pristine water towns. Although it is not as well-known and popular as the Jiangnan Water Town, it has the tranquility and freshness that a Jiangnan Water Town should have, and its typical red bricks and tiles , gray-white walls, and swallow tails, which further highlight its unique Fujian flavor, which is mysterious and desirable.
The red brick house is the main color of traditional houses in southern Fujian. In the Hokkien language, house means house. From the outside, Daimei Ancient Village is not big. There is a river that surrounds the whole village like a moat. The water width varies from ten to twenty meters. Looking down from a height, the entire ancient village seems to be floating on the river. Daimei has become a veritable "Zhouzhuang in Southern Fujian".
Daimei Ancient Village was built in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. With more than 560 years of history and culture, the villagers of Daimei Ancient Village are descendants of Chen Chun, a Neo-Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty. As an important inheritor and elucidator of Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, Chen Chun further developed Zhu Xi's thoughts. In Daimei, the descendants of Chen Chun have strictly adhered to the ancestral motto of "harmony" for hundreds of years and prohibited changes in the architectural pattern. Regardless of whether they are rich or poor, the homesteads of each family are the same size and face the same direction, making the whole village very harmonious.
Among them, 49 ancient houses from the Ming and Qing Dynasties all face north, and the building system is "Nine Palace Buildings", that is, 9 ancient houses with swallowtail ridges are built horizontally in the front row, and the back rows are aligned with the front rows in sequence. There are three rows of saddle ridges "protecting the house" arranged vertically next to the ancient house. Such a high-standard building could only be built by families with prominent official backgrounds in ancient times. It can be seen that the Daimei family was also very wealthy and glorious.
The houses built later are all facing south. The layout of the houses is exactly the same. They are arranged symmetrically on the central axis. The roofs are all hard-mounted curved dovetail ridges, with red tile roofs and masonry walls. The decoration craftsmanship is extremely exquisite. The use of wood carvings, brick carvings, and clay sculptures on beams, arches, window grilles and other components is also breathtaking.
Walking into the peaceful and quiet ancient village, no tickets are required, and you can take photos as much as you want without being disturbed. Most of the ancient houses are typical southern Fujian courtyard houses (two entrances and four bays). This kind of house is built with a wooden frame structure and the bamboo walls are smeared with paper root ash. Experts say that this kind of building is good for earthquake resistance, so Daimei Ancient Houses are It is a miracle in the architectural history of southern Fujian that the house has survived hundreds of years and many earthquakes.
There are side doors on the sides of the neat old houses, which connect from the beginning of the village to the end of the village. On rainy days, you can run from house to house without getting wet. The height between each house forms a good drainage system. Therefore, although it is built near the water, the village has never been flooded. People have to sigh that the ancestors of the ancient village were really wise.
The Family Style Hall was renovated and decorated by the ancestral home of the "Three Lords" Chen family. The Family Tradition Hall, with the theme of "inheriting family tradition and family motto, enjoying family treasures and family reputation", has the following functions: family harmony, good ways to educate children, unity and friendship, adequate food and clothing, respecting the elderly and caring for the young, self-cultivation and housekeeping, family reputation, and family tradition hall. He Wanshixing has 8 exhibition rooms. This is the humanistic heritage behind the ancient house.
In front of each row of ancient houses, there is a large area more than ten meters wide, where ordinary farming work and large-scale activities are held. Among them, the front row of the official hall of the ancient village faces Beacon Hill, which is really good feng shui. There is still an empty flagpole space in front of the village. It is said that there used to be many flagpoles here, which were left by the ancestors. They gained fame and honor their ancestors. symbol.
The village also has front and rear ancestral halls and the Three Kings Palace Temple. An ancient banyan tree across the river has a history of more than 300 years and is still lush and leafy. During floods, it was "a bridge flying over the north and south" ", became the "life-saving tree" in the mouth of the villagers.
In addition to the inland river surrounding the village, there is also the Nanxi Pier that leads to the outside world. Nanxi Wharf is connected to Xiamen and Taiwan by water. It was once a prosperous and important ancient port in southern Fujian. People in Daimei Village used the convenience of the waterway in front of their home to transport agricultural products and groceries to Xiamen and Taiwan for commodity trade, which became the culture of Zhangzhou Maritime Silk Road. important component.
Perhaps you have seen many "cookie-cutter" ancient villages, but isn't the original flavor of Daimei Ancient Village set against the mountains very attractive?
Daimei Village is not far from Xiamen, less than 100 kilometers away and less than an hour’s drive away. It is two kilometers away from the Zhangzhou Port exit of Shenhai Expressway, which is very convenient.