Travel Tips to Hui Zhou

People are interested in my photos and travel experience in Hui Zhou. JL wrote to ask for the details of the trip (transportation, accommodation, main attractions ect.). Well. Not surprisingly, I am willing to share with you about the trip.

Hui Zhou 徽州 is in the An Hui Province – west to Jiang Su Province (where Nanjing, Suzhou and Wuxi are located) and Shanghai.

Transportation

I took train K818/K819 from Shanghai to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) Station. The train left Shanghai at 20:05 and arrived around 7:00 AM. It is very nice arrangement since you can sleep on the train and begin your tour to the amazing county immediately after you get off the train. One tip you need to remember is, the train numbers K818 and K819 are referring to the same train. According to the train numbering convention, all trains leaving Beijing are numbered with odd number and trains going to the direction of Beijing are numbered with even number. However, the train from Shanghai to Huang Shan will first goes northwest, making it moving close to Beijing (it is numbered K818 at that range). After it passes Nanjing, it will move southwest toward the direction away from Beijing. So on that range of railway, it is called K819.

The returning train is numbered with the same rule – K820/K817. It leaves Huang Shan around 20:00 and arrives Shanghai at 7:00 AM next day. If you are curious about the meaning of K, I can tell you it means Kuai in Chinese or Express Train in English.

Accommodation

If you go to the villages I visited, please don’t expect any modern hotels there. However, it is a great experience to stay for one night or two in the accident houses that were built carefully 300-400 years ago.

Remember this door I showed yesterday?

It is the door of the bedroom we stayed. The name is Shu Ren Tang 树仁堂. It is located in Hongcun. We were so excited to get a room in the accident house. The bed and the cabinet are exactly those used hundreds of years ago. They are still solid and look nice. This house is also famous and printed in many brochures. We were wakened up by the tour guides who use their big speaker to introduce the history of the house to groups of tourist. They were so amazed to see us opening the door and came out. Some of them asked: “Do you live here?” I replied with proud: “Sure….”, “for one night.” :-) I paid 40 RMB (5 USD) for the night. It was such a great experience for me. Their phone is 0599-5541009.

Attractions

In the last two dynasty, namely Ming and Qing, the Hui Zhou area were super rich and powerful. The businessmen came out from the area enjoyed largest share of the China’s market and bring money back to their hometown.

黟县

西递 Xidi – the World Heritage

宏村 Hongcun – the World Heritage

卢村 – There is a large wood-carving house. Very impressive

木坑 – The bamboo where Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon were taken

屯溪 – the transportation hub for all the other spot of scenes.

歙县 – for the Pai Fang

棠樾 – for a lot of large Memorial Archway (Paifang)

呈坎 – for Bao Lun Ge and the village

3 thoughts on “Travel Tips to Hui Zhou

  1. Wow, what an enviable experience you had in an ancient “hotel”, just one thing I wonder that is how that door stems cold wind blowing in in winter.

    I am also impressed that you are known so well in train number order just like a planner. I think what you mean is trains run towards capital is named even number, please check your description by a second.

  2. It looks very interesting . Is there the private bathroom and heater in this hotel?? I would love to stay there for a night. I am making a trip there next weeek.

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