Location：Jinting Town, Wuzhong District
History: before the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271-1368)
Population: 560
Village introduction:
Dong Village is an ancient village located in the north of Xishan Island, covering an area of some seven hectares. It has its origins in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty, and derives its name from Dong Yuan Gong, one of the “Four White-haired Hermits of Shang Mountain”, who once lived a secluded life here. Known as Dongyuan Village in ancient times, Dong Village boasts a history of over 2000 years. Backing on to a mountain and facing a lake, the road-crisscrossed village still retains its ancient look featuring lane gates and residential buildings.
In the early Southern Song Dynasty, a large-scale aristocrats in the north retreated to the south of the Yangzte River following the Song court, many of whom made their homes at Xishan Island, bringing an unprecedented prosperity to Xishan Island and leaving Xishan with rich cultural heritage. The Xu clan living in Dong Village is the descendant of a Souhthern Song aristocrat. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a group of residents had left Xishan for business due to its limited lands and dense population. These people not only established business in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai, but also travelled to as far as Hunan and Hubei provinces for trades. Most of them obtained wealth by business, thus being dubbed “the most shrewd and adventurous merchant groups from Dongting” along with the merchants in Dongshan. Owing to their great wealth, massive grand and exquisite mansions sprung up in Xishan during Ming and Qing Period (AD 1368-1911). Many villages and market towns emerged with comprehensive facilities in well-arranged manner. Xishan reached its heyday during the reigns of Qianglong, Jiaqing and Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (AD1735-1850).
The main street, Dongcun Street stretches 800 meters through the village from east to west, connected with dozens of lanes on both sides, presenting a pattern of “丰” in Chinese characters. On the side of the stone-paved street is an open drainage ditch. The ancient buildings on the street are predominantly from the Qianlong and Jianqing Period of the Qing Dynasty (AD1735-1820). There are over 30 Ming and Qing Dynasties structures in the village with a floorage of 25,000 square meters, among them the Jinxiu Hall and the Qixian Lane Gate are listed as the Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the Provincial Level, the Xu’s Ancestral Hall and the Cuixiu Hall are selected as the Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the Level of a City, and the Xuepu Hall, the Shaoyi Hall, the Dunhe Hall, the Xiaoyou Hall, the Ningcui Hall and the Weishan Hall are selected as Suzhou municipally controlled and protected sites. Other well-preserved ancient structures include the Fangzhu Hall, the Shengxi Hall, the Ruimu Hall, the Rengyu Hall, the Liugeng Hall, the Rengde Hall, the Langrun Hall, the Yongtai Hall, the Yansheng Hall and Dongyuangong Temple, to name a few.
Most of the existing ancient structures are residential buildings with a typical layout characterized by placing the screen wall, the entrance hall, the hall and the balcony alongside the central axis. The houses facing the south are arranged slightly to the east of the axis, presenting a shape of a carpenter's square. Carved embellishments, as reflected in an assortment of wooden carvings, stone carvings and brick carvings, are highlights of these structures. Mansions of the high-ranking officials or scholar-gentlemen are usually decorated with Suzhou-style colored paintings.
