The south lake of Hongcun village in east China's Anhui province. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

Since 2000 when the village was added to UNESCO'S World Cultural Heritage, tourists flocked to the village to enjoy the Hui culture every year. Previously I thought the influence of the outside world would have affected the life style of local people. But I found I was wrong when we returned to the village in the evening and saw very few lights. It seems that most villagers still observe the living rule of 'work as the sun rises, rest as the sun sets'.

Although not confident, we still expected to find people walking when we strolled out on the bluestone lanes. Finally, an elderly lady walked near us in the dim light, we readied our cameras and prepared to capture a special image of her. However, to our surprise, she displayed a strong disliking to our apparent intrusion, asking why we "played with her" as she was an old lady.

We could not placate the raging grandma even after we deleted the picture and explained what we were doing to her. We still don't know why she had responded the way she did. But maybe, I think, some residents think it is a disturbance to them when we come and enjoy their local culture and landscape.