Location：Jinting Town, Wuzhong District, Suzhou
History: the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
Population: 3101
Village introduction:
The name of Moonlit Bay Village is derived from a historical story dating back to some 2500 years ago in the Spring and Autumn Period (771-465 BC), when King Fuchai of Wu visited here with the beauty, Si Shi, to enjoy the bright full moon. The village has rich cultural heritage, including a thousand-meter long slabstone lane, an age-old camphor tree and many places of Ming and Qing Dynasty architectures represented by the Huang’s Ancestral Hall, the Dunlun Hall, the Lihe Hall, the Yugeng Hall, the Deng’s Ancestral Hall and the Moonlit Temple. The numerous historic sites in the village are vivid reflection of the long-standing agricultural civilization in south of the Yangtze River.
The ancient Moonlit Bay Village, with an existing area of approximately nine hectares, sits in a depression in a mountain range. It has two main streets parallel with each other, both running from west to east. The further the streets extend, the higher they are above the level. The north street, about 260 meters in length, extends longer than the 160-meter south street. The east end of the street is connected to a winding mountain road passing through an orchard that leads to the Moonlit Temple. Two north-south lanes run across the main streets all the way to the mountainside, forming a double crisscross layout. Thus, the street is also known as a “chessboard-pattern street” in the local.
During the Qianlong Reign of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1735-1799), Moonlit Bay Village enjoyed a period of great prosperity. A large number of grand mansions were constructed, along with various communal facilities such as ancestral halls, slabstone lanes, wharfs and jetties. The perfect village layout retains so until today and has attracted lots of attention with its distinctive and best preserved ancient village landscape. Structures of all sorts, tall and low, are neatly built along the streets, giving a pleasant look. Many ancient buildings of distinctive features are preserved, which have constituted the most important elements of the long-standing village. In the north street are the Huang’s Ancestral Hall, the Dunlun Hall, the Ligeng Hall, the Ningde Hall, the Zhu’s Ancestral Hall, the Lihe Hall, the Xue’s Hall and the Wu’s Ancestral Hall; while in the south street are the Hansan House, the Yugeng Hall, the Zhanrui Hall, the Zhanlu Hall and the Moonlit Temple. The ancient buildings and streets in Moonlit Bay Village are considered second to none on Xishan Island, as reflected in a folk song, “flowery walls, chessboard patterns, front and back of houses packed with slabstones, on Xishan Island and around Dongting Lake the village being the most representative”.
