The old houses in Xidi and Hongcun villages, in Yixian County in the south of Anhui Province, were included in Unesco's World Cultural Heritage list in November 2000.

These houses provide valuable materials for the study of the history of Chinese civilian residential housing, living environment, architecture, local history and customs. Viewed from above, the two villages look like a black buffalo reclining by the stream at the foot of the hills. The pond between them is called the "stomach of the buffalo," in which the water neither overflows nor runs dry.