Yangchan Tulou Village 阳产土楼

About Yangchan Tulou Village

Yangchan Tulou Village (阳产土楼) is a hillside cluster of earthen houses at Yangchan, part of Yueyuan village (约源村) in Shendu town (深渡镇), She County (歙县), Huangshan (黄山), Anhui, in the mountains of southern Anhui (皖南).

The village stands at roughly 400 metres above sea level; its highest point, Longwangjian (龙王尖), reaches about 900 metres, and the Huangshan and Tianmu (天目山) ranges run through the area. The houses step up the slope in close rows, and their walls are coated in red earth. Because the terrain is rugged and access was poor, villagers used local material both for houses and for paths.

Building began in the late Ming and early Qing. More than 400 years ago members of the Zheng (郑) clan came here from Zhengzhou (郑州) in Henan to escape war, and the whole village still carries the Zheng surname. Recorded fighting in modern times dates from the Chinese Civil War (解放战争), when a small blocking action against retreating Kuomintang troops took place on Longwangjian; trenches can still be traced on the summit. About 360 earthen houses survive, the oldest over 200 years old, and some are close to collapse after long neglect. A branch of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang (民革) in Huangshan described the cluster in 2014 as another marvel of Huizhou architecture (徽派建筑).

At harvest time farmers spread maize, red chillies, hickory nuts and pumpkins to dry in front of and behind their houses, a scene People's Daily reported in November 2022. A cultural tourism company now works the village, and Yangchan is a stop on a national rural-tourism route with the Wenchang Old Road (文昌古道) and the Xin'an River (新安江) landscape corridor. Inside, earthen stoves, wooden buckets, bamboo sieves and straw rain capes give the houses an old-fashioned look.

What to look for

• The staggered rows of about 360 red-earth houses on the hillside
• The oldest surviving earthen house, more than 200 years old
• Longwangjian (龙王尖), the roughly 900-metre summit with civil-war trench remains
• Wenchang Old Road (文昌古道) and the Yangchan old road (阳产古道)
• The village's old well and Yangchan Primary School (阳产小学)
• Harvest-time drying of maize, chillies and pumpkins in front of and behind the houses

Location & getting there

Getting to Yangchan Tulou Village

• Search for 阳产土楼 with 黄山市 and 歙县.