Xujia Mountain Village is a natural village belonging to Xu Min Administrative Village in Chayuan Township, which also includes four other natural villages (Minhu Tian, Xujia, Yichangping, and Xiaoan). It is located in the eastern part of Ninghai County and the western part of Chayuan Township, 13.5 kilometers away from the county town, with an average altitude of about 200 meters. The village has 277 households with a total population of 720 people. Most of the labor force in the village works outside, with approximately 220 people living in the village on a regular basis. The village covers an area of 4718 acres, with existing arable land of 821 acres and forest land of 3008 acres. According to the village records, descendants of Ye Mengding from the Southern Song Dynasty, Ye Daqing and his sons, settled here to escape chaos from Dongcang, marking a history of over 700 years.
Xujia Mountain Village is situated on a mountain top, surrounded by mountains with well-preserved vegetation, lush grass and trees, towering ancient maples, elegant green bamboos, quiet stone scenery, and curling cooking smoke. Entering Xujia Mountain Village feels like stepping into an idyllic paradise. The village is characterized by its primitive and wild beauty, with very few houses built with modern materials like reinforced concrete. The vast majority of the houses are stone houses, with walls made of black basalt (locally known as ‘copper slate’). Xujia Mountain Village is a large-scale, well-preserved ancient stone village within Ningbo City and serves as a model for the stone house architecture clusters in the eastern Zhejiang coastal mountainous areas, earning the title ‘Kingdom of Stones’.
The village not only preserves a complete set of stone houses, stone courtyards, stone walls, stone alleys, stone bridges, stone roads, and stone benches, but also continues traditional ways of life, such as ox plowing, making sweet potato powder, brewing sweet potato liquor, pounding rice cakes, and bamboo weaving. The tourism resources of Xujia Mountain Village are divided into four major blocks: the ancient stone village, plateau scenery, geological park, and agricultural inheritance. The entire text is open all year round and accessible 24/7.
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