As a magical village, Hongcun village stands as a historical legacy of ancient Huizhou. It’s located in the southwest side of Huangshan, 11 km away from Yixian County and 30 km away from Huangshan Mountain scenic spot. Hongcun is an ancient cow-shaped water system village with an area of more than 30 hectares.

Known as “the Village in Chinese Paintings”, Hongcun village features its unrivalled artificial water system. Ingenious Hongcun people built the whole village in a bionic bull-shaped layout: taking Leigang Mountain as the cow’s head, the two ancient trees at the entrance of the village as horns, Moon Pond dig by the spring as the stomach, the South Lake as the belly, the curved canal water as the intestine, folk houses as the body and four ancient bridges as hooves.

Through elaborate construction by local worthies through generations, the whole village resembles a leisure buffalo lying down in green water and lush mountains. 

(Translators: Ding Lili, Zheng Tianze)