Impressions of Hongcun

Hongcun, established during the Southern Song Dynasty, is a place where the Wang clan gathered to live. The village is built by the mountains and near the water, and after nearly nine hundred years, generations have continuously paved roads, built houses, dug channels, and repaired ponds. The clan has thrived and preserved its heritage to this day. Approaching Hongcun, the first thing you feel is the beauty of the ancient village's water. Since the Ming Dynasty, the Wang clan, following Feng Shui principles, built dams to block rivers and dug canals to divert water. Then they paved roads along the canals and built houses along the roads, Hongcun's past thrived because of water. Later, they constructed Yuezhao and excavated Nanhu. With clear water and green ponds, small bridges over flowing water, Hongcun's present is beautiful because of water. With the nourishment of water, Hongcun exudes a unique charm. The flowing streams are the breath of the ancient village; the rippling blue waves are the village's spirit. The tranquil water surface is gentle and graceful, and the picturesque reflections are calm and serene. If water is the soft soul of Hongcun, then the more than one hundred ancestral halls and residences from different periods are the solid body of Hongcun. These buildings, with their simple and majestic exteriors and exquisitely detailed interiors, are representative works of Hui-style architecture. Well-preserved Hongcun, with its layered horse-head walls standing in rows, is orderly and harmonious; the outer walls are mottled with gray and white, thick and full of vicissitudes; the gatehouses with their flying eaves and upturned corners are simple and spirited; the courtyards with their carved beams and painted rafters are lively and delicate. Simplicity and refinement, style and charm, Hui-style ancient buildings are certainly the indestructible body of Hongcun. Hongcun's winding stone alleys, through the changes of time, villagers never cease to wander and work; the meandering clear streams, regardless of the changing winds and clouds, generations keep flowing; the ancient towering trees, accompanying the old village, following the seasons, leaves green and yellow, grow freely. Day after day, this constructs the village's millennia of unceasing time. Hongcun, Yi County