Hucun Ancient Village

　　Hucun Ancient Village is situated 18 kilometers east of Jixi County in southern Anhui. It is an ancient settlement with “lion and elephant guardians at the gate” and a garden-enclosed entrance. The village is home to a ancestral hall that honors thousands of descendants, a thousand-year-old tomb for ancestor worship, and genealogical records spanning centuries. It lies along the ancient Huizhou-Hangzhou Trail and still preserves millennia-old trees, tombs from the Song Dynasty, ancient bridges, pavilions, traditional residences, ornate archways, and ancestral halls. A Ming Dynasty water street weaves through the village, featuring exquisitely designed ancient architecture that follows the terrain, snaking along the hills like a three-dimensional landscape painting. Showcasing the essence of Huizhou’s ancient villages, experts have dubbed it a “living fossil of Huizhou’s ancient culture.”

　　At the west end of the village stands the grand ancestral hall of the Zhang family, which has been restored to its former glory. Inside the hall is a Ming Dynasty coiled dragon incense pavilion, with six dragons carved on its pillars as if ready to take flight—representing the pinnacle of Huizhou woodcarving and hailed as a masterpiece.

　　At the southern end of the village stream lies a lane of ornamental archways, where the door hoods of the connected residences are all adorned with exquisitely crafted brick carvings in diverse styles. Each archway is a delicate piece of folk art that leaves visitors in awe. These intricately carved archways draw from a wide range of themes, including folk customs, mythological legends, and opera stories—some even regarded as the finest examples of brick carving—fully demonstrating the profound cultural richness of traditional Huizhou architectural door hoods.

　　The village still retains over a hundred well-preserved traditional residences from earlier times. These buildings all feature the fundamental elements of Huizhou-style architecture: brick-and-wood construction, three bays with two side wings, a central courtyard, white walls with black tiles, and horse-head gables. However, their layouts vary—some are single-entry, others have front and rear sections, or front and rear halls. One particularly fascinating ensemble of houses forms a winding complex connected by a single corridor, linking more than ten rooms along a meandering path that feels like a maze. Entering the main gate, visitors climb dozens of stone steps to reach the residence, which houses a natural well that never dries up in droughts nor overflows in heavy rains. No wonder experts say this village is truly a museum of Huizhou architecture.

　　To the north of the village lies an ancient tomb. Historical records indicate that this tomb belongs to the ancestors of the current President of China. The tomb is located at the head of the Dragon-Shaped Xu Mountain Range, facing the 1,000-meter-high Qigu Mountain. Atop the tomb grows a thousand-year-old bitter oak tree, and though one side of its trunk bears marks of a lightning strike, the village, with fewer than a thousand residents, is home to over twenty centenarians. These elders remain vigorous, with some still able to work in the fields.

　　The village boasts a rich variety of folk cultural activities, preserving the earliest form of stage scene rigging in southern Anhui and the swing-lift performance, known as a unique skill of the Jiangnan region.