Xidi is one of the loveliest villages in China, and it sits in a green basin in southern Anhui, forty kilometres or so from the Yellow Mountains. The houses are built in the Huizhou style, with white-plastered walls, grey tiled roofs and tall horse-head gables that stand up like steps against the sky, and carved wooden screens and brick doorways show the wealth of the merchants who built them. UNESCO lists Xidi together with nearby Hongcun as two villages that preserve the look of rural China in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The wealth came from trade. Merchants from Huizhou were among the most successful in China, dealing in salt, tea, timber and ink, and they invested their profits in handsome homes back in their home villages, along with schools, ancestral halls and memorial arches. Xidi was largely the home of one family, the Hu, who claimed descent from a Tang dynasty prince, and the village shows how a clan organised itself around ancestry and learning. Streams run through the lanes in stone channels, which provided water for the houses and gave a fire safety system, and in some courtyards a small square of sky is the only roof.
For a rider, southern Anhui is a green and rolling region of bamboo, tea terraces and misty hills. The road up toward the Yellow Mountains twists through forest and past small villages, and in the early morning cloud pools in the valleys, so that the ridges look like islands. The roads are generally good, with tight bends, steep sections and plenty of trucks, and rain is frequent, particularly in early summer. Mist and wet leaves make for slippery surfaces. Tea picking in spring turns the slopes into patterns of green, and the famous Huangshan Maofeng tea comes from this area.
Huangshan city lies thirty-eight kilometres away with services, fuel and hotels, and the village has simple guesthouses where you can eat home cooking, including bamboo shoots, stinky tofu and tea-smoked dishes. Visit early or late, because tour groups crowd the lanes at midday. Foreign riders in China face strict rules about licences and permits, so check before you plan. Autumn is the best season, with crisp air and golden light, and spring brings rain and blossom.