Visiting the Ancient XiDi Old Village 西递 in HangZhou China

on March 30, 2013

XiDi was renowned as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. (西递), originally named XiChuan, is also referred to as XiXi (West Rivulet) because there are three rivulets flowing westward in the village. It was changed into the present name XiDi (literally means West Transfer) because it is located in the west of ancient Hui Prefecture where there used to be a post station.

The village dates back over 960 years ago in the era of HuangYou of Northern Song Dynasty. It is a boat-shaped village covering an area of 16 hectares. Surrounded by a range of mountains, it boasts beautiful landscapes. The village still has over 300 ancient houses of Ming and Qing Dynasties, of which 124 are fairly intact. Thus winning the epithet “a Utopian Land”.

As usual, no place is free-entry in China. The tourists will need to buy the tickets to enter the place.

The view over the old city gate against the lake is beautiful, serves as the landmark of the village too.

The rise of the village was closely tied to the fortunes of the Hu family, who adopted a son of the Tang Emperor Zhaozong after the Emperor was forced from his throne in 904.

The population began to rise sharply from 1465, when the Hu family had started in business as merchants, leading to construction of major private buildings and a public infrastructure. The prosperity of XiDi peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries, at which time the village comprised about 600 residences.

The open field in the village is very natural, beautiful as well. We have spent quite some considerable amount of time out there.

Also, it’s my first experience to see so many beautiful little yellow flowers in the wild, really had elevated my mood.

Those are called 油菜花 (Rape Flower). Although the flower looks nothing too special in closed up, but it forms an amazing beautiful flower sea when clustered together.

Vincent, was sitting there to observe what was the things he could play on.

The place is simply too beautiful that had prompted me to take many photos of it.

Some cherry blossom in the field too. Pink and yellow, such a harmony combination.

Well, I think it’s not too bad to live in a village like this…

Walking near the cherry trees…I could feel their good energy field too.

They wanted me to watch them fly across the gap…gosh.

Finally, we went into the village center through a narrow alleyway.

The stuffs which the villagers would put under the sun.

Dehydrating the skin of the bamboo shot in on the way too..

No doubt, the tenants here know how to make use of the sun energy to its fullest.

This man has been living here since his father’s generation. According to him, his late father was a great bamboo-carver too. He had learnt the skill since very small and took over the business after his father pass away.

Some of the work pieces were made by the son, some were made by his late father.

Some of them are paintings…I was pretty impressed of one of his father’s work pieces, so I bought it home with RMB 200. Later then we found out it doesn’t suit our house that much, so we gave it to a buddhist friend instead.

This pot of flower is very beautiful, I like it.

Tea plantation is very famous in this region.

Judging from the outlook of this residence, it must have its glorious time in the past. Now a days, the house is opened to the tourists. My brother and I paid RMB 3 pax, and we can enter and visit the house with no time limit.

the kitchen….oh, definitely my great grandmother’s era. I imagine I do the cooking in this kitchen, then I see my face becomes all dark & oily, typically a so-called ‘yellow-face-wife’

Comparatively, I so cherish and like my kitchen at home.

Corner of in the living room…Then we climbed up this stair to the upper level. The sounds had made me feel that it may collapse at anytime, so we walked up very slow and caution.

Feel so lonely standing in front of the window.

Looking down from the window, the design of each residence is quite unique. According to our tour lady, XiDi is the best preserved and most authentic, and also one of the smallest. It is not so crowded with shops and tour groups that we can just relax and wander some the back streets, tuning in to the rhythms of village life.