Ancient Village of Xinye, Jiande City
Xinye was founded in 1219, during the Southern Song Dynasty. The village is home to the largest settlement of people surnamed Ye in China today. Every year on the third day of the third month on the lunar calendar, the Ye clans conduct ancestor veneration ceremonies that are steeped in tradition. The village has pre-served 16 ancestral shrines, halls, pagodas, and temples, as well as more than 200 traditional-style dwelling houses. Known for the high value they place on farm work and education, members of the Ye clan have actively engaged in building academies, private schools, free schools, and government-sponsored schools. The streets and lanes that crisscross Xinye Village all have large slabs of stone running down the middle, one after another. Each leads to a school, so that students need not muddy their shoes while walking to and from school. This illustrates the respect that rural villages in ancient China had for knowledge and learning. 
Xinye Ancient Village was named by ancient architecture experts at home and abroad as “Open-air museum for China's Ming and Qing architectures”.
The whole building community here distributes in five rows of nine layouts, containing the traditional Chinese philosophy of harmony between man and nature. Hundreds of streets and lanes in a crisscross pattern connect the houses and households into an organic whole, constituting a picture reflecting the mysterious oriental culture of stereo image.
In the Xinye Ancient Village, a group of buildings are particularly noticeable, that is, Tuanyun Tower, Wenchang Pavilion and Land Temple located in the entrance of the village. The Land Temple is for a good harvest, Tuanyun Tower and Wenchang Pavilion for official career, the integration of which reflects Ye family’s ideal and pursuit of “cultivation brings profits; knowledge brings better life” in the agriculture age.
(Source: Official Website of Xinye Ancient Village)
- Add：Xinye Village, Daciyan Town, Jiande City
- Tel：0571-64169668
- Transportation：South of Hangzhou→Hangxinjing (Hangzhou-Xin’an River-Jingde Town) Highway→Shouchang Exit→Xinye Ancient Village: start from the urban area of Hangzhou, drive south along Zhijiang Road, and then enter into Hangxinjing (Hangzhou-Xin’an River-Jingde Town) Highway. Drive for 120km and turn right at Shouchang Exit. Scenic area signs along the way will guide you to Daciyan Town. Then turn left and drive straight to the scenic area.
Source：www.ywhangzhou.cn Editor：CHENG Huiyu
