A stunning record of the first stop on a journey with my child

After descending from Mount Huang, we drove to the Huangshan North High-Speed Train Station, passing by a large river that I took a liking to. Checking the map, I noticed a scenic area nearby called Xixi South, so I decided to stay there for a while. Xixi South is not like Xidi and Hongcun, which require admission tickets; it is a small village by the water without crowds of old buildings. The occasional old building is hidden among the ordinary homes and their vegetable gardens, tucked away in a quiet corner by the stream. I had always wanted to live in an old house in southern Anhui because my hometown also has such wooden buildings with courtyards. The design of the courtyards and flowing water is given great consideration in these old structures. I stayed in an old house with a history of over 200 years, where the scent of wood mixed with a faint fragrance of flowers. The spacious hall and the courtyard's sun allowed me to idle away the time. I also liked sitting on the threshold, just like when I was a child, holding a bowl of rice and listening to incomprehensible family chatter. The inn has a large kitchen, and I love the sunlight that fills the room in the morning. It's a very short walk from the inn to the creek's stone bridge, just one or two minutes, and my child insists on going on an adventure to cross the stone bridge every day. She has never fallen off. There, she met a little boy and they adventured together in the creek like wild children, which is exactly the kind of experience with nature I wanted her to have. Nearby, you can go to the old street to eat a bowl of small wonton soup for 8 yuan and sweet fermented rice. Coming back from Tangmo Ancient Town through the fields, you can pick some flowers to put in the room. The best food here is made by Sister Zhang at the inn, better than any other place outside. Avoid the pitfall of Yuqingzhai; their taro rib tofu soup with pepper powder is not to my taste. On the roadside outside, there's a place called Huimei Building, where the owner is honest and recommended us two dishes for just over 50 yuan, which is very conscientious. At another restaurant, they said we could take leftovers home but it wasn't tasty, too sweet and greasy. The food here is generally very oily, as they use rapeseed oil.