Shuidonggou Village

Shuidonggou Village

Shuidonggou Village is an ancient settlement site featuring cave-style dwellings. In this historic village, the remains of various types of shelters created by northern ancestors have been preserved — including cave dwellings, pit houses, semi-pit houses, and shallow pit dwellings. These types of homes, which date back to the Neolithic Age, were often built on hillsides or along gully banks with thick loess layers, and are known for being warm in winter and cool in summer. Shuidonggou Village has inherited this ancient living style by first digging pits of a certain depth into the loess slopes, then building low walls with adobe along the edges of the pits to raise them above ground level. Roofs were constructed using beams and wooden rafters, covered with thatch and sealed with mud to prevent water leakage. This type of dwelling was extremely economical and represented an optimal housing solution for ancient humans. Commonly referred to as “diwozi” or “diyinzi” by locals in northern China, these dwellings originated in times of very limited productivity and coexisted with human life for thousands of years until they were gradually abandoned in the 1960s and eventually disappeared from history.

The Shuidonggou village settlement includes 29 sites of pit-style architectural ruins. The scenic area has restored some of these cave-style dwellings so visitors can gain an intuitive understanding of the living conditions of ancient inhabitants.

Jiuxianqiao Subdistrict: Yanzhou City’s Jiuxianqiao Subdistrict was established in June 2008. Located in the eastern part of Yanzhou City, it is home to three rivers — the Si River, Xiaoyi River, and Fu River — and covers an area of 11.3 square kilometers. In 2012, it governed 13 administrative villages and 6 communities. By the end of 2013, the subdistrict had a total resident population of 32,899, of which 21,285 were urban permanent residents, accounting for an urbanization rate of 65%.

In 2014, Jiuxianqiao Subdistrict followed the municipal Party committee’s overall requirements for a “Year of Improvement and Effectiveness,” and aligned with the district Party committee and government’s development strategy of “one, two, three, four, five” and the four “more...” Detailed information about Jiuxianqiao Subdistrict ++