• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Monkey Steals Peach

Follow My Travels to Find the Greatest Masters of Martial Arts

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Praying Mantis Kung Fu 螳螂拳
    • Core Theory of Praying Mantis Kung Fu
    • Taiji Mantis
    • History of Taiji Mantis
    • Legends of Mantis – Three Mountains of Laiyang
    • Hao Family Meihua Mantis
    • History of Hao Family Meihua Mantis
    • Sacred Ape Sect 圣猿门
    • Shui Kou Men 水口门
    • Six Harmony Staff 六合棍
  • Chinese Islamic Martial Arts 中华教门拳
    • Xinyi Liuhe Quan 心意六合拳
  • Korean Martial Arts 한국무술
    • Taekkyon 택견
    • Ssireum, Korean Wrestling 씨름
    • Hopae Sool 호패술
  • Interviews of Masters
    • Taiji Mantis Master Zhou Zhen Dong
    • Taiji Mantis Master Cui Hao
    • Taiji/Seven Star Mantis Master Mu Wei Shan
    • Seven Star Praying Mantis with Brendan Tunks
    • Seven Star Praying Mantis with Dog Brother Thomas Holtmann (part 1)
      • Seven Star Praying Mantis with Dog Brother Thomas Holtmann (part 2)
    • Taekkyon Master Do Ki Hyun
    • Boxing 7 Time World Champion Michele Aboro
    • Praying Mantis Master Qu Hai
    • Qigong & Kung Fu Master Guo Xin Min
    • Shaolin Master Shi Xing Long
  • Study Kung Fu in China
  • Travel in China
    • Central Plains: Cradle of Chinese Civilisation
    • Shandong Province
    • Jiang Nan – Eastern China
    • Southwest China: Mountains & Minorities
    • Tibetan Plateau
    • Resources for China Trips
  • Blog Posts
    • Life in China
    • train in China
    • Travel in China
    • Praying Mantis Kung Fu
    • South East Asia
    • South Korea
    • Xinyi Liuhe Quan
    • Guest Post
    • travels tips
    • taekkyon
    • Tibet
    • India
    • Kung Fu Philosophy
  • Jiang Hu – Learn Kung Fu With Me
    • Shaolin 13 Hammers
    • Taiji Mantis Form – Shuai Lu
  • My Travels
    • Southeast Asia
    • South Korea
You are here: Home / Chinese Tea / Xiamei – A Beautifully Preserved Old Village in Wuyi Mountains

Sep 24 2017

Xiamei – A Beautifully Preserved Old Village in Wuyi Mountains

xiamei old villageAfter hiking the trails in the tea plantations (read part one here), the next day I decided to visit the old village of Xiamei (下梅). Xiamei was an important hub during the Qing Dynasty where tea producers would bring their tea from the mountains to sell to traders from port cities like Fuzhou and Xiamen who would then export it to Europe.

The village is remarkably well preserved, and not only are the old residences still lived in, but the guildhall and temple are still the centes for village life, with ceremonies and gatherings taking place regularly.

 

Upon entering the village you have to buy a ticket, which gets you a free guide. Normally, I have no interest in having a tour guide, but this time I was pleasantly surprised, as she really went into detail about the culture and history of the village. I think this was mostly due to the fact that my wife was Chinese; if it was just me as a foreigner, the guide probably would have just given a really rough overview, assuming foreigners have no clue about Chinese culture.

old village centre

The village is built around a stream, and on either side are many shops, some of them selling tourist junk, but a lot of them selling either tea or traditional handicrafts which you could see being made then and there. These shops were mostly wooden buildings and were fairly worn out looking. Most of the villagers just seemed to sit around playing cards of Mahjang. The residences of the wealthier people were back from the stream, hidden behind large stone walls.

These large residences were impressive buildings of local Fujianese style, and much of the interior was well preserved. Many still had family shrines in the main hall, and intricate woodwork decorating the walls. What I felt incredibly odd, was that the tour guide would just take us straight into somebody’s home, and grandma would be washing clothes or cooking while we just stood there listening to the tour guide. Apparently there was some kind of agreement, so the residents got a portion of the ticket fees. I did feel also that the residents were considerably poorer than whoever would have lived in the houses during the villages heyday. Despite the grandeur of the buildings themselves, there wasn’t much in the way of luxurious furniture; the people mostly had worn out stools, and piles of junk.

Still, I found that this village, possibly due to its distance from any large city, had more of an authenticity to it than the popular ones around Shanghai or Suzhou. People still went about their daily life, and besides us I didn’t see any other tourists.

 

 

 

Related

Written by monkeystealspeach · Categorized: Chinese Tea, Travel in China

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar



Booking.com

Join My Mailing List to Get Access to Loads of Extra Content and Videos

* indicates required




Recent Blog Posts

  • A Perfect Day in Angkor Wat
  • The Misty Mountains of Jirisan, South Korea
  • Koh Chang Thailand – Perfect Place to Chillout
  • How does altitude affect you when hiking to Everest Base Camp?
  • Xiamei – A Beautifully Preserved Old Village in Wuyi Mountains




  • Home
  • About Me
  • Praying Mantis Kung Fu 螳螂拳
  • Chinese Islamic Martial Arts 中华教门拳
  • Korean Martial Arts 한국무술
  • Interviews of Masters
  • Study Kung Fu in China
  • Travel in China
  • Blog Posts
  • Jiang Hu – Learn Kung Fu With Me
  • My Travels

Copyright © 2018 · Altitude Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in