A small worship shrine for the God of Earth can be found at a corner of General Hu's former residence.

In addition to the ancestral hall, a monumental gateway built in 1562 to commemorate two outstanding Hu family offspring is another highlight of Longchuan Village. The gateway funded by the central government of the Ming Dynasty was set up to honor the great contributions of Hu Fu, the financial minister in 1478, and Hu Zongxian, the national defense minister in 1538.

The 10-meter-high gateway has delicate reliefs of dragons, lions, cranes and deer as well as a hand-carving by Wen Zhengming, one of the most prestigious calligraphy masters of the Ming Dynasty. Both the cultural and artistic value of the gateway proved to be a hit among the relics in Jixi County.

While General Hu Zongxian is just one of the important figures in the great list of celebrities in Jixi County's history records, his residence actually remain a better attraction to visitors than the general's personal memorabilia.

Even before I started to plan my trip to southern Anhui, several friends, after learning of my travel intentions, reminded me not to miss the former residence of General Hu. The grand mansion is assessed to be the No. 1 family house in ancient Huizhou area surrounding the Yellow Mountain.

General Hu bravely fought against the invasion of Japanese pirates along the coastal area and the achievements won him big promotions and high praise from Ming Dynasty Emperor Jiajing. He chose to build his house at the "helmsman" position in Longchuan Village, which seems to have quite a profound meaning.

Covering more than 5,000 square meters, the house has 24 doors and over 90 paths which comprise a natural maze. According to the tour guide, house owners in ancient China and their friends should use different paths and doors from those used by servants due to strict class divisions.

With white walls and grey tiles, the mansion reflects a typical Huizhou-style family building. Entering this grand house, it seems we had arrived at a mini town where we were amazed to find an opera stage, family ancestral temple, Buddhist worship shrine, private school, pavilion and other well-designed function rooms.

I was captivated by the elegant garden where a square well surrounds a circular well to make up a beautiful pond. In addition to being a fixture, the pond was also a water source in ancient times, with the square well supplying water for washing and bathing and the round one offering drinking water.

The two wells independently connect to an outside source of water without contaminating each other. I couldn't admire more our ancestor's intelligence and skills when seeing the sophisticated design.

If you want to bring some souvenirs home, Huimo (Hui ink-stick) could be a good choice. Jixi is one of the cradles of Huimo, a kind of Chinese ink sticks originated in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). You can easily find handmade Huimo in various shapes and of good quality. How to get there

By Train: Take a train from Shanghai to Hangzhou, transfer to a bus from Hangzhou to Tunxi, which takes about two hours.

Then take another one-hour ride on a transit bus to Jixi County where Longchuan Village is located.

By car: Take the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway toward Anhui-Hangzhou Expressway. Exit at Tunxi and drive 57 kilometers to Jixi. It takes about five hours.

By air: Take Eastern Airlines or Shanghai Airlines to Tunxi Airport. It takes about an hour. Then take a transit bus to Jixi which takes about 1.5 hours.

(Shanghai Daily August 3, 2009)