Location: Dongshan Town, Wuzhong District, Suzhou
History: before the Yuan Dynasty (AD1271-1368)
Population：1710
Luxiang Village is located in the west of Dongshan Town, Wuzhong District, Suzhou. It is a beautiful ancient village lying in the end range of Tianmu Mountain, facing Tai Lake. The lakeside mountain village took shape in the South Song Period, when the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze, bringing a number of generals to settle down here. Since then, the village has gradually thrived. During the period from the mid Ming Dynasty to the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty, it enjoyed great prosperity by producing a Number One Scholar, a third-place winner and eleven successful candidates in the highest imperial examination as well as forty qualified graduates who passed the triennial provincial examinations. It is also the hometown of three academicians of the Chinese Academy of Science and some one hundred professors in both modern and contemporary age. The remarkable academic achievements in the past and emerging prominent figures have made Luxiang Village a historic cultural village.
The village retains until today a Ming Dynasty village layout featuring a street (Purple Stone Street), six lanes (Wenning Lane, Kangzhuang Lane, the Han’s Lane, Flagpole Lane and Guxi Lane) and three ports (Hanshan Port, Luxiang Port and Jiangwan Port). There used to be 72 halls dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It currently preserves 29 structures spanning from the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China with a floorage of 8,908 square meters, among which 20 sites were built in the Ming Dynasty and the rest 9 sites in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. These structures come in different types, covering ancestral halls, memorial gateways, inns, mansions, residential buildings and communal firefighting facilities. The wharfs in the three ports are still well preserved to this day.
