Anhui China Huizhou Culture Museum (安徽中国徽州文化博物馆) & Unofficial "Shopping Stop" @ Huangshan in China

Visiting the museums is part and parcel of any tour packages and it's no exception for our 8-day tour to Huangshan in China; bringing us to the Anhui China Huizhou Culture Museum.

Huizhou culture is a very interesting topic; as the name Huizhou suggests, it's a state yet not officially a state in China, given that it's straddled between three different provinces, Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang! 

Primarily situated in the Anhui province, across six counties, the Huizhou culture was most prominent during the Ming and Qing dynasties, even though I was totally ignorant of what it was before my visit. 

The one playing the most important role in promoting this Huizhou culture would be the hui merchants, said to be the "most powerful and important business group during the Ming and Qing dynasties. This was totally new to me as I had assumed the Jiangnan area would be the key commercial district, especially during the Qing dynasty.

Thing about Huizhou people was more on their tenacity as the areas they were residing were known to be hilly, with insufficient food yet with a large population; hence, many would venture out and do business. 

This resulted in many men leaving their hometowns and families behind, so that they could carve a living for their loved ones back home. The above teary scene scene was also included in the Cultural Show for the Huizhou Culture that we caught the day before. 

Scenes of the businesses managed by the Hui merchants; according to the information plaques, their family background was often poor but given their tenacity, many eventually elevated in wealthy merchants. Major trade include the tea, lumber and the monopoly of salt. 

Women played an extremely important role in the Huizhou culture as many would stay back in their hometowns when the husbands would venture out to do trade for a long period of time. Said to be special among ancient Chinese women, Huizhou women were known to "have all good Chinese traditions, mild and competent, delicate appearance with a strong mind". 

There's a standard display of furniture for the main hall of a typical Huizhou house. Man would always sit on the right, and the placement of mirror, clock and vases have symbolic meanings; like mirror for calm and composed (心平气和), clock for lifelong peace (终身平安) and vase for safe and sound (平平安安).

Huizhou was also known for producing academic scholars in ancient China; one particular county, Xiuning, is even known as the zhuangyuan (ranked number one amongst the scholars who passed the imperial exams held every 3 years) county as 19 came from that county between 1217 and 1880; the most in the country. 

I thought we were done with the museum visit but no; we were brought to another area outside the main building, apparently for a better understanding of Huizhou intangible cultural heritage.

My eyes were drawn to this waterway with overgrown bushes filled with yellow flowers. 

The building but instead of going through the main door, we entered via the side door. It also didn't escape my eyes that most visitors at the main building didn't follow us, and that to me, would be fishy.

After a short introduction on Huizhou intangible cultural heritage, including some famous individuals known for their skills in making wooden statues from sandalwood, and ink slabs; we were brought to a section where we can buy them. I was like; wait, didn't I sign up for non shopping stop?! To be fair, absolutely no pressure for us to buy, but it's still a waste of my precious time. 

p.s. didn't take photographs as we weren't allowed to. Oh well, best way for us not to take evidence and complain to CTC Travel about it. Should I still file a complaint then since I was explicit when I signed up, no such commissioned based shopping stop! 

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Click HERE for our 8 Days Huangshan, Tunxi, Yixian, Wuyuan, Mount Qiyun, Thousand-Island Lake, Hangzhou Tour Package to China via CTC Travel Agency