File:Huangyao Lady In Red Dress (38421964530).jpg

Place: Huangyao, Zhaoping County, Hezhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

My final visit before returning to Guangzhou and Hongkong was Huangyao (黄姚), an ancient village nearby Hezhou, somewhere between the Pearl Delta Metropolitan Region and Guilin. Huangyao is a typical Chinese ancient village, built during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and flourished during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Huangyao is on the official list of Top 10 ancient villages of China. It is renovated in a good way I think, because even though it definitely attracts (local) tourists, it doesn't feel like a transformed and spoiled place like Zhaoxing. It is a beautiful town with eight streets with stone houses, shrines and temples, and is apparently modeled after taoist concept 八卦 bagua (eight trigram). I stayed in a very fine hostel for two nights which apparently never attracted foreigners before, so the girl immediately wanted to take photos with me. Apparently not too many people from abroad are visiting this place, which seems odd considering it is close to the extremely touristic Yangshuo/Guilin Karst peak area. Huangyao itself is surrounded by the same Karst peaks, further adding to the appeal of the village.