Huizhou boasts the best ink slab in whole country, now I see why. To make a good piece of ink slab is not only the carving work. It's your training, your education in a lot of areas. For example, literature, painting, and music, because the designing and the creativity behind the whole piece of ink slab is more important, that's how you bring out the best of this piece of stone.

    Although the majority of the stores along the old street are not the same as they were first built 200 years ago, you can still find some of the original layout remains intact. For example, they were all built this way that the front end is the store and the back end is the workshop.

    In old times, most merchandise sold in Laojie ranging from Huizhou specialty products to household items such as soy sauce came out of small family workshops of manual labor. Today, only Hui Mo, the brand name ink sticks are still manufactured the traditional way. According to local people, the top quality of Hui Mo has a lot to do with the manual process, plus a touch of secret recipe.

    Now let me take you just a couple blocks away from Laojie and step into one of the old-fashioned wooden gates. You will be surrounded by other bits and pieces of Huizhou culture and history that are as fascinating.

    Mr. Cheng Dawei's formal residence is just one of such kind of places.

    Cheng is a Hui merchant himself, and through his business experience, he realized the importance of a standard abacus calculation. And later Hui merchants spread his abacus theory to Japan and Southeast Asia.

    See, we all know Chinese are good at math because we invented abacus, but do you know why Hui businessmen holds a competitive edge against businessmen from other area of China? It's because of this guy, Mr. Cheng Dawei.

    Born in 16th century, Mr. Cheng made a major contribution to the then Chinese society by setting the standard format of abacus, and perfecting the abacus calculation system. Of course, his accomplishments were not limited to abacus, he is also believed to be the first person ever to make and use a tape measure.

    A local elementary school was even named after Mr. Cheng Dawei to commemorate his achievements. Guess what is the strong point of the school's curriculum? The kids here can calculate real fast, even faster than calculators.

    White wall, black tile against serene water and clear sky, ancient Huizhou villages would settle any restless soul with its soothing charm. Out of hundreds of well-kept villages in the area, Hongcun stands out for its ingenious community plan.

    In old times, most villages were planned around water. And this is especially true here in Hongcun. In front of every household you can find canals flowing by, and this whole village centers around this pond, half-moon shaped pond here. And this is actually a manmade pond dug about four hundred years ago when this village was first built. And word is the Fengshui of this village became extremely well because of its water planning.