Cuàn Dǐxià 爨底下
门头沟, 离西五环走G109往西62公里
Well-preserved Míng-era village on ancient trade route west of Běijīng
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond
Cuàn Dǐxià means ‘under the earthenware stove’, which is possibly a reference to the shape of the mountain behind the village. The rarely used cuàn (爨) character requires 30 strokes to write and was replaced with chuān (川), requiring only three, during a 1958 campaign to simplify place names, thus changing the village’s name to ‘under the river’. Although the historic name has now been restored, the alternative version still appears on some signs.
The village contains a number of fairly well-preserved Míng and Qīng dynasty sìhéyuàn courtyard houses, kept not as museums but as functioning family homes, as well as assorted wells, mills, and two temples, one of which, on the hillside opposite the village, offers splendid views.
After the ticket office, the road swings round to parking on the left while the village is spread up the hillside to the right like an inverted fan. Following the road on foot, past higgledy-piggledy stone walls overgrown with dried grass, pretty flowering shrubs in people’s gardens, and persimmons hanging brightly in the trees, you pass right turns to that end up at blank cliff eitherwith steps cut in it, or with them projecting unnervingly out from the sheer rock. But further up there’s a fully functioning well and a proper stone-flagged path up to the higher sections with views down to courtyards below. Not only the drum stones and carved beams at the entrances have been well preserved — the slogans of the 1966–76 Cultural Revolution remain on the walls as if freshly daubed (用毛泽东思想武装我们的脱脑! Yòng Máo Zédōng sīxiǎng wǔzhuāng wǒmén de tóunǎo! Use Máo Zédōng thought to arm our minds!).
At different times there are brilliant camellias and other flowers in tubs, the roofs are made bright yellow with corn set out to dry, and the eaves are bristly with hanging bunches of red peppers, although this is dropping off as tourism revenue starts to replace agriculture. But the village is surrounded by stepped orchards, and fields with irregular retaining walls of stone climb the hillside.
There are said to be altogether 74 sìhéyuàn here on what was once a major mǎ lù or trading route between Inner Mongolia, Héběi, and Shānxī Provinces, killed off by the modernisation of the banking system, the arrival of railways, and the vast upheavals of the 19th and 20th centuries. When the village first started to attract visitors in modern times only about 40 of these houses were occupied, as younger people had all left for the cities and factory work, The aging occupants included some of the last of the ‘lily-footed’ ancients, their feet bound from childhood, now white-haired, walnut-faced, watery-eyed, and nearly toothless. There’s the odd satellite dish, but beneath it you may see someone washing clothes with a scrubbing board under a tap.
In a rare case of tourism actually doing good, as the number of visitors has risen, the younger population has begun to return to refurbish and open family homes as restaurants and guest houses. Recently there were 35 families with a total of 93 members, almost all surnamed Hàn and claiming to be resident for up to 20 generations. They also claim descent from a Míng dynasty military official of the same name who settled here.
Several of the houses have signs indicating they sell honey, and a village shop has now been revamped as one of a chain called Local Colour (山旅驿站, Shān Lǚ Yì Zhàn), t 6981 9920, selling well-thought-out souvenirs of a better quality than usual in Běijīng, from guide books to wooden toys and jigsaw puzzles.
There are now several places where you can stay and eat, identified by red lanterns or by the presence of a sunshade in the courtyard. For lunch or to stay the night, simply wander around and see what appeals. For instance the 490-year-old Xiéyáng Hóng Kèzhàn (斜阳红客栈, t 0313 0981 9395), roughly on top of the hill, has simple rooms sold by the bed, dormitory-style, for ¥15 each in a seven-bed room (more expensive during public holidays, particularly the first week of October). Buy all the beds if you want privacy. There’s a common white-tiled bathroom with plenty of hot water, a generous breakfast for ¥5, and even Internet access for ¥5 an hour.
Just stopping for lunch here will cost around ¥50 for two, including a pot of locally-picked wild tea. Winter heating isn’t viable, so the guesthouse is open only mid-April to mid-October. Something more resembling a standard budget hotel will be open by the time you arrive.
A path leads up the hillside opposite the village past the tiny new Niángniang Miào (娘娘庙, temple to the goddess of pregnancy) gives splendid views over the village to match those on the jigsaw puzzle sold in the shop.
The village 5.5km further up the road is Bǎiyù (柏峪), from where there’s a two-hour climb to an entirely unrestored section of the Great Wall called Huáng Cǎo Liáng (黄草梁), at an altitude of 1733m.
Líng Shuǐ 灵水
It’s about 4km and 15 minutes back from the turning to Cuàn Dǐxià to the turning north to Líng Shuǐ (b M04 from 斋堂 to 支线 stop 桑峪) and about 4km from there to the village itself.
From the car park at the end of the road a path takes you uphill and eventually round in a loop back down to the car park again, past much ancient housing that’s been restored, presumably with the aim of picking up tourism revenue. It’s pleasant enough.
About ten minutes into the walk (of about 20 minutes altogether) you reach the courtyard of the Lóng Wáng Miào (Dragon King Temple, 龙王庙), now abandoned and dilapidated but undergoing death by refurbishment. Villagers consider a very ancient tree in the courtyard to be the village’s principal attraction because on closer examination it’s actually two trees: a cypress embracing an elm, as a sign in Chinese rather poetically puts it.
There are steps up to a second courtyard with overgrown roofs, collapsing tiles, sagging eaves, and bending poles, which is very atmospheric unless they decide to renovate this, too. One wall still has paintings of unknown antiquity, but in general the plaster has fallen, exposing the herringbone brickwork, roughly but cleverly made.
The path takes you round past some very attractive ancient housing, a large well, and a spirit screen hung with red lanterns in the main square, celebrating a village-born graduate of the highest level of imperial examinations. And in fact this is the village’s claim to fame, since about 200 families here produced between them 22 jǔrén (举人, graduates of the provincial examination) in the Míng and Qīng, and two jìnshì (进士, graduates of the highest imperial examination).
It’s very quiet here, and there’s also simple accommodation available.
▶ In Méntóugōu, a short distance off the G109, 62km W of Běijīng, gps 39º59’42.9”N, 115º38’429”E, t 6981 8988, www.cuandixia.com, open 24 hrs. ¥20. m Píngguó Yuán (Line 1) then b 892 to 斋堂 and bargain for local taxi (7.5km) or b M09; or b M01, M02, M08, M11, M12, M16 to 爨底村路口, and walk 5km uphill. taxi (from Běijīng) ~ ¥400.
Once past the chimneys, cooling towers, and general filth of assorted factories around the Fifth Ring Road, this attractive route is nothing but bends, and at one point it splits, with buses taking the easier left way, and cars forking right up a winding mountain route past cliffs covered in red creeper that make it look as if they’re bleeding. Persimmons and apples are on sale at the roadside in season.
Signs use both variants of the village name (see below) and are less common than those to some other sights. But the right turn to the village, about 1½ hours and 62km by car from the Fifth Ring, is clearly marked.
Next in Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond: Jī Míng Shān Yì
Previously: Silver Mountain Pagoda Forest
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