Chengzi Ancient Village, located 1,500 metres southwest of Yongning Township, is an administrative village of the larger Yongning area, located at the junction of the two prefectures (Honghe Prefecture and Wenshan Prefecture) and three counties (Luxi County, Milei County and Qiubei County), which is 25 km from the Luxi County seat, nearly 200 km from the prefecture government seat Mengzi, 197 km from the provincial capital Kunming. It is the south gate of Luxi County connecting with other counties (cities) in the same prefecture and to Wenshan Prefecture.
Chengzi Ancient Village also has a long history of revolution. General Zhang Chong, the former Vice Chairman of National Political Consultative Committee and one of the famous patriotic generals, studied here when he was a teenager. During the war of liberation, this village was the seat of the command of Yunnan-Guangxi-Guizhou Bianzong and Panbei forces of the PLA. The CPC Luxi County Committee and the Luxi County Liberation Committee were also established here. Chengzi Ancient Village with the reputation of "an amber among original aestheticism architecture" was identified as the "famous (Yunnan) provincial historical and cultural village" in 2007, and as the "Yunnan provincial tourism characteristics village," the "homeland of Asian folk photography" and the "Yunnan art photography creation base" in 2010.
Chengzi Ancient Village integrates natural landscapes and pastoral scenery with ancient, ethnic minority buildings. It is a model of harmonious coexistence between the four seasons and those who live here.
The village, with a mountainous backdrop and water frontage, stands on Feifeng Mountain, which is more than 200 metres high.
The homes in the ancient village follow the mountains and go up in steps. The roofs of most of the houses are connected to form a platform that is tens, or even hundreds of metres long.
The more than 1,000 soil warehouses in the village are connected end to end, integrated with the hillside and are inseparable. Surrounded by clear water in front of the mountain, green fields are laid out, and the khaki buildings glow golden in the sun. With spring peach, summer rice and autumn corn, the scenery varies from season to season.
The oldest houses in the ancient village are those belonging to 24 families on the hilltop of the Little Dragon Tree Hill. An elderly person living in a room said: "This room, built in the Eighth Year of Emperor Yongzheng in Qing Dynasty, has a history of more than 270 years." At that time, the houses were built jointly by the 24 families, and all the houses were at the same horizontal plane, with the style being the most original soil palm house dwellings, no courtyard and no windows. The building enclosure is soil compaction.
Then with the increase in population, the village gradually developed from the peak top downward and northward, establishing middle camp residential groups. The architectural style changed with the introduction of Han culture construction technology, and houses gradually evolved into the "one seal" style, that is, one principal room, two side rooms, one screen wall facing the gate of the house, one courtyard in the middle to facilitate natural lighting, and one side wooden wall with windows by the inner courtyard, which greatly increases the comfort.
However, the roofs of these houses were still connected to each other to form one platform and maintained the characteristics of Yi style soil residential buildings.
Then along with development, small camp residential groups were established. At that time residential buildings began to show Han-style door head and slope top architecture, and the brackets under the door head were full and complete, obtaining the essence of Han-style architecture (such as Manor House of General Lee).
Although absorbing the essence of Han-style architecture, most of the dwellings still maintained the features of traditional Yi-style soil palm dwellings in the construction of the roof and exterior wall, and became a vivid example of the perfect combination of Han-style and Yi-style construction technology, which is now called the "living fossil" in the development history of residential building culture and construction technology.
Chenzi Village, Yongning Country, Luxi County, 652405 Yunnan, China
1. It’s suitable for self driving ,and it’s not too good to go alone,we sugguets to rent a car with driver.
2. There are mountain and field in the vicinity, you can experience a simple pastoral life and escape the bustle flamboyance of the city life, the mostly, you can integrate into the village and villagers here. But the residents who lived there can not speak English.
