Xidi Village - World Cultural Heritage

Xidi is a very beautiful village located near Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province. It is the perfect place for visitors to see typical folk houses, where residents have lived as they have for centuries. It gives visitors the rare opportunity to explore China's ancient culture and arts.

Xidi Village is located 8km east of Yi County, and 40km away from Huangshan Mountain. With a history of over 900 years, Xidi Village is segmented by over 40 ancient winding and narrow lanes which are paved with bluestones. Visitors strolling through this ancient village will discover traditional Hui-style houses, ancestral temples, academies of classical learning, stone archways, white walls and grey tiles, beautifully paned windows, projecting horse-head walls, and a stone slab bridge. These features are all centuries old and the residents live as they always have to make Xidi Village an open-air museum. 

From that moment when visitors step into this village, they feel that every inch of it was designed by artists. On the marble doorframes, flowers, birds, and beasts can be found carved on them. The carved bricks feature pavilions, human figures, and scenes from local operas. Many villagers have kept many of these arts alive, and visitors can visit them and see their woodcarvings, murals, and gardens exhibition by the local villagers. In Xidi Village, the arrangements of the antique furniture, and the lay of the paintings in the houses are as they were during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911AD).

Xidi Village appears like a page in a fairy tale. Embraced by mountains, with clear streams flowing through it and goldfish ponds scattered throughout it, and paddy fields placed in front of it, Xidi Village looks too picturesque to be real. In 2,000, this very quiet and peaceful village was listed on UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage List with Hongcun Village, and ever since, architects, planners, sculptors, industrial artists, and painters have been heading to Xidi as it provides them with abundant sources of inspiration.