China: Xidi Ancient Village

Xidi is a perfectly preserved ancient Chinese settlement in Anhui Province that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Developed primarily during the Song and Ming Dynasties by the prominent Hu merchant family, the village is a living museum of traditional Huizhou-style architecture. Surrounded by green mountains and mountain-fed streams, Xidi’s layout resembles a ship, designed meticulously around ancient feng shui principles to bring prosperity and protection to its inhabitants. The village is famous for its iconic white-washed walls, black-tiled gables, and dramatic “horse-head walls” (Ma Tou Qiang) designed to prevent fire from spreading between homes. The town is truly amazing and very traditional – you can roam it for hours and perhaps days – all the narrow streets and alleys, seeing lotus root drying up, red lanterns hanging everywhere, and people just going around their simple centuries-old traditional life and routines. The most famous structure and a definitive symbol of Xidi is the Hu Wenguang Archway. Standing grandly at the main entrance next to Mingjing Lake, it is the only surviving ancient stone archway out of thirteen that once stood in front of the village’s lanes. It was built in 1578 during the Ming Dynasty and represents an absolute masterclass in classic Chinese stone craftsmanship. The entire archway is built from a locally quarried dense black marble, standing over 12m high and nearly 10m wide, and featuring a grand three-bay, four-pillar, five-story layout. The sheer height and overlapping roof tiers mimic the look of traditional wooden pagodas, but built entirely out of solid stone. Every inch of the archway is densely packed with intricate deep-relief three-dimensional carvings representing imperial political power and also local folk legends and daily life.