Local authorities in east China are planning to apply for a
world cultural heritage listing for a 1,000-year-old village that
was built by peace-seeking Xiongnu, an Asian tribe of Huns.
Located about 30 kilometers west of the tourist hotspot Huang
Shan city, the Nanxi village is home to 700 residents from 160
families. All the men and children in the village are surnamed Jin,
a traditional Hun name, and are descended from a Hun prince called
Rishidan.
In order to avoid the chaos caused by the Huang Chao Peasant
Uprising (875-884), which partly led to the collapse of the Tang
Dynasty (618-907), the villagers' ancestors moved from central
China to the eastern mountains and finally settled down in Nanxi
1,100 years ago.
During its peak in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)
dynasties, there were around 4,000 people from 1,000 families
living in the village, a dozen wells and 99 alleyways, said Qi
Zili, head of the Dongzhi county tourist bureau.
"Hun offspring have also been found to live in more than ten
places in the eastern Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces. Nanxi village
has more of these offspring than any other place," said Guo Quan, a
professor at Nanjing Normal University.
The village features ancestral halls similar in appearance to
those common to the southern part of Anhui Province. However, the
roof beams and columns inside are carved with pictures of weapons,
horse-riding, shooting and other aspects of nomadic life rather
than the life of Anhui farmers.
Built at the foot of mountain, more than 300 ancient houses are
located in a trapezoid shape with spring water running through
sinuous ditches.
The tourist bureau of Dongzhi county, which administers the
village, plans to develop tourism in the village and have already
started to replace mud paths with new roads.
(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2007)
