4-Day Huizhou Culture Tour: Villages, Old Street & Huangshan

Morning — Arrival in Huangshan
Fly into Huangshan Tunxi International Airport or arrive via high-speed train at Huangshan North Station, then transfer to Tangkou Town (about a one-hour drive), the gateway to the mountain. Your guide assists with hotel check-in and a brief orientation.

Afternoon — Hongcun Ancient Village
Visit Hongcun, a UNESCO-listed village of Ming–Qing architecture famed for its tranquil canals and the reflective Moon Pond. Its Hui-style houses and carved ancestral halls gained fame through the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Wander the cobblestone lanes to appreciate traditional design.

Evening — Hui Cuisine
In the evening, dine on Hui-style dishes such as stinky mandarin fish (fermented fish), hairy tofu, or bamboo shoots with ham, paired with local Huangshan Maofeng green tea.

Morning — Tunxi Old Street
Tunxi Old Street runs for over a kilometre along the Xin'an River and is one of the few shopping streets in China to keep an intact Qing-dynasty street wall: two or three storeys of whitewashed shopfronts behind a continuous arcade, grey tiles overhead and the horse-head gables of Huizhou stepping up the party walls. It was a working commercial street long before it became a sight - timber, tea and medicinal herbs came down out of the hills through here - and the shops still sell what the region makes: ink sticks, inkstones, tea, dried bamboo shoots. Your guide points out which buildings are original, how the street was restored, and what the goods in the windows actually are.

Cultural Insight
A Chinese scholar's desk was set with the "four treasures of the study" - brush, ink, paper and inkstone - and Huizhou produced two of the most prized: Hui ink, and the She inkstone cut from stone beds in Shexian, a few counties away.

Lunch
Huizhou cooking in the old quarter: the region's salted mandarin fish, hairy tofu, and a clear soup with bamboo shoots.

Afternoon — Hu Kaiwen Ink Stick Factory
The Hu Kaiwen name dates from the late eighteenth century and remains one of the recognised makers of Huizhou ink. You follow the process end to end: soot collected from burning oil, mixed warm with glue and a little musk and camphor, pounded on a stone while it is still hot, pressed in carved wooden moulds, then dried slowly over weeks and finally lettered in gold by hand. In the hands-on part you paint the gold lettering onto a finished stick and press a small stick of your own in a mould to take home.

Late afternoon — Inkstones
A short stop with a shop that works She inkstones, so that you can see the stone the ink is ground in and how a stone is judged by its grain and its sound.

Meals
Lunch

Accommodation
Day tour - no hotel night included.

Morning — Eastern Steps Hike
Take a shuttle to the Yungu Temple cable car and ascend to Begin-to-Believe Peak, the gateway to Huangshan's eastern ridges. Hike among twisted pines and granite summits above a sea of clouds, passing Lion Peak, Monkey Gazing at the Sea, and Dawn Pavilion. Your guide sets a pace suited to the group.

Lunch — Mountain-Top Meal
Enjoy a simple lunch at a summit restaurant; options are limited, so packing snacks is wise.

Afternoon — Western Sea Grand Canyon
Descend into the dramatic Western Sea Grand Canyon, a vast valley with cliffside trails and panoramic viewpoints. For a thrilling shortcut, ride the small Cloud Tram monorail or hike the steep “Fairy Walking Bridge” path.

Evening — Sunset at Bright Top
Check into a mountain-top hotel such as Beihai or Xihai, then catch the sunset from Bright Top Peak, Huangshan's second-highest point, with 360-degree vistas of mist-swirled peaks.

Morning — Xidi at its quietest
Xidi is best early, before the coaches arrive, and this morning is set up for that. The village was inscribed by UNESCO with Hongcun in 2000 and it belongs to one clan: the Hu family, whose men left as Huizhou merchants from the Ming dynasty on and who sent the money home as houses. You enter under the Memorial Archway of Hu Wenguang, a three-bay stone arch of 1578, and walk the lanes from there - Lufu Hall with its couplets, Dafu Di with the balcony built over the lane, and the small blind-walled courtyards that take their light from above. The carvings are what to look at: wood on the beams and door hoods, brick on the gate surrounds, stone on the thresholds.

Lunch
A restaurant near the village, with Huizhou braised dishes and river fish.

Afternoon — Onward travel
Your guide assists with check-out and the private vehicle carries you to Huangshan North railway station or Tunxi Airport for the next leg of your journey. Your guide sees you through the ticket barrier or the check-in desk.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation
Not included - departure day.