A rich history
Xiamei was a center of the tea trade during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and, according to Zhu, the long bench - known locally as a "Bench of Beauty" - in one of the walkways was where wives sat and waited for their husbands to return after a day conducting business along the river.
The Meixi is only a half-meter deep now, but during the Qing Dynasty it had enough water to allow tea to be transported in small boats and on bamboo rafts. Xiamei was the first trading port to give merchants from landlocked Shanxi province the opportunity to export Wuyi rock tea. The village and its inhabitants grew rich on the trade.
Yin Yantong, 52, is the only blacksmith in the Wuyishan area. He has been plying his trade for more than three decades.
The village has a history of more than 3,000 years and there are still more than 70 well-preserved buildings dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The prosperous tea trade led to a population boom and the village expanded along both sides of the river, with many of the new houses doubling as storerooms.
However, the good times didn't last. The village's key role in river transport was replaced by five ports that the Qing Dynasty was forced to open to foreign traders in the wake of the first Opium War (1839-42).
There's very little business activity in Xiamei nowadays, just a few small grocery stores, some snack bars, a barbershop and a teahouse serve the 2,700 villagers.
Several old handicraft shops that have survived for more than a century are still open, but business declines year by year.
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