Local authorities in east China are planning to apply for a world cultural heritage listing for a 1,000-year-old village that was built by peace-seeking Xiongnu, an Asian tribe of Huns.

Located about 30 kilometers west of the tourist hotspot Huang Shan city, the Nanxi village is home to 700 residents from 160 families. All the men and children in the village are surnamed Jin, a traditional Hun name, and are descended from a Hun prince called Rishidan.

In order to avoid the chaos caused by the Huang Chao Peasant Uprising (875-884), which partly led to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the villagers' ancestors moved from central China to the eastern mountains and finally settled down in Nanxi 1,100 years ago.

During its peak in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, there were around 4,000 people from 1,000 families living in the village, a dozen wells and 99 alleyways, said Qi Zili, head of the Dongzhi county tourist bureau.

"Hun offspring have also been found to live in more than ten places in the eastern Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces. Nanxi village has more of these offspring than any other place," said Guo Quan, a professor at Nanjing Normal University.

The village features ancestral halls similar in appearance to those common to the southern part of Anhui Province. However, the roof beams and columns inside are carved with pictures of weapons, horse-riding, shooting and other aspects of nomadic life rather than the life of Anhui farmers.

Built at the foot of mountain, more than 300 ancient houses are located in a trapezoid shape with spring water running through sinuous ditches.

The tourist bureau of Dongzhi county, which administers the village, plans to develop tourism in the village and have already started to replace mud paths with new roads.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2007)