The Ancient Village of Changxi

The Ancient Village of Changxi

The Ancient Village of Changxi was first built during the Tang Dynasty and is a microcosm of ancient Huizhou culture. Currently designated as “county-level protected heritage” are structures such as the Taihu Ancestral Hall, Yuangong Branch Ancestral Hall with its wooden memorial archway, the Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall, Zhonglie Temple, the Yao Clan Chastity Stone Archway, and the former residence of Wu Chengshi. The village of Changxi faces east with its back to the west, fronted by the crystal-clear Changxi River and backed by the lush, layered peaks of Lailong Mountain. Since the Ming Dynasty, an ancient architectural complex stretching 3 kilometers from Jing’an in the south to Wuben Hall in the north has been constructed. This includes stone arch bridges, pavilions, ancestral halls, water gates, academies, ancient temples, and residential houses. There are over 20 ponds scattered throughout the village, even more ancient wells, and densely packed houses that create a labyrinthine, maze-like atmosphere.

The village of Changxi has produced many scholars, including one family with 22 successful candidates in the imperial examinations at the county level (xiucai), 5 at the provincial level (juren), and 2 at the national level (jinshi)—including a rare father-and-son pair of jinshi. In the 33rd year of the Guangxu reign, a young man from the village, Wu Chengshi, achieved the top honor, ranked first among first-class scholars, in the palace examination held in the Baohe Hall, becoming the last top imperial scholar of the feudal era and also one of the youngest in history.

Changxi boasts a wealth of historical relics: numerous ink masterpieces by Song and Ming dynasty painters and calligraphers, including an imperial painting inscribed by Emperor Huizong of Song, plaques inscribed by Kang Youwei, Li Hongzhang, Hai Rui, and Zhu Yuanzhang, as well as court items such as ivory ceremonial tablets and dragon robes. There are also rare beds made of exotic animal bones and ivory.

Changxi enjoys exceptional ecological preservation, with ancient trees still standing that are hundreds or even thousands of years old, including precious species such as ginkgo, camphor, pine, podocarpus, tung-camphor hybrids, pagoda trees, and cycads. The unique tung-camphor hybrid tree stands about 10 meters tall with a trunk circumference of around 3 meters; its crown is evenly split between tung and camphor, with both trees sharing a single root and intertwined branches, growing together in close companionship. The Dragon-Phoenix Camphor consists of two strangely shaped, ancient camphor trees of different varieties, leaning against each other. Each has a diameter of 3 meters and a height of 38 meters, with thick trunks and umbrella-like canopies. The thousand-year-old ginkgo tree stands 42 meters tall, with a trunk circumference of 8 meters; its main trunk stands upright and graceful, surrounded by branches that grow uniformly upward, tightly clustered and never branching outward.