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Through Beauty
Documentary photograph by 颐园新居, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.Source / rightsWikimedia Commons · explicit-license

Yixian County

East · Anhui

Hongcun and Its Ox-Shaped Water System

A Ming-era village planned around a man-made water loop: moon pond at the heart, south lake at the tail

Hongcun was laid out in the shape of an ox with a working water system as its skeleton: a channel runs past every doorstep, gathers at the crescent Moon Pond in the village heart, and finally settles in South Lake — where Ming and Qing houses stand doubled in still water under horse-head gables.

  • white walls
  • pond reflection
  • horse-head gables
Spring

Rapeseed gold around the village

Spring rapeseed fields ring the village in yellow, and white walls borrow their glow.

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015 · travel note

Hongcun and Its Ox-Shaped Water System

City anchorYixian County

Best time
March–April for rapeseed season and cool light; November for thin mist; summer lotus and winter frost each have their followers.
Stay
One night in the village, two mornings

A way throughSleep inside the village walls; use the first evening for Moon Pond and the next sunrise for South Lake.

On the wayHigh-speed rail to Huangshan North, then about an hour by road from Tunxi; Yixian county buses stop at the village gate.

With respectThe village is residential: keep voices low along the channel past homes, ask before photographing into courtyards, and do not wash or dip anything in the channel yourself.

South Lake at Hongcun: the painted bridge and white-walled houses doubled in still water under distant peaks.Real scene

Seasonal experience

Following the water from door to lake

Trace the village’s bloodstream

Start high in the village where the channel enters, follow it past courtyards and kitchens down to the Moon Pond, then continue to South Lake: the walk takes twenty minutes and explains four centuries of planning.

Why now
The system also works as a social map: washing happens upstream, drinking water was drawn upstream of that, and the pond at the heart is where the village looks at itself.
Time needed
One early morning before the day visitors
Plan before you go
Stay overnight inside the village so you can walk the water route at first light, before coaches arrive from Tunxi.
Photo: 颐园新居 / Wikimedia Commons
Official tourismAnhui Provincial People’s Government