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Get back to nature at 'farmer house' lodges in refreshing mountain paradise
By Xu Wenwen |
July 22, 2013, Monday
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JIA Shaojie and Wang Xuanpeng start their day by making breakfast and tea for their guests, then the couple gather leaves and fruits in mountains, use those to dye clothes, write calligraphy and harvest their crops.
They wear clothes they dye, eat vegetables they raise and run a hotel they built. They live in Moganshan, a mountain district in Deqing County a half-hour road trip west of Hangzhou, where they run the Placidmogan Retreat.
Moganshan is a summer retreat renowned for its lofty bamboo, cool summertime air and enjoyable view. The dozens of hotels that dot Moganshan are often called "fancy farmer houses" by locals.
That's a nicer version of the "happy farmer house," or nong jia le in Chinese, which are simple hotels in scenic suburban districts usually run by Chinese farmers.
The fancy farmer houses are a product of Deqing County's countryside tourism economy. They are situated in rustic areas, but with high-quality decor and service. Unlike fancy hotels, they provide a close-to-nature organic lifestyle and a cozy home-like atmosphere.
"We designed the retreat as our home, and treat all customers as personal guests," says the husband, Jia, who used to be an architect in Shanghai. They don't have a check-in counter.
The hotel has 10 rooms set on a farm, and the couple grow vegetables organically - no fertilizer, no pesticide, not even irrigation. Guests are encouraged to harvest vegetables themselves.
Many guests have been so attracted to Moganshan and that they have decided to settle down in the mountain area and make a living running their own hotels.
Many of the first hotel entrepreneurs were foreignersw who have been transforming the rural villages into countryside retreats for city dwellers.
One called the Naked Retreat, run by South African Grand Horsfield, helped start the trend. Naked Retreat renovated farmhouses with ecologically friendly amenities using local materials, offering a taste of Chinese village life.
This new leisure experience has inspired many other local hotel owners to embrace the countryside, and today almost 50 fancy farmer houses have been established in the mountain, catering to thousands of tourists every year.
The back-to-nature feel is unmistakable. At Naked Retreat, a bamboo ladder is used as towel rack, a stone feed crib has been made into a basin, and horseback riding and yoga are offered as activities.
Placidmogan Retreat offers a gift box including a bamboo fiber towel, local tea and local dried bamboo shoots, wrapped in a cloth bag the couple dyed themselves.
At Shui Yin Resort, newly opened by a local businesswoman, wood has been kept as the primary building material. The building is an old wooden house that has been renovated while maintaining the character of the original structure: the old wood pillars and ceiling can still be seen.
Also, new construction is of the same material, from the wood-base desk lamp and wood shelves to the wood floor and a tea table madefrom a huge stump.
What to eat
For foodies, the mountain offers a yearly harvest of Huangya tea, a yellow-hued tea which has been lightly fermented, and a biannual harvest of bamboo sprouts, adding to the countryside delicacies.
Where to play
Hike the mountain and discover the streams, springs, waterfalls.
The Moganshan Valley Drifting, or whitewater rafting, is recommended in the summer. There is a 2.3 kilometer rafting course that takes around an hour and a half to cover.
Where to stay
Happy farmer houses and fancy farmer houses can be found in the scenic. The former offers cheap and simple accommodations, priced around 100 yuan (US$16.29) per night; and prices of the latter range from 500 yuan to 2,000 yuan.
How to go
By train: Take high-speed railway to Deqing Train Station, and then take a taxi to Moganshan for 50 yuan to 60 yuan.
By car from Shanghai: A9 Expressway - Shensuzhewan Expressway - Moushan Tunnel - Hangning Expressway - Deqing Exit - Moganshan
Moganshan history
Moganshan has traditionally been the most popular hiking area in West Deqing's mountains.
Walking up a mountain road, visitors are greeted with verdant bamboo forests, lakes and springs running down the hills.
The latest expats discovering Moganshan are following in the footsteps of others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who built more than 200 villas in the mountains. The first was built by a British merchant in the late 1800s, followed by foreign missionaries who built a village of villas as their summer retreat.
Two American missionaries who loved hiking found Moganshan and described it as a heavenly place in an article published in several English-language newspapers and journals, which gained the suburb place a considerable fame.
Around the turn of the century, more than 400 expats were living at least part time in Moganshan, most of them from Shanghai, who took the train from Shanghai to Hangzhou and then a boat from Hangzhou to Moganshan.
Then, in the 1930s, officials and wealthy businessmen built some 90 villas.
The villas are steeped in legend. Chiang Kai-shek, former leader of the then Kuomingtang government, spent his honeymoon with his wife Soong Mei-ling at his villa in Moganshan.
Today the mansion is a tourist site where the furniture and decor remain the same when Chiang spent his honeymoon there.
They wear clothes they dye, eat vegetables they raise and run a hotel they built. They live in Moganshan, a mountain district in Deqing County a half-hour road trip west of Hangzhou, where they run the Placidmogan Retreat.
Moganshan is a summer retreat renowned for its lofty bamboo, cool summertime air and enjoyable view. The dozens of hotels that dot Moganshan are often called "fancy farmer houses" by locals.
That's a nicer version of the "happy farmer house," or nong jia le in Chinese, which are simple hotels in scenic suburban districts usually run by Chinese farmers.
The fancy farmer houses are a product of Deqing County's countryside tourism economy. They are situated in rustic areas, but with high-quality decor and service. Unlike fancy hotels, they provide a close-to-nature organic lifestyle and a cozy home-like atmosphere.
"We designed the retreat as our home, and treat all customers as personal guests," says the husband, Jia, who used to be an architect in Shanghai. They don't have a check-in counter.
The hotel has 10 rooms set on a farm, and the couple grow vegetables organically - no fertilizer, no pesticide, not even irrigation. Guests are encouraged to harvest vegetables themselves.
Many guests have been so attracted to Moganshan and that they have decided to settle down in the mountain area and make a living running their own hotels.
Many of the first hotel entrepreneurs were foreignersw who have been transforming the rural villages into countryside retreats for city dwellers.
One called the Naked Retreat, run by South African Grand Horsfield, helped start the trend. Naked Retreat renovated farmhouses with ecologically friendly amenities using local materials, offering a taste of Chinese village life.
This new leisure experience has inspired many other local hotel owners to embrace the countryside, and today almost 50 fancy farmer houses have been established in the mountain, catering to thousands of tourists every year.
The back-to-nature feel is unmistakable. At Naked Retreat, a bamboo ladder is used as towel rack, a stone feed crib has been made into a basin, and horseback riding and yoga are offered as activities.
Placidmogan Retreat offers a gift box including a bamboo fiber towel, local tea and local dried bamboo shoots, wrapped in a cloth bag the couple dyed themselves.
At Shui Yin Resort, newly opened by a local businesswoman, wood has been kept as the primary building material. The building is an old wooden house that has been renovated while maintaining the character of the original structure: the old wood pillars and ceiling can still be seen.
Also, new construction is of the same material, from the wood-base desk lamp and wood shelves to the wood floor and a tea table madefrom a huge stump.
What to eat
For foodies, the mountain offers a yearly harvest of Huangya tea, a yellow-hued tea which has been lightly fermented, and a biannual harvest of bamboo sprouts, adding to the countryside delicacies.
Where to play
Hike the mountain and discover the streams, springs, waterfalls.
The Moganshan Valley Drifting, or whitewater rafting, is recommended in the summer. There is a 2.3 kilometer rafting course that takes around an hour and a half to cover.
Where to stay
Happy farmer houses and fancy farmer houses can be found in the scenic. The former offers cheap and simple accommodations, priced around 100 yuan (US$16.29) per night; and prices of the latter range from 500 yuan to 2,000 yuan.
How to go
By train: Take high-speed railway to Deqing Train Station, and then take a taxi to Moganshan for 50 yuan to 60 yuan.
By car from Shanghai: A9 Expressway - Shensuzhewan Expressway - Moushan Tunnel - Hangning Expressway - Deqing Exit - Moganshan
Moganshan history
Moganshan has traditionally been the most popular hiking area in West Deqing's mountains.
Walking up a mountain road, visitors are greeted with verdant bamboo forests, lakes and springs running down the hills.
The latest expats discovering Moganshan are following in the footsteps of others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who built more than 200 villas in the mountains. The first was built by a British merchant in the late 1800s, followed by foreign missionaries who built a village of villas as their summer retreat.
Two American missionaries who loved hiking found Moganshan and described it as a heavenly place in an article published in several English-language newspapers and journals, which gained the suburb place a considerable fame.
Around the turn of the century, more than 400 expats were living at least part time in Moganshan, most of them from Shanghai, who took the train from Shanghai to Hangzhou and then a boat from Hangzhou to Moganshan.
Then, in the 1930s, officials and wealthy businessmen built some 90 villas.
The villas are steeped in legend. Chiang Kai-shek, former leader of the then Kuomingtang government, spent his honeymoon with his wife Soong Mei-ling at his villa in Moganshan.
Today the mansion is a tourist site where the furniture and decor remain the same when Chiang spent his honeymoon there.
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