Hongcun is not a village, it is a Hui-style architectural museum.
Walking into Hongcun, you will enter the history, the history written with the Hui architecture. Even if you don't know anything about architecture, you can feel the magic and beauty of architecture in Hongcun.
The flow of people in Hongcun is probably not comparable to an ancient town and village. People who come to Hongcun are not necessarily tourists, but they can all become tourists. Hongcun is more like a school, there are too many people with pen strokes to write, all of them are aimed at the buildings of Hongcun, some design, some painting, some sketching, some ink, some young, some older. The most interesting thing is that some young people who paint directly mark their paintings with a price, and if there are tourists who are willing, they can spend 100 yuan, dozens of yuan, or more than 10 yuan to take away.
The time I went to Hongcun was in May, the weather was neither hot nor cold, although it was not a holiday, there was a lot of people. After learning about it, it was about 15,000 people. If it's a holiday, it's more than 30,000 people. I stayed in Hongcun for two nights, and it was also full of people, mostly young people.
According to the tour guide, Hongcun was founded in the Ming Dynasty and was originally the residence of the Wang family, which has a history of more than 800 years and looks like a cow. The whole Hongcun is composed of "archway, water mouth, wing room, patio", which can also be called the four major characteristics of Hongcun. Hongcun has a very complete water system, and the lake in the village is called the stomach of the cow. There are 103 buildings of various types, most of which are wooden structures. The most representative ones are "Nanhu Academy", "Deyi Hall" and "Baoqing Bridge".
Walking along the water system in Hongcun, there will be a mood of being moved by the nose of the ancients, and the sound of these water systems flowing out is like the ancients telling stories about why they came here and why they built everything in such a village. When Hongcun people tell the stories of their ancestors, they also have a sense of pride and happiness. If the ancient towns and villages in other places are only the most beautiful at night, Hongcun is different, and the scenery of Hongcun during the day is more beautiful than at night. Especially around the South Lake, any angle you choose is a beautiful landscape painting. It is no wonder that young people who paint will sit all over Nanhu, as if they were holding a pen meeting, and like the reopening of the "Nanhu Academy".
The bluestone-paved road is uneven everywhere, and it is smooth everywhere, which is very in line with the style of ancient buildings. If it is turned into a flat concrete floor, the value of the ancient building will be greatly reduced. Perhaps, this is called the right door. Culturally educated buildings, of course, must be equipped with cultural bluestone roads. No matter how beautiful the cement pavement is, there is no culture, no history, and no place for people to stop.
Hongcun can attract so many people to paint, photography, design, in addition to the exquisite design art and beautiful architectural layout, there is also an amazing carving process, all kinds of gatehouses, window grilles, railings, eaves and other places can be seen carved with some gorgeous and exquisite patterns, there are wood carvings, stone carvings, and brick carvings. In particular, the brick carving is even more unique.
When chatting with the people of Hongcun, I learned that in today's Hongcun, every household has dividends every year, and the elderly in Hongcun have pensions of hundreds of yuan, and the level of medical insurance is also high. All this is thanks to the endless stream of tourists and all kinds of sketching, designing, and painting personnel every day. And most of the operators in Hongcun are doing well. Hongcun is also the most prosperous merchant among the major ancient towns and villages, and it is also the one with the highest opening rate.
Hongcun should be the busiest village in China, so lively that there is no space to sit down and be quiet. Still, I don't get bored. Just look up at those buildings, and you can make your mind quietly walk into the ancients. In this way, it is also a kind of fun, a kind of fun that cannot be stilled.