徽州：400年辉煌

　　We can probably never obtain a complete picture of any region's history, but we can certainly attempt to do so more easily in some places that in others. The Ancient Huizhou area, on the southern tip of Anhui Province, is one place where you can easily visualize the past, especially its heyday of four hundred years ago, by strolling among old streets, picturesque countryside, and enchanting villages.

　　For centuries, limited farmland in Huizhou area drove local people to go all out for survival, bringing about the legendary success of Hui merchants who dominated Chinese business world up until the 19th century.

　　The huge amount of wealth accumulated by Hui merchants transformed into numerous townships, markets, docks and villages, most of them remain intact sheltered by the hilly terrains.

　　Laojie, literally meaning Old Street in Chinese, and it's definitely the oldest street in whole city. First came into being as the distribution center of the whole area for all kinds of goods, the street has been weathered through the vicissitudes of time for over 700 years.

　　Flanked by over 200 stores, Laojie runs for about 1000 meters east to west on a flagstone pavement just like when it was first built.

　　No longer a thriving distribution center, it now serves as one of the tourist attractions in Huangshan city, the largest city in Huizhou area.

　　Don't just shun away at the word "tourist attraction" yet, comparing to a lot of cheap copies of ancient streets in other parts of the country, Laojie has more redeeming factors than you'd expected.

　　Although most stores along Laojie sell local produces and antiques, if you do a little bit research in advance, you'll find some real, authentic old stores here.

　　Tong Deren herbal medicine store has been on Laojie for over 120 years. The decorations and layout are characteristic of that time period; and what's more, it still keeps the tradition of having a practitioner of Chinese medicine see patients at the lobby.

　　Seeing the traditional Chinese doctor is quite relaxing - no need to have awkward metal equipment poking around or even inside your body. Just a few minutes of pulsing, looking and chatting,

　　And somewhere inside these antique cabins are the dried grass, barks, roots and other novelty herbal medicine that supposedly can bring me well and sound sleep.

　　If you have to get some travel souvenir from Laojie that can best represent Huizhou, Ink slab is a safe bet. And it's not too hard to find a good piece here since the area is known for crafting one of the best ink slabs and ink sticks in the country.

　　Huizhou boasts the best ink slab in whole country, now I see why. To make a good piece of ink slab is not only the carving work. It's your training, your education in a lot of areas. For example, literature, painting, and music, because the designing and the creativity behind the whole piece of ink slab is more important, that's how you bring out the best of this piece of stone.

　　Although the majority of the stores along the old street are not the same as they were first built 200 years ago, you can still find some of the original layout remains intact. For example, they were all built this way that the front end is the store and the back end is the workshop.

　　In old times, most merchandise sold in Laojie ranging from Huizhou specialty products to household items such as soy sauce came out of small family workshops of manual labor. Today, only Hui Mo, the brand name ink sticks are still manufactured the traditional way. According to local people, the top quality of Hui Mo has a lot to do with the manual process, plus a touch of secret recipe.

　　Now let me take you just a couple blocks away from Laojie and step into one of the old-fashioned wooden gates. You will be surrounded by other bits and pieces of Huizhou culture and history that are as fascinating.

　　Mr. Cheng Dawei's formal residence is just one of such kind of places.

　　Cheng is a Hui merchant himself, and through his business experience, he realized the importance of a standard abacus calculation. And later Hui merchants spread his abacus theory to Japan and Southeast Asia.

　　See, we all know Chinese are good at math because we invented abacus, but do you know why Hui businessmen holds a competitive edge against businessmen from other area of China? It's because of this guy, Mr. Cheng Dawei.

　　Born in 16th century, Mr. Cheng made a major contribution to the then Chinese society by setting the standard format of abacus, and perfecting the abacus calculation system. Of course, his accomplishments were not limited to abacus, he is also believed to be the first person ever to make and use a tape measure.

　　A local elementary school was even named after Mr. Cheng Dawei to commemorate his achievements. Guess what is the strong point of the school's curriculum? The kids here can calculate real fast, even faster than calculators.

　　White wall, black tile against serene water and clear sky, ancient Huizhou villages would settle any restless soul with its soothing charm. Out of hundreds of well-kept villages in the area, Hongcun stands out for its ingenious community plan.

　　In old times, most villages were planned around water. And this is especially true here in Hongcun. In front of every household you can find canals flowing by, and this whole village centers around this pond, half-moon shaped pond here. And this is actually a manmade pond dug about four hundred years ago when this village was first built. And word is the Fengshui of this village became extremely well because of its water planning.

　　The structure of the house was also shaped by local culture and way of life. As men of the family were away from home doing business most of the time, the houses were all protected with high walls and tiny windows.

　　Without the freedom to build the houses any way they wanted, the Hui businessmen lavished their wealth and creativity into the extravagant details of the house. Stone carvings, wood carvings, brick carvings of Hui style houses are hot items on antique market nowadays for their superb craftsmanship.

　　Every single detail in this house called Chengzhi Tang reflects part of Hui culture. The beam on the front courtyard was carved out of a whole tree trunk depicting the banquet of royal officials, as a place in the royal court is the career path every Hui businessmen dreamed for their kids.

　　It almost feels like I'm standing at the bottom of a well. And this part is called Tianjing, and this is a very important section of the whole house, especially for businessman. Water and rain represent money, so the design of a sky well in a Hui-style building should help them to amass the maximum amount of water.

　　A tiny window is typical of Hui-style building. You know in the past, women were not allowed to be seen by men from outside the family. So their view was blocked by high wall and limited by this small window.

　　Looks like the lives of those little misses living upstairs 100 years ago were not that miserable after all. Because once in a while they could get to enjoy the local opera performance in the courtyard although they were not allowed to get out, and in bitterly cold winter, sitting in this cute little charcoal basin.

　　In ancient Huizhou area, Xinan River was the only way connecting local people with the outside world. Therefore the river became extremely important for their daily life. Just take a look at Yuliang dam on the river built in Song Dynasty, still standing strong after weathering through 1000 years.

　　Being washed over by water for thousand years, the shape of these stones defines the weight of history, or shall we say the wave of history. And it's right from here, the ancient Yuliang dock, that over millions of teenage boys bid farewell to their hometown. They didn't have time to be sentimental, because for them, this was the starting point for a bright promising future career. And without their efforts, there probably wouldn't be so many old streets, old towns.

　　(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)