Xiwan Village in the Qikou Complex

Xiwan is a village of Qikou town, in Linxian, Lüliang, in the Yellow River country of western Shanxi. The administrative chain is short and exact, village, town, county, prefecture, and it matters because every listing the village holds is granted through that chain. Qikou governs a community and several dozen villages, from Gaojiaping and Gaojiashan to Lijia Shan and Heishuigou, and Xiwan is one of them. Two of those villages, Xiwan and Lijia Shan, are counted as traditional villages, which places them in a small group within the town rather than making the whole town historic. The village's written record begins with those national lists, not with a founding date.

The village's public record is two dates. On 8 October 2003 it was announced in the first batch of Chinese historical and cultural villages, a national list that names villages rather than single buildings. On 17 December 2012 it entered the first batch of Chinese traditional villages, a second national list with a different purpose: the first recognises historic value, the second recognises a settlement whose fabric is still in use. Appearing in the first batch of both is the whole of what the record states about the village's standing. It does not say why Xiwan was chosen, which buildings were counted, or what the place looked like when either list was drawn up.

Xiwan also appears in a third listing that is not its own. When the Qikou ancient building complex entered the sixth batch of national key cultural relic protection units in 2006, the dwellings it covered were described as preserved in seven places: Qikou town itself, Xiwan, Gaojiaping, Zijishan, Yuanshang, Zhaizishan and Lijia Shan. The complex's structures are described as running from earth and timber to brick and stone to cave dwellings. The village is therefore protected in two frames at once, as a named historic village and as part of a port's building group, and the two frames do different work: one protects a community, the other a fabric.