Eastern
Route for local culture and history
Eastern Route for local culture and history
exploration, leave your down hotel around
8 and back to your hotel before 5 in the
afternoon. You can try the local farmer’s
lunch at noon in a typical Ming house.
Qiankou Old Houses
All the houses were relocated here from
the nearby villages for the purpose to give
a better protection.
Pay attention to the houses’ styles as they
used to be owned respectively by a common
farmer, or a merchant, or some high-ranking
official. High white walls without windows
are main characteristics of the local houses
as only female members stayed at home and
the males went to the outside world to be
engaged in trade to earn the bread for the
whole family, who always had a great concern
for family, especially his wife and kids
so the household walls were always built
high to prevent strangers' prying inside
the courtyard.
Tang Yue Memorial Archway Complex
Shexian County is regarded as "a town
of archways". In the Ming and Qing
Dynasties, there were more than 200 memorial
archways dotted all over the whole territory,
now only 80 of which remain well. Among
the preserved ones, Tang Yue Arch Complex
is most significant and completely well-preserved.
At the entrance of the Tang Yue Village
stand the seven magnificent stone memorial
archways---three built in the Ming dynasty
and four in the Qing Dynasty, in the successive
order of loyalty, filial piety, women's
chastity and charity. Each arch was built
in relation with a moving story and vividly
reveals in one way or another moral value
of the old time. The seven arches are of
great magnificent and classic elegance with
both cultural and artistic values. By the
side of the seven archways stand two ancient
clan halls---one for men, called as Dun
Ben Tang, which means the hall of honesty,
and another for women called as Ching Yi
Tang, which means the hall of fine examples.
Both halls provide vivid statues for the
tourists to understand the life and work
style of the local merchants' families in
the patriarchal-feudal system evolved in
Huizhou Area. In addition, the construction
of a women's hall at the mid 19th century
was a rare symbol of women's victory over
feudal routine "women were not allowed
to enter the clan hall".
Tangmo Village
Old houses, traditional clan halls with
the history more than 1000 years are the
major characteristics of the Tangmo village
. Just see what the real living looks like
for the locals as the villagers lived here
generation after generation for more than
1000 years.
Yuliang Commercial Alley
The old dam with the history of more than
500 years and it used to be the starting
point for the local economy development:
the industrial products were carried here
by boats from the lower reach of the river
and local products, such as timber, tea,
bamboo products were carried down the stream
to major cities in Easter China, such as
Hangzhou and Shanghai. The whole neighborhood
evolved around this trade for more 500 years.
All the houses along the alley used to be
warehouses of the cargoes, or just trade
shops. See the local people life style still
looks like last century.
Huashan Cave
More than 3000 years old. The archeologists
suggested that the King of Vie Kingdom (now
called Hangzhou) ordered his followers to
train green soldiers in the cave for the
purpose to revenge the conquer by Wu Kingdom
( now called Suzhou) 20 years earlier. The
major proof of the conclusion is the straps
on the roof which were carved by bronze
tools instead of iron tools. Besides, there
were not any legends about this cave by
the locals as no one knows who dug the caves
and where the chiseled rocks were placed.
For detailed information, just drop in an
email and I can give detailed guide for
this tour.
john@chinahuangshan.com
congzhang35@hotmail.com
The
Attraction of the Yellow Mountain
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