Huangyao is one of the few ancient towns that are still in good shape throughout China, and the only well-kept China's southern style ancient town, others either were totally ruined or only a few broken stone walls left. It took me 2.5 hours to drive all the way on high way down south from Yangshuo to Huangyao Ancient Town, and by the time we arrived, it was noon. Huangyao Ancient Tow covers an area of almost 4 square kilometers. It has a history of more than 1000 years. People mainly come to see the architecture of local residence, ancient temples, halls of names, theater platforms, pavilions, streets, bridges and so on. Film, The Painted Veil, took a lot of scenes from Huangyao. Tons of photographers are attracted to Hunagyao from all over the world each year.
The iconic ancient bridge from Huangyao. Appeared a lot in The Painted Veil.
Square shaped ancient town, Huangyao, can be accessed from several different entrances, but all of them are guarded by security guys for entrance ticket checking, picture above is one of the entrances.
Painters sitting by the river in Huangyao.
Most of ancient towns and villages in China have hall of names, it's a place where local people from that town know where their names from, pretty much like the Family Trees but well displayed on a wooden plate in a nice building like the one shown above, that's the hall of names for "Wu" family.
There's a lake and a pavilion for resting tourists on the lake.
Red sticker on wooden traditional window signifies hopes for good luck to the family, another reason Huangyao Ancient Town is visited by many tourists is that the local people still live in it and tourists get to see how their way of living is. Local people speak Cantonese whereas Yangshuo people don't.
The ancient streets in Huangyao give peaceful feelings to tourists.
Remarks from Chairman Mao are still left on the walls.
Eye drop advertisement from 1920's
More pictures of the ancient streets in Huangyao.