Haotang Village

Haotang lies eighteen kilometres from central Xinyang in Wulidian subdistrict of Pingqiao district, on twenty square kilometres of land with eighteen village groups, 667 households and 2,395 people. The official introduction describes two rivers rising in the hills and meeting on the flat, weaving the village into a rice-field water country, and repeats the phrase north-country Jiangnan, south-country north. The village is known for a stone inscription of a People's Daily page, a village history hall, the gourd workshops of Sancaotang, a wall of local sayings and Banshui Street, where stone painting, leaf carving, paper cutting and shadow puppetry are shown. A district survey counts 78 places to stay with 500 beds and fourteen youth-oriented consumption points.