Cuandixia Village
It’s just a small village on the old road from Beijing west to Shanxi Province. A place where travelers would stop for a snack or to stay the night. Practically forgotten when the highways changed the western route, Cuandixia has embraced its heritage as a hospitality village to become a hot little tourist attraction. The fact that the village, built during the Qing and Ming dynasties (from 500 years ago), is like an open-air museum with well-preserved courtyard homes and hardly any visible modern amenities helps.
An overgrown courtyard
Back in July I visited Cuandixia with three Beijing friends. We were seeking escape from a hot and pollution shrouded city. Cuandixia was our answer. Warm but not hot, with clear blue skies above, we were able to relax and enjoy the day with a delicious country-style meal and leisurely strolls through the old stone streets.
Grinding Mill Stone
The village is very small so it is easy to just set off down any little alleyway you find. Pretty much every house you pass is set up as a guesthouse/restaurant. We followed a narrow lane up some intriguing steps to find an eclectic grouping of signs advertising the highest restaurant in the village. Why not give it a try?
Xiangyao Inn
We could not have been happier with our choice. The restaurant is a roofed terrace overlooking the village with a unique menu. Between the four of us, we were able to order several dishes and a couple of bottles of beer. Only after we had struggled along for five minutes did the owner produce an English menu. The food was fresh, hot and tasty.
The restaurant’s unique menu
The restaurant’s mascot or menu item? We weren’t sure!
We traveled to Cuandixia in a private van arranged through a Beijing tour agency (Where one of my friends happens to work.) The trip took about 3 hours. It is possible to reach the city via public bus, Google “Cuandixia” for more info on that.
Many visitors come to Cuandixia and spend the night in one of the many guesthouses. Near the village are several hikes and other small villages to visit. If you like a very low-key getaway, the village is ideal. Just a warning, however, the public toilets at the edge of town are horrifying. Although they are housed in a new, purpose-built building, it seems no one has ever bothered to clean them.
A village woman with propaganda message
An old building
A selection of doorways:
A very big thanks to J., I. and S. for including me in this day trip and helping me through the long summer!
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
So glad yuo found a respite during what has been a trying summer. I so hope everything will work out as you’d like it to. i am found of a phrase I heard spoken by one of my favorite self-help people. Whatever is supposed to happen will happen…that sometimes eases my worries…
I wholeheartedly agree with this phrase, Ashleigh. Thanks.
Hah! You sneaked back on us! I’ve been checking your blog almost every day until just a few days ago. Welcome back Heather and keep your chin up. Honestly as a Chinese born outside the Mainland, I would also find it challenging to handle the Chinese bureaucracy but I hope both of you will hang in there.
I’m feasting my eyes with those beautiful photos. They remind me of how some of my ancestors used to live in Southern China before they emigrated overseas. That stone mill would have been driven by a donkey with its whip wielding master following it round and round(it makes me dizzy just to think of it) as shown in some movies, but the whip is usually just a skinny string tied to another skinny stick, and is hardly used on the beast.
On the fourth photo, the last two vertical black and bold large Chinese characters on the white board are clever word play. They are pronounced exactly the same as the two horizontal red characters on top but with totally different meanings. The smaller horizontal red characters on top mean ‘highest’ while the last two large black characters mean ‘getting drunk at high altitude’. Oh yeah, just look at those empty bottles! The other vertical writings on doorways are traditional poetic couplets some of which are a little abstract for me to translate. Oh, the propaganda slogan on the wall is translated as “Use Chairman Mao’s thoughts to arm our brain.”, a leftover slogan since the topsy-turvey 60′s.
Thanks so much for the translations! I knew the slogan started out as “use Mao…” but I didn’t get much further than that.
There were others in the village, as well, but dating much further back. As for the couplets – I love the way they look and even had some on my door in my old apartment. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to read them. The play on words, however, is a great surprise. I love that double meaning. The restauranteur did indeed offer baijiu. We had no intention of getting drunk and stumbling down the steps to the bottom of the village, though!
And thanks for checking in through my dry spell of postings!