Shanchi Ancient Village, Longchuan, Guangdong

Shanchi Village has a long history, and the genealogy records it dating back to the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. According to the Xie family genealogy, during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, Zong Shaogong (1332-1411) served as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel of the Ming Dynasty and lived here. In the early Ming Dynasty, ancestors with the surnames Luo, Zhang and Xue lived here successively, and the ruins of their ancestral halls still exist today. After the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, Xie, Wang, Yang, Huang, Wu, Wen and Ye families founded and multiplied. Currently, Xie family accounts for the majority of the population. The ancestors of the Shanchi Xie family were engaged in a lot of business and often traveled between Guangdong and Jiangxi. The family has a long history and rich cultural resources, and many beautiful poems have been left behind by literati and poets of all dynasties. Therefore, the Guangdong-Jiangxi ancient trade route is particularly important. There are more than 10 existing enclosures of various sizes in the mountain pond, most of which have fallen into disrepair and only ruins remain. The ones that are relatively well preserved at present are Chongxingwei, Daguandi, Zhaoxiudi, etc. There are also ancient artillery platforms, ancient lime kiln ruins, Dripping Guanyin, Shilang’s ancient tomb, ancestral hall, Qinglong Lake and the oldest bridge in Longchuan County - Hulong Bridge. Hulong Bridge is a single-arch stone arch bridge built over a small river by Xie Shaotang, a wealthy and philanthropic man in the village, during the Chongzhen period of the late Ming Dynasty and the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. It has a history of more than 380 years. A traditional village in Guangdong Province and one of the sixth batch of traditional villages in China.