Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains – an ancient scroll and a modern film – inspired this photo essay from China’s Zhejiang Province. And my dream to get as far away from the megacities as possible came true.
November 2025
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A uniquely inspiring movie that led me to an unforgettable place
Over the past forty years, I have managed to visit a number of China’s multi-million cities, but I have only sometimes passed through villages or seen some in the distance from a bus or train window.
I had decided that this time would be different. I would try to get as far away from the megacities as I could and get an impression, albeit superficial, of life in a tiny village.
But how to find one and where? Well, here is how I found Shen’ao with about 1500 inhabitants. I travelled out of Copenhagen, 12 hours over Russia, on China Air to Shanghai. Usually, I do not watch movies, but I have lots to write or read, or I sleep because I’ve usually had too little sleep in the days leading up to a longer trip. And I avoid the Hollywood-like films.
In the selection of Chinese movies, my eyes fell upon a title, “Dwelling In the Fuchun Mountains,” (2019) and a soft, dream-like picture from the film. I ended up seeing it – 2,5 hours – with no subtitles, but I was mesmerised by the characters and the incredibly beautiful soft-coloured photographic shots. Here is an enthusiastic review of this movie, which has quite a number of unique features, including the fact that it is Gu Xiaogang’s directorial debut, that he has no formal film training, and that he started the production by taking a personal loan. It is the first of three, took years to produce and was given a high-profile bow at Cannes, where it closed the Critics’ Week.
I asked several people in Shanghai about the film and the Fuchun River, but no one was able to tell me anything about it, which made me even more curious…
It struck me there and then that this was the kind of place I would love to go to, also to take photos with my new Chinese Xiaomi 14 Ultra camera (and phone), featuring four Leica lenses and capabilities that, in my view, beat the DSLRs I have used and weighs only a fraction of what they do.
Well into my two conferences in Shanghai and thinking about where to go after them, I asked the Windows AI CoPilot and China’s DeepSeek to tell me everything about the movie, the Fuchun River and surroundings. It was a fascinating story about a famous piece of Chinese art and a fine movie – to be told below.
I simply asked the AI to help me find a tiny village where I could feel the atmosphere I had sensed while watching the movie. (See, this is what you cannot ask a search engine to do). There was a lot of back-and-forth – wrong information too; it wasn’t as straightforward as one might believe. And then, how to get there and find a place to stay? I had understood that there was no point in going to where the movie had been shot, because sequences were shot at many places.
Long story short. With the AI help, I decided to go to mystical-magical-ancient Shen’ao, which was one of three villages within walking distance of each other. It’s about 65 km southwest of the famous and poetic West Lake of Hangzhou, the fascinating capital city of the province of Zhejiang. I bought a ticket for the morning train since I had not been able to book a place to stay and needed to find one before it would get dark.
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I took the metro from People’s Square in Shanghai to its gigantic Hongqiao Railway Station and got on the train to Tonglu and then took a taxi all the way to the stone gate of Shen’ao – which, strangely, the driver had problems finding.
CoPilot had suggested the Yunxi Shenaoli Homestay, but I had no idea where it was and no reservation. Walking around the lake (see above), I met an old lady, who smiled welcomingly with her one tooth, and I took the chance to show her the name of that hotel in Chinese. She resolutely started walking the cobble-stoned narrow streets, one after the other, and guided me to – well, another hotel. A younger man understood the problem, took my small suitcase, guided me to his two-seater scooter and drove me further into this labyrinth-like place to the right place – here:
In contrast to the rest of the town, it was – as you see – a modern, minimalist, box-like, white-painted stone building. A woman and a man came out and asked me in Chinese whether I had a reservation. Oh, I thought, this is it, it is fully booked, but it wasn’t – not at all. They welcomed me into the reception hall, photographed my passport, told me the price with breakfast was 780 RMB, or about 100 USD, and showed me to a very modern room (with outdated WiFi my Asus PC couldn’t connect to, but so what?).
This modern building delightfully contrasted the rest of the complex, which was centuries old, everything – floors, chairs, tables, walls and ceilings – was solid, beautiful timber. This was not only a hotel; it was several museums in one.
The interior was not one but several art pieces in and of themselves:
Here I was – and the only guest at. Over four days, I did not see a single foreigner in the village or anywhere I went outside.
I had found what I wanted, and that included also this requirement to AI: Find me a village with ample photo opportunities and a lot of local culture and history. AI indeed delivered!
No wonder that this amasing piece of architecture, boldly combining ancient beauty and contemporary minimalism, had made a cover story about a decade ago. The Urban Environment Design magazine calls it a library, a bookstore and a multi-purpose community space. But today, it seems to have lost most of the social community functions it once had.
It is merely a unique hotel, but indeed still a “soul salon”…
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Taking a stroll through history
From AI, I had learned that this was the place to photograph the sunrise over the famous Fuchun River, best around 5:30 at this time of the year. The place was also, again according to AI, famous for the mist that would appear over the river, like I had seen it in the movie.
I therefore asked the two very kind and helpful people at reception whether they could get me a taxi at that time the next morning. No need, they both said, one of us will drive you down to the river! But we are not sure you will see the sun or the mist – they added as if to help me not get disappointed. But they were willing to give it a try.
You run into so many helpful, kind people when you travel in China, but this was undoubtedly an extraordinary gesture.
The man had fetched his car early and was waiting outside in the narrow pedestrian street. While it was still pitch dark, we walked along the river, and – truth be told – the scenery was as cold, cloudy and uninspiring as could be. We smiled at each other and drove back to the hotel, where she had my breakfast ready – served with an incredibly good cappuccino, although she herself never drank coffee.
And we did not go the river the following two mornings either; they had carefully checked the local weather forecast.
It was time to venture out in the village, but before we do, let me explain why the Fuchun River and the mountains along it have a special place in Chinese art, dating almost 700 years back in time.
Huang Gongwang (黃公望, 1269–1354) worked on a painting “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains” on and off when the mood struck him from about 1347 to 1350, when the major portions of this handscroll were completed. This representation of the Fuchun Mountains was painted for a fellow Daoist, Master Wuyong (無用師), and is Huang’s greatest surviving masterpiece, now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Here is a fascinating description of it and its dramatic history. And Wikipedia has more about this scroll, which is actually almost 7 metres long.
Many very touristy sites give you an impression of the ancient village of Shen’ao, but this one from ChinaWiki offers a lot of information and insights, including the Chinese rural economy and development. Here is Trip.com with some background information and visitors who share their impressions and photos. Shen’ao has only about 1500-2000 inhabitants, and while it is a scenic spot and does attract mainly Chinese visitors in the summertime, I was very happy to explore it on my own during those four grey October days.
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First, some street photography, or rather, alleys and lanes photography. You’ll see several different colour tones because, as I said, I was testing the Xiaomi 14 Ultra camera phone with its seemingly limitless settings and filters – but with that Leica Authentic touch. Please click on each to enlarge…
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Next, the ancient dwellings, the timber and stone buildings, the latter with their characteristic decorative roof shapes that you’ll frequently see when you walk Shenao’s narrow alleys and lanes. And it is just to walk in, there is often English information. And if not, it is sometimes a private home and not an open museum space. However, nobody takes note, and some appreciate your interest. Again, please click to enlarge:
And, believe it or not, I suddenly pass by the Good Time Photo Studio. Apart from Marrakesh, perhaps, it isn’t easy to find a more beautiful setting for photographs. However, there were no one to talk with, but I tried to catch the atmosphere:
Notice the two different versions I shot of the collage photo of the couple at Tiananmen Square with Mao Zedong in the background between them. Note also the grass and the chicken in the foreground. It caught my attention because, when I visited Beijing in 1983, farmers with their chickens and pigs lived a couple of hundred metres from that square. It’s hard to believe today…
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Let me now round off this Part 1 by taking you on a peaceful walk through Shen’ao by night. The two to three restaurants will close at 9 PM, and apart from the dogs, few citizens will be out. Like everywhere else in China, you are 100% safe 24/7, so I was out and about. Here are a few results, and remember to click to enlarge:
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This is the end of Part 1.
Now follow me to Part 2 where we visit other villages and see more of life and nature in Zhejiang, China.