Open all day, Monday to Sunday.

Bus from Xiamen Hubin South Bus Station to Yunshuiyao: 40 RMB per person per ticket.

Yunshuiyao Ancient Town is a time-honored ancient village. Its winding ancient paths, century-old banyan trees, marvelous tulou buildings, and serene green mountains and clear streams together bring visitors a sense of peace and detachment from the mortal world. The Changjiao Scenic Area in Nanjing County boasts two World Cultural Heritage sites — Hegui Building and Huaiyuan Building, the province’s tallest, largest and densest cluster of thousand-year-old banyan trees, a century-old commercial street, and a millennia-old ancient trail.

Along the stream lies a spectacular banyan grove made up of 13 century-old and thousand-year-old trees. The crown of one ancient banyan covers an area of 1,933 square meters, with branches stretching over 30 meters long. Its thick trunk requires more than ten adults linking arms to encircle it, making it the largest banyan tree discovered in Fujian Province to date. Beneath the banyan trees, a cobblestone path worn smooth by centuries of footsteps stretches far into the distance. Historical research confirms this was an essential thoroughfare connecting Tingzhou Prefecture (present-day Longyan City) and Zhangzhou Prefecture (present-day Zhangzhou City). Beside the trail stands a row of two-story traditional brick-and-timber houses forming Changjiao’s centuries-old commercial street. Most of these old shops still retain their original wooden plank walls.

Scattered across the foothills, riverbanks and farmlands are the village’s most eye-catching tulou structures. Construction of these earthen buildings began in the mid-Yuan Dynasty, and 53 of them remain intact to this day. The tulous feature diverse architectural styles. Highlights include Hegui Building, hailed as “the most marvelous structure under heaven” for its construction on marshland, and Huaiyuan Building, an exquisitely crafted and well-preserved double-ring circular tulou. In addition, there are stilt houses, bamboo-frame tulous, mansion-style tulous and more, forming a unique tulou landscape unmatched elsewhere.

Yunshuiyao Ancient Town is also a renowned hometown of overseas Chinese in Zhangzhou. According to The Genealogy of the Jian Clan of Changjiao, clansmen of the Jian family migrated overseas generation after generation from the 4th generation during the Xuande reign of the Ming Dynasty to the 16th generation. They traveled to Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other regions to make a living. Today, over 230,000 Taiwan compatriots trace their ancestral roots to Changjiao. In recent years, more than 150 Taiwanese visitors travel thousands of miles back to the ancient town every year to seek their origins and worship their ancestors.

Yunshuiyao’s stunning natural scenery and distinctive cultural heritage have drawn countless television directors and producers to shoot films and series here. Since 1997, eight films, TV dramas and music videos including Searching for the Distant Homeland and Century of Vicissitudes have been filmed on location here. At the end of 2005, the film The Knot, adapted from the screenplay Search written by Zhang Kehui, Vice Chairman of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Honorary Chairman of the Central Committee of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League, was also shot in this ancient town