First Encounter with Chai Xu in Winter

After a boring autumn, I felt completely lazy and dazed, with no motivation and no idea what to do. I thought, let's go out for a drive and change my mood. So I set off in the car without any destination, just driving wherever the road took me. After half an hour, I saw a roadside sign, an antique-looking board that suddenly appealed to me. Alright, I decided to head to the Kou'an Carved Building Scenic Area, feeling inexplicably excited.

So I drove there and soon arrived at the scenic area's parking lot. Unlike other scenic spots, this parking lot was surrounded by green trees, a large eco-friendly parking area. Following the signs, I went to the visitor center, which was simple yet elegant in design and fully functional. After asking some questions, I received warm and patient answers from the staff, which made me feel very comfortable. After buying a ticket, guided by the staff, I came to the main gate of the ancient carved building. The gate itself had an imposing presence, clearly once belonging to a wealthy family. Now as a scenic spot, its facilities complemented it perfectly.

After scanning my ticket and entering, the first thing that caught my eye was an ancient residential house, spacious and bright. In the center of the living room was a screen with a panoramic view of the carved building, extremely exquisite. Continuing forward, there was a small garden. Although it was winter now and the leaves had withered, I could imagine the scene in spring when all the flowers would be in bloom. The ancestral house was a three-bright-two-dark layout, very solemn and dignified. Passing through a door, I saw the north garden of the carved building. A painted boat was anchored on the water, also antique in style. It was said that the second owner of this building was in the shipping business, so he built this painted boat in his own backyard garden.

Then I came to the main attraction, the Carved Building. It was brick and wood structure, ingeniously designed, with grand furnishings. The ceilings and railings inside were all wooden, especially the carvings in the courtyard, which were lifelike and full of profound meaning—the essence of the entire scenic area. Truly breathtaking.

In the west garden of the Carved Building, there was also the Guanlan Pavilion, built on Taihu stones. The pavilion was three stories high. On the second floor, a thousand-year-old ginkgo tree root carving of nine dragons was displayed as an exhibit for visitors—a rare sight indeed.

The Carved Building was surrounded by water on three sides, and the south garden faced the sun with its back to the wind, very small and exquisite. As for the east garden, it was planted with many ancient and famous trees. The entire garden faced east with its back to the west. It was said that the owner at that time specially invited a feng shui master to examine it. One has to admit that people in the past paid great attention to such things.

Later, I also visited three halls north of the bridge, all worth seeing.

This unexpected encounter left a deep impression on me. I plan to come again next spring, when it should be another beautiful sight.