April 19, 2010 - Hongcun and Xidi Villages, near Huangshan, Anhui Province, China

The plan for Huangshan was originally to head straight up there the day after arrival but the weather had other ideas.  The rain and coulds didn't make the trip up to 1800m sound very appealing and instead I took a day trip out to a couple of local traditional villages that were well recommended in the hope that the weather would be better the next day.  Xidi and Hongcun were interesting enough places made significantly less tolerable by the presence of hordes of Chinese tourists complete with flag-waving, microphone + PA-system -bearing tourguides completely ruining the serenity that old villages are supposed to have.  The absolute disregard with with these tourguides will enter a quiet place like an old hall or other building, dragging their group behind then and announcing through their poratble PA system whatever it is that they feel relevant is simply staggering.  They seem to have no sense whatsoever of preserving the peaceful integrity of any place at all.  It got to the point that wherever they were, I would immediately leave, in some cases to be promptly attacked by another group.  One can only suppose that the PA systems are to save the guide's voices but at the cost of ruining the mood of these places, simply so even the stragglers in the group, or those having their own conversations, can hear the guide, it's completely inconcievable to me.  It seems to me that since such equipment is not used with reckless abondon and disregard for everyone else in any other part of the world where I've ever taken a guided tour that it is unnecessary, but I'm sure the guides would disagree.  Welcome to China tourist-central.  Believe me, it will get worse.  To get back to the villages, Hongcun was the more crowded, although larger and more interesting of the 2.  Set on a few hundred year old lake (mimicking the famous West Lake in Suzhou) the town had a lot of cool old buildings mostly in stone or masonry.  The wooden interiors of a couple of the places were super cool..  Xidi was much smaller and set beside a river.  I think the photos do a better job of describing the places than I can.