A visitor takes a photo of a house at Chengzi Ancient Village, Yongning township, Luxi County, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan. The village is focusing tourists’ attention upon Tuzhang Houses, traditional dwellings of Yi people with a history of over several hundred years.
Located in Yongning Township, Luxi County, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, Chengzi Ancient Village is focusing tourists’ attention upon Tuzhang Houses, traditional dwellings of Yi people with a history of over several hundred years.
In autumn, sceneries are extraordinarily attractive. You can see aged farmers harvesting in the fields, girls of Yi ethnic group herding on the hills, golden corns and red hot pepper hanging under eaves, which has painted a joyous picture. Fronting water and backing hills, the khaki buildings shine under the sun rays, opposite to the green valley and blue sky.
The dwellings' most distinguishing feature is that the roof of a house is the courtyard of the upper neighbor. Layer upon layer, the roofs extend to the peak of a mountain, and some are even as high as seventeen floors. It looks like a long ladder as well as a honeycomb.
Some buildings in Chengzi Ancient Village have combined Yi and Han styles together. The appearances are featured with Yi people’s constructional style while the inner decoration is characterized by Han cultural designs. These houses that are made of clay are called "Tuzhang Houses" in Ailao Mountain Area. They are connected and built in blocks. No matter a room is built with one floor or two floors; you can see a scuttle every six meters in a courtyard, aiming at ventilating and lighting. The houses are made from water-proof tree trunks. The roofs are paved with spitted firewood, sticks, pine needles and clay. All the materials are beat to a flat roof by sticks. Though the village is located in the gorge area with low altitude, people feel warm in winter and cool in summer while living in the houses. Another advantage of the house is fireproofing, there is not record for the fire on the house for a few hundred years. In addition, the design is land-saving. You can hardly image that more than 400 households live on the land covering an area of 60 mu.
Travel tips：
Transportation:Luxi County is 170 km from Kunming. You can take a bus to Luxi and transfer to Yongning Town which is 20 km from the downtown of Luxi. Chengzi Ancient Village is just 2 km away from the town seat.
Photo shows the fabulous sceneries in Chengzi Ancient Village which is well-known for traditional dwellings of Yi People.
