Shuixi Ancient Village

Shuixi Ancient Village

Shuixi Village — the name couldn't be simpler, yet it stirs the imagination. What kind of scenery lies "to the west of the water"? Could there also be "a fair lady, on the other side of the stream"? Shuixi Village is located in the eastern suburbs of Guangzhou. For the villagers, nothing beats the leisurely life. The hundreds-of-years-old lychee trees require little care, yielding top-quality fruit every year without much effort. Some of these trees are even older than the ancient village houses. There are tens of thousands of lychee trees here, each more than four or five hundred years old. Besides the ancient lychee trees, the mountains are also home to very old olive and bayberry trees. Bayberries are harvested in March, lychees in July, olives in August, and chestnuts in September — a life filled with ease and contentment. During the Ming Dynasty, the Zhong family of Shuixi Village migrated from Jiangxi to Guangdong, and the ninth-generation ancestor, Xicui, became the village’s first private tutor. For over 500 years, the Zhong family has flourished here. The culture of farming and scholarship has been well preserved. Such a lifestyle of working the land and pursuing learning is the dream of many urbanites — when thinking of their hectic lives, they’d rather hide away in a small village like this and live as happy farmers.