◆By Li Wei

　　The film Crouching Tiger HiddenDragon stunned the world and touched the beauty-loving people with its breathtaking scenes of white walls and grey tiles reflected in water. That film was photographed in Hongcun Village, an ancient village in Yixian County of East China's Anhui Province.

　　Scattered in the mountainous region of southern Anhui Province are ancient villages with large numbers of buildings in the style of Anhui architecture. Many of them have remained intact until today, and Hongcun Village is the most beautiful of them all.

　　The village was established in 1131, during the Southern Song Dynasty. Overlooked by Yangzhan Mountain and Leigang Mountain (the last few mountains of the Huangshan Mountain Range), the village is almost constantly shrouded in thick fog. It much resembles a scroll of traditional Chinese ink painting portraying mountains, rivers, and scenes of Man living in harmony with Nature. It is for this reason that it is known as "a village in Chinese painting".

　　Interestingly enough, the layout of the village is in the shape of an ox.

　　Formidable Leigang Mountain is the ox's head, with ancient tall trees forming its horns. The clusters of people' residences across the village make up its body. The founders of this village took advantage of the steep mountain slopes, miraculously changed the watercourse and built man-made waterways, called Shuizhen by the ancient Chinese.

　　These waterways wind their way to the Yuezhao (man-made ponds) of each household and finally flow into South Lake (also man-made) at the southern end of the village. From there the water is used to irrigate farmland. The waterways, therefore, are the ox's the intestines; the Yuezhao its stomach, and South Lake its abdomen.

　　In later times, four bridges were built across the rivers and brooks that surround the village, and that is how the ox acquired its four legs. Over time, the ox took shape. Surprisingly, the man-made water system is still in use today: streams called the "ancient tap water project" flow through every household.

　　Created some 800 years ago by the village's versatile founders, this water system not only provides villagers with running water for fighting fires, but also helps to maintain a mild temperature in the region. Above all, it gives the village dwellers convenient and easy access to clean water that can be used for daily life and work. To quote a Chinese poem, "when washing clothes or drawing water, one does not have to go out of one's way to faraway brooks and rivers, for there are clear springs flowing by the door of each household."

　　Hongcun Village presents a beautiful picture from every perspective.

　　On its outskirts we find South Lake, where wild ducks are paddling, disturbing the reflection of rows and rows of buildings nearby. Farther away, green mountains and bamboo forests surround the village. Especially at dusk or dawn, in rain or fog, the clear-cut buildings dominate the fuzzy skyline. If, by chance, the visitor comes across a villager wearing a bamboo hat, carrying a wicker basket and walking on a stone bridge, the place looks so much more like a painting.

　　Walking in the village, one will find long alleyways paved with stone. In the course of their long history, the walls of those tall buildings have been washed clear by rain.

　　Beautifully carved archways lead into the courtyards, and in the sunlight, they cast long shadows on the walls and the glistening stone alleys, taking on different shapes as the alleys wind their way around the village.

　　Limpid waterways are gurgling along the alleys, with villagers washing clothes in the water, and clean vegetables being placed in wicker baskets: a lifestyle that has been carried on since ancient times.

　　Hongcun Village is the most typical example of Anhui-style architecture: black bricks, grey tiles, walls shaped like a horse's head. The village contains a large number of mansions and courtyards, and each building differs in both height and interior design. Courtyard walls are tall and sparsely decorated, while the interiors of every house are exquisite, compact, with rooms that can be used for different purposes.

　　Take Chengzhitang Mansion: With an area of 2,100 square metres, the mansion consists of 60 rooms, 7 courtyards and dooryards as well as ponds and gardens. Waterways flow in and out of the pond all year around, making the water always fresh and clean. The design of the entire mansion is exquisite. Not only are there rooms for general purposes, but there are studies (for both adults and children), mahjong rooms, smoking rooms and private rooms for business meetings. There are dooryards leading to every single hall.

　　Another example is the South Lake Academy. Built in 1811 on an area of over 6,000 square metres, the Academy is made up of left, middle and right wings, and a stele inscribed "South Lake Academy" is hung on the door of the left wing. The scenery around the Academy is simply breathtaking. Situated by the beautiful lakeside, the Academy takes on a different charm with each changing season, much to the visitor's delight.

　　Sculptures are another amazing feature of Hongcun Village. Be it wood, brick or stone, every carved line is precise and confident. The techniques of size, spacing and contrast are most original. For instance, an artisan may have carved a set of handkerchief-sized patterns on a beam with a diameter of 80 centimetres, with a score of figures, taking on different forms and looking almost real, on each such pattern.

　　Not surprisingly, a sense of history pervades the village. Nowadays, fashionably dressed local young people are proudly talking about the honour and glory of their ancestors. Open up the gate of any mansion in the village, and you will find ancient houses that have shared the fortune of their owners for generation after generation. Wherever one goes in Hongcun Village, one there is the smell history in the air, and stories that have been told for hundreds of years.

　　In December 2000, Hongcun Village was approved by UNESCO as one of the 29 world heritage sites in China.