With beautiful scenery, ancient Wuyuan sends visitors back in time

Wuyuan is known for its rare birds and duck habitat. [Photo by Liu Zusan / For China Daily]

Two villages known for their architecture, customs and crafts - Likeng and Wangkou - are candidates for the World Cultural Heritage list.

A leisurely stroll in Wangkou sends a visitor winding through a maze of stone-paved streets, dotted with the heavy wooden gates of old and dark shops. Sometimes the labyrinth leads to a dead end, but another path might lead a walker to a river, where women are washing clothes on the riverbank. Visitors may find that time seems to move more slowly in the village.

After a long walk, a performance by a Nuo dance and opera troupe provides relaxing entertainment. Rooted in totem worship, the 3,000-year-old Nuo religious sacrifice and exorcism ritual maintains an important role in the lives of the local people.

Performers wear painted masks and dance, praying for good harvests, longevity and other blessings. Those lucky enough to meet the Chuantangban, a band of six to eight musicians carrying traditional Chinese musical instruments, such as the surna or erhu, can watch them play for farmers taking a break from the fields.

Other small villages like Shicheng, or stone city, provide photographers with striking images. A stone cliff stands at the entry to the village, like a natural city wall. Hundreds of old maple trees, soaring up to 35 meters in height, tower over the black-and-white houses, making them look like toy bricks.

Souvenirs from a trip to Wuyuan trip are never factory-produced clich��s. Wuyuan is known as the cradle of organic teas, and organic food is readily available, including dried mushrooms and fish.

Oil paper or silk umbrellas, wood sculptures and inkstones also tempt tourists.

Wuyuan also offers a special lure for bird enthusiasts. It implemented a logging ban 10 years ago and the heavily forested county shelters rare and endangered species, including the yellow-throated laughingthrush, which was long thought to be extinct. And Yuanyang Lake is the biggest winter habitat for Mandarin ducks in Asia.