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Published: February 6th 2010
1100 years old Wangkuo Ancient Village
This is the view of the village as you enters it. Wonderful view of the calm, slow pace village.Wuyuan was voted as one of the most beautiful villages in China by the Chinese National Geography (CNG) because of the rapeseed fields and the architectural style of the local houses. Wuyuan is formerly under the administration of Hui Zhou which is now part of Anhui province. This explains the similarity of the village designs between Wuyuan and those villages around Huangshan.
On the first day (or 7th day of the tour), we booked a taxi to go to Mt Shanqing, the world heritage site mountain and one of the most beautiful mountains (by CNG) which is 2 hours away. The spikes we brought at Mt Lu were put to use again as there were frozen sections of the footpaths. The cable car brought us to the top of the ridge to start the trekking. The scenery was beautiful but there was plenty walking and steps to climb. The granite peaks have interesting shapes like camels, goddess and other human and animal which came into view as you walk around the footways. The partial frozen footway made the trek slow and difficult especially at the steps. We could only manage to view the few key attractions before heading back to
1100 years old Wangkuo Ancient Village
The village was designed to give villagers easy access to the river. the cable car station because the other treks were longer and at the pace we are walking, we would not be able to catch the last cable car.
On the second day, we booked the same taxi and planed the travel schedule with him. With his advice, we managed to visit more places of interest than the standard route 3 of the more famous ancient villages Wangkou and Likeng, a 800years old Southern Song dynasty bridge and visit a local wine brewery.
Xiaoqi, Wangkou and Likeng both have over a 1000 years history. The villages are sited near rivers which allowed farming to support a large population and more importantly, provided a means of transportation in the old times to allow trading. Trading made the villagers rich and with the spare cash, they started to build up the villages with local traditional architectural designs and large houses with intricate interior decorations. And today, they become popular tour sites due to the Ming and Qing dynasty village design and natural landscape. We enjoyed the village sceneries and the leisure stroll in the villages. The tour guide’s interesting stories about the significant meanings of the architectural details and the family’s
1100 years old Wangkuo Ancient Village
The old barber shop still in use in this ancient village. stories left us with a deep impression of the villages.
“Caihong bridge” was closed for renovation but they allowed us to visit it without paying the entrance fee. We went in to take photos on the bridge and along the river but guard stopped us from venturing further.
On the way back, we went to visit Wuyuan’s white wine brewery. The staffs were nice enough to allow us to tour the brewery and the production plants before we went to the shop to buy a few bottles of the wine which come with nice porcelain bottles.
On the 8th day of our tour, we headed towards Huangshan city.
The other entries about this trip can be accessed from here:-
Nanchang and Longhu Shan (Part 1 of 13 Days Tour)
Lushan and Jingdezhen (Part 2 of 13 Days Tour)
Huangshan and Ancient Villages Xidi and Hongchun (Part 4 of 13 Days Tour)
Hangzhou (Part 5 of 13 Days Tour)
Note: The contents (text and photos) of this article remain the copyright of the Author. Under no circumstances should the photos or text be used without the express written Sanqing Shan
Granite landscape has interesting forms. Here is one in the shape of a camel. permission of the Author. Please contact the Author by leaving a message if you wish to use or publish photos or text from this article.
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