On a bus for 4 hours from Nanchang all the way to Wuyuan Town (婺源), in the eastern part of Jiangxi Province (江西省), it was already dark by the time I arrived. Met a couple of friends at the guesthouse, it was run by a local family in downtown, I didn't expect to stay long there but the villages kept surprising me and l ended up staying for like 3 days.
Downtown view from the guesthouse. The black and white house style amazed me. Wuyuan's downtown is not very interesting, most tourists are here for the rape seed flower fields, harvest in autumn, the villages scattered around and the architecture in the villages. The villages are not close to each other, so my friends I met at the guesthouse and I decided to hire a driver and a car to go to various places.
Day 1
First village we went was Li Keng Ancient Village (李坑村), it's located in between 2 small hills. Picture above taken at the entrance of Li Keng. This village is probably the most visited village by tourists among all the other villages because there's always people don't have enough time to see everything so they just choose a typical one to see. The house style is also black tiles and white walls, only much older than the ones that I saw downtown. There's a lot of details on the houses that are worth noticing, take the exquisite wooden carvings for example.
Entering an old mansion, the wooden carvings were just amazing, but please take a look at the 3rd picture, the heads and faces of the people on a wooden carving have gone for some reasons, the local driver told us that they were ruined during the Cultural Revolution. What a pity!
A painting about the life in ancient China over one of the mansions' front door.
The ancient theater stage is well-kept, villagers would come out at night and watch the performances in front of the theater in the past.
Seen from upon a small hill by the village, the high speed train railway runs pass over the ancient village, Li Keng.
About half an hour away by car, we came to the Wangkou Ancient Village (旺口村), which is located by a river. Villagers in the past depended upon the river for food, water, transport and business.
The business boat they were using before. Picture taken at a small exhibition house in the village.
The architecture there is something remarkable. Above is a picture of roof of a wooden theater house in the village, which was all hand made without using any iron nails.
About an hour away, we came to Lianglin Ancient Village (江岭村), this one is situated up in the mountains, not so much architecture to see, but there's a must-see attraction, Rape Seed Flower Fields. My regret is it was not the flower season when I was there.
Rape Seed Fields.
Came down from the mountains, last place we checked out for the day was Liangwan Ancient Village (江湾村). It has nice gardens and beautiful architecture.
The hall of names for the villagers.
A wooden door with beautiful carvings.
Carvings are not the same on each piece of door
Carvings on one of the front bars of the hall.
Few other nice spots in the village.
Day 2
Day 2 started with an early morning picture session in Shiqiao Village, unfortunately it was so foggy that we could hardly see anything. I wasn't much of a photographer but I understood the effort they put in behind each beautiful picture.
For a few seconds, the fog was gone. And the cooking smoke from the houses kind of mixed with the fog, giving tourists a fairyland-like feeling.
Then we did a cave tour, it was just like the caves we had in Yangshuo.
But the lake at the entrance of the cave gave me unexpected surprise.
On our way to the next destination, we stopped by at a bowl-shaped village, very interesting to see it from a small hill.
The oldest hall of names of all the villages in Wuyuan. I was told that in the past, the carpenters were paid by landlords with gold the weight of the wood chops they carved out of a work piece.
One thing I want to mention is on the rooftop, there are some man made animals, I thought it was cats at first, then the driver told me I was wrong, those were the dragon's sons, protecting the house from evils.
There were some attractions on the side, like the Rainbow Bridge, 200 years old.
And the national park near the bridge was worth touring, too. When I am at it, I wanted to mention that the visits to various places require entrance ticket, you can get it in the downtown of Wuyuan or at one of the entrances to the village. It's a pass that's available for multi entries up to 7 days, about 200 Yuan.
To wrap it up, my friends and I had a pretty good time staying and touring together. And Wuyuan is definitely recommended for anyone interested in culture, ancient towns, villages, countryside and architecture. Thanks for reading, there's more to come.