We attempted to play 'dumb westerners' and walk past the ticket office, and almost made it, before a guard halted our plans and sent us to pay our Y30 entrance fee, which we actually don't mind paying (even though we're not sure if any of our village entrance fees go to the villages themselves). On our way to find accommodation we passed Zhong Shu Bridge, which is nearly 900 years old, as well as the Wenchang Pavillion (which we returned to visit later in the day, once unburdened from our packs), and a Buddhist temple sandwiched between the river and hills. We spent quite a while wandering through town before finding perfect accommodation right on the riverside - where the family consisting of Grandpa, Grandma, mother and three daughters made up for the fact that we spent the night on a wooden matress with nothing covering it! The baby daughter was dressed in usualy baby clothes - complete with a split between the legs - no need for nappies here, babies just go whereever, whenever!! Just as funny was the pram, which had its own slit hole too!
Dumping our packs we missioned back to the pavillion to do our share of loitering, as this is where scholars loitered during the Northern Song Dynasty to compose poetry! The great thing about this pavillion is that we were allowed to walk up to the top and enjoy the great views from the top.
We continued on along the river, trying the dodge the increasing number of Chinese tourists, walking through the small lanes all lined with chinese lanterns and with tonnes of character. 
This village is different to lots of the other villages we have been to - mainly due to the stone houses, as opposed to the wooden structures in other traditional villages. The focal point of the village is where two rivers meet, marked by the 300 year Tongji bridge and the Shenming Pavillion, both showing their age: the pavillion's wooden seats are now perfectly smooth and rounded after years of use.
We walked past the Li Ruicai former residence, which has elegant stone and wood carvings, unfortunately they have all their heads missing: more victims of the Cultural Revolution. The next residence (Da Fu) we went to was built around 1851 and continued to impress us with its wood and stone carvings, however their positioning in the dark house meant we couldn't take good photos. Continuing on our stroll along the riverbanks and over the many bridges that span them, we came across the Li Zhicheng residence. Li Zhichencg was the number one military scholar from the Southern Song dynasty - his residence is home to the Crape Myrtle tree, which is considered exquisite beyond comparison because of its half trunk!
From here, we made it to Banana Spring - basically a patch of banana trees and a single spring that literally sprung out of a wall. We continued our way through a bamboo forest that led to phenomenal views of the village and back around to the center of town.
On our way back around we passed the Old Village Stage, where Adam did his share of performing:
Across the lane we found a restaurant owned by a darling old couple who us provided with the nourishment we needed to continue our adlibing ways!!After a short kip, we wandered through some pathways attempting to get lost but more just doing circles, untill we found an old stone path that followed the river into the countryside. Here, we wandered through the rice paddies, dodging tiny frogs and lizards and cowering away from scary-looking spiders. We spun around for our return as the light started to fade, and got to watch the sun setting as we made our way back to town.
Weaving our way through the alleyways, we passed the Copper Mansion dating from Qing times, which we had missed earlier - such is the benefit of ambling around: never knowing what you may or may not find. One thing we can always find, is lots and lots and puppies and heaps of riverweed and chillies out drying on the riverbanks!Deciding it was time for dinner, our hosts whisked us away from our residence where we hoped to eat on the balcony overlooking the village, to another house where we quickly became the centre of attention (and the topic of conversation, even though we weren't necessarily participants of the conversation!). Nevertheless we were served a delicious meal of piping hot noodle soup, which we ate as if on show, but not minding so much, as we had in fact been taking in the village as if it and its people were on show all day - time for them to get their own back!
Even at the late hour it was still stinking hot, so Adam was sent on a beer and sprite run (he's got the sprite and beer ordering down to perfection now) for us to enjoy while spending the night playing cards.
Adlibing it amongst the stone village.
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