Xujia Mountain Village in Ninghai Stone Village

Xujia Mountain Village is a natural village belonging to Xumin Administrative Village of Chayuan Township (there are also four other natural villages: Minhutian, Xujia, Yichangping, and Xiao'an), located in the eastern part of Ninghai County and the western part of Chayuan Township, 13.5 kilometers away from the county seat and 3.1 kilometers away from the Chayuan Township government, with an average altitude of about 200 meters. The village has 277 households, with a total population of 720 people. Most of the labor force in the village goes out to work, and the permanent population in the village is about 220 people. The village covers an area of 4718 mu, with 821 mu of arable land and 3008 mu of forest land. According to the village records, at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the descendants of Ye Mengding, Ye Daqing and his son, settled here from Dongcang to avoid chaos, and have a history of more than 700 years. Xujia Mountain is located at the top of the mountain, surrounded by mountains, with well-protected vegetation, lush grass and trees, ancient maples reaching the sky, green bamboos standing tall, serene stone scenery, and curling smoke, creating a quiet environment. Entering Xujia Mountain is like entering a paradise. The most distinctive feature of Xujia Mountain is its primitive and wilderness beauty, with few houses made of modern materials such as steel and concrete. Most of the village is made up of stone houses, with walls built from black basalt (locally known as 'copper plate stone'). Xujia Mountain is the largest and best-preserved ancient stone village in Ningbo City, and is also a model of the stone house building clusters in the mountainous areas along the coast of eastern Zhejiang, known as the 'Stone Kingdom'. The village not only preserves a complete set of stone resources such as stone houses, stone courtyards, stone walls, stone alleys, stone bridges, stone roads, and stone benches, but also continues traditional ways of life, such as ox plowing, making sweet potato flour, distilling sweet potato liquor, pounding rice cakes, and bamboo weaving. The tourism resources of Xujia Mountain Village are divided into four major areas: ancient stone village, plateau scenery, geological park, and agricultural heritage. It can be developed into a mountain village leisure tourism area with stone village characteristics, integrating mountain village experience, cultural exchange, health and vacation, and leisure sports.