This week I went to Huizhou again, and I was impressed by the beautiful scenery and Hui culture. I had a great time there with my sister-in-law and my little nephew. We are all Anhui people, so this trip was kind of “traveling in our courtyard”.

Part one: Happy valley

The main feature of happy valley is that it has a small stream flowing from the top of the hill down to the foot of the hill. It is clean and clear, bringing some sort of anima to this valley. (See photo)

The hill is covered by some forests of bamboos. (See photo) Many things are made of bamboos there, including the rails along the road and some stages for the performances.

There is a place presenting us the life and worship ceremony of Wa minority on the hill. (See photo) Ox is considered as auspicious in their belief.

Part two: Yellow Mountain

Ming traveler Xiake Xu once gave the Yellow Mountain his highest praise:” There are no famous mountains domestic or overseas which can equal the Yellow Mountain.” Nowadays it is ranked as one of ten most famous scenic spots in China.

The Yellow Mountain is well known for its pines, all kinds of pines everywhere, straight or tilted. The guest-greeting pine is definitely a must see when you are on the mountain. (See photo)

We all know that the four remarkable spectacles on the Yellow Mountain are strangely-shaped pines, bizarre rocks, sea of clouds and hot springs. Look at this rock, isn’t it like a fish? (See photo) People give it a good name as “the carp has leaped through the dragon’s gate”.

At noon we were climbing over the Aoyu peak, undoubtedly a bit tired, have a short rest here! (See photo)

The weather is really good. Though we did not see the sea of clouds, we were happy to have the blue sky and white clouds. (See photo) Not far away are the mountains covered by pines, ridge upon ridge.

The highest peak is the lotus peak. (See photo) It is almost 1864.8 meters. We passed across its hillside.

Late in the afternoon when we were at the exit of the Yellow Mountain, it started to rain. The dark light fog can be seen above the mountains, looking like a Chinese ink wash drawing. (See photo)

Part three: Hong village

Hongcun is a cattle shaped ancient village. It was built in the Southern Song dynasty and now it has approximately 900 years of history. It gives a great picture about how rich ancient Hui merchants were and how they lived at that time.

At the entrance there is a big lake ---- the south lake. On one side of the lake are willows along the lake bank, while on the other side are the Hui dwellings. (See photo)

Can you see the bridge behind me? (See photo) It was built on the south lake. It became well-known to us because it was once one of the places to shoot the movie “Crouching tiger, hidden dragon”.

Around the moon pond there are typical Hui local dwellings. (See photo) The main characteristics of those buildings are that they used very few windows and the eaves were very high, thus the thieves could not get in easily. Most of the buildings had wooden structure, so every small stream can be seen at the front of each home in order to prevent them from getting on fire.

During the ancient times the merchants usually had very low social class, therefore they tried their best to let their children have more education and become government officials, who were then considered noble and respectable. So the village had a very good dedicated school for children study. (See photo)

We visited the richest family in the village. (See photo) Allegedly they had over 60 rooms together, for the owners, their children, their servants and their guests.

Inside the buildings there are very delicate and precious wood carvings on the windows or beams. (See photo) Now most of them are very well protected by glass.

There are 99 alleys in the village, with slate roads. (See photo) People say the village is like a maze, because you can easily get lost there. Just remember: go against the stream direction you are entering the village, and go down the stream direction you are exiting the village.

Huizhou, a typical place on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, can mildly show you both wonderful scenery and its long history.