Honghe, Yunnan Province 

The Zhu Family Garden

Over a hundred years ago, a poor farmer called Zhu arrived in Jianshui and eventually made a little business of Tin ore. Later, his sons developed his business and over one hundred years later, people come to visit the Zhu Family Garden. This place symbolizes the garden style of the local rich in the past. The big garden is composed of many courtyards, a little open-air theatre, and the family ancestral hall.

There are so many gates around here and if you are willing to pay, you can have one for yourself. It鈥檚 standard hotel room, with hot water and a modern bathroom and an old style bed. You wanna come in? Better not.

Shuanglong Bridge, or the Double Dragon Bridge, is a nice surprise on the road. Under the lingering caress of the setting sun, the ancient stone bridge spans over 140 meters and was constructed with over ten thousand huge rocks boulders. A continuous fourteen arches helps the bridge to alleviate pressures brought by occasional floods.

Tuanshan Village

This gate is much smaller than the city gate of Jianshui. This is the gate to the little village Tuanshan.

Just over 20 minutes drive away from Jianshui City, the Tuanshan village is a typical countryside tour. It looks neglected and deserted, quietly moving along at its own tempo.

Some coins for a cup of coffee please鈥hehe, just kidding. I am sitting on the seat prepared for beggars. You could see how considerate the owner of the home was. There is one seat over there, you could see beautiful carvings. Now I am gonna to get some water.

Old things have always fascinated me and I have to admit it鈥檚 a surprise to find such a fine courtyard here.

This looks like a pretty nice courtyard. So many interesting details.

About 400 years ago, many of the villages managed to make a fortune in the outside world and following Chinese tradition, they sent the money home to build grand houses, with exquisite carvings.

Check this out. It鈥檚 really beautiful. Take a closer look. No wonder they have seats for beggars at the gates. They are really an affluent family.

The wood carvings along the roof and the equally exquisitely carved stone mantle skirting, which protects the wooden pillar, tells us how people in the past enjoy the finer things in life.

Zhu Lirong, daughter-in-law of the family, 鈥淟ots of the carvings and paintings are symbols of learning, such as musical instruments, chess, books and paintings are depicted along the roofs, on the windows and doors. They put great emphasis on education.鈥/font>

As a teacher, she explained that she鈥檚 worried that today many the young people in the village overlook the importance of education for their own kids. She said that they think making money is the most important thing. Two thirds of the villagers are from the Zhang family. They are descendants from the famous Zhang family that once had nine generations living under one roof, following the typical Chinese value of 鈥榯olerance鈥 I have a feeling that in some way traditions are memorized, carefully preserved, silently, in these structures and decorations. But it鈥檚 hard to say how they will be carried on in people鈥檚 minds.