Traditional fish lanterns 鱼灯 from Anhui province, East China. 🎏
Villagers in Anhui have a tradition of making fish-shaped lanterns to pray for harvest and good fortune (In Chinese culture, fish symbolize prosperity, abundance, good fortune, wealth, and long life) and parade with them cheerfully around the Lantern Festival元宵节, which falls on the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese calendar.
A traditional house in Huizhou, Anhui, East China.
The Huizhou region was historically known for wealthy merchants who would travel across different regions to sell their goods.
These merchants would later return to their hometown and built houses, temples, schools, palaces, gardens, etc. which became known as 徽派建筑 “Hui-style architecture”.
The architecture style shown here is called 徽派建筑 (Hui-style architecture) The word Hui refers to the prefecture of Huizhou in Anhui Province. For centuries the commodity business was mainly dominated by the Huizhou merchants, which made them become peak famous through the country.
After they became rich, they would go back to Anhui to show off their fortunes and glorify their family name by purchasing lands, and building residential houses, gardens, colleges, temples, and memorials. All these architectures shared a specific local style. Residential buildings in Huizhou attach importance to feng shui and yin-yang philosophies.
✏️Huizhou architecture is one of the most important schools of traditional Chinese architecture. Huizhou architecture mainly takes a wooden structure and adopts bricks, wood and stones as raw materials. Its basic colors are white, black, and gray. The broad application of brick carving, wood carving and stone carving has showed its high-level decorative art.
Residential house is the most representative of Huizhou architecture. Over hundreds of years, it has grown into a cultural icon of Huizhou. The white wall & black tile, dynamic horse-head wall, symbolic patio, fancy arches and carvings all tell the visitors that this is a Huizhou residential house.
✏️There are many traditional folk or official handicrafts in China, which not only represent the wisdom of traditional folk craftsmen, but also the material carrier of Chinese culture inheritance.
👉The Qingyang sachet, a time-honored cultural craft in Northwest China‘s Gansu province. Qingyang sachets symbolize blessing, auspiciousness, happiness, safety, peace, and avoidance of evil, disaster, illnesses, and misfortune. Many sachets are also filled with cinnabar, calamus, wormwood, and chrysanthemum, and they are commonly used as air fresheners, insect repellent, and protection against evil spirits.
👉Fish-shaped lanterns in Wangmantian village, Xitou township, Shexian county, Huangshan city of Anhui, boast a history of over 600 years and are a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage. The lanterns are made of paper and bamboo.
Wen Yu Tang, a boutique hotel at the foot of Mount Huangshan, was converted from 2 old buildings dating back to the Wanli period of the Ming dynasty, estimated at 400-450 years old.
