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| Visitors wander along a leafy Yuanjia Village lane. |
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| An ancient wall relief. |
Busy Old Streets
This was my second trip to Yuanjia Village. I had learned a lot from my first visit and was determined to come back again. But even after this second visit, I had a thirst for more.
A straight road lined with trees and ancient-style lamps leads to the village. The community resembles the old town of Lijiang in Yunnan Province with its narrow streets, tile-roofed houses and small canals. But in contrast to the brilliant colors I had seen in Lijiang, the dominant colors of Yuanjia were earthy yellow, gray and white. Large flags outside shops bearing the Chinese characters for “noodles,” “fabrics” or “vinegar,” for example, fluttered in the breeze. The mingling aroma of liquor, vinegar and tofu wafted along the main street, making my mouth water.
I entered a fabric store with a group of tourists. Garments and bedding made of hand-woven cloth are sold in the outer room. In the inner room, tourists can pose for photos with old looms and spinning wheels. The neighboring shop sells canvas shoes, including a selection of adorable children’s shoes featuring embroidered animal heads. Further down the street, I came across a woodcut studio. Compared with other stores, this studio had few browsers. It seemed that the owner had been gone for a while and had left some stone templates and uncolored woodcut prints in the studio. I found that most of the works depicted auspicious symbols or scenes from picture-story books. The vivid figures in ancient style evoked memories of illustrations in traditional thread-bound books.
Stepping out of the studio, the smell of liquor drifted over from a bar next door called Old Street. Its homemade shilixiang (literally, a wine whose aroma can be smelled miles away) and nüerhong (daughter wine) drew me in. The interior was simple – a couple of wooden tables and a wooden wheel hanging on the bar counter – in sharp contrast to the more trendy bars that can be found on the new pub street behind.
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