We’re in Zhuchuan (株川村), a small yet one of the most intact old villages we’ve ever visited in Zhejiang. The village is three hundred years old, and is really not much more than six ever-expanding rows of houses, set like an auditorium.  But everything fits so perfectly together. Many houses can be entered from the front as well as the back, and are connected by stairs and alleys, with water streaming downhill in many places. And there’s slate everywhere; on some of the stairs, on some of the walls, but on all of the roofs.

You could come back here in five years, and by then it’ll be either completely decayed or turned into a tourist attraction with modern hotels and places to get an americano. In either case, I’m happy we were here today.