Often China & Japan Related.
Because Hongcun is a UNESCO World Heritage site, it also has a somewhat tourist driven economy. It is listed as being an “ancient village in Southern Anhui” by UNESCO and it still looks like one for the most part with buildings dating to the Ming Dynasty. The one thing that I found strange was the six or seven computer 网吧, internet cafe, inside of the village. Apparently even ancient villages need internet access. I can understand that. Besides that oddity you have to pay a fee to enter the village, 80 kuai for two students ($10), despite the fact that people still live in these buildings. It just seems weird to have to pay to enter a village and take a look around. Hopefully the money goes to the upkeep and preservation of the village and if that is the case, it is definitely a $10 I would be willing to pay again.
The majority of the tourists at Hongcun were Chinese. While we were looking around we saw no other Westerners, which I always think is a good sign. This could be because it is rather difficult to get to Hongcun, there are no direct buses that go directly from the main train station to the village. In addition to tourists, a lot of art programs in China have their students come to these villages. They paint, do ink drawings, pencil drawings and water colors of the village and the people from all angles. Most of the people who actually live in Hongcun are artists themselves and sell all sorts of art, such as wood carvings, wood etchings, jewelry, embrodiery and bamboo carvings. Both men and women create art to sell. They sell all of their products right out of their door ways. I have posted some of the additional photos of the artwork sold on my Flickr site.
The people who do not have a particular trade tend to sell a mixture of Chinese brick-a-brack. They have carvings of Buddha, pigs, ancient Chinese sex books and drawings, Mao Zedong plates and photos, posters of Shanghai actresses and wooden crucifixes all mixed in together. It is a bizarre image but all of these items have their place in China’s long history.
And, since I am a 外国人, I always get quoted ridiculously high prices for items that really were authentic (the women was sitting there carving bamboo tea pots in front of you) to the chintzy ancient knockoffs (the people who yell “from Ming Dynasty!” and hold up a tarnished metal hairbrush). Attempting to and often succeeding in ripping off foreigners is definitely an aspect of work here. Some of the prices quoted to foreigners is probably more than some people would make in an entire week of selling their goods to the average Chinese person. I wonder if The Economist or the UNDP includes swindeling tourists and naive foreigners in their calculations?