Children in Liukeng, a 1000 year old remote village in Jiangxi, China. Feb 2 2006


Recently discovered Liukeng village is located in mountain area of LeAn county, Jiangxi province, China. It is hard to imagine how such a remote village could have created such a splendid civilization. Some refer to the village as a "living fossil reflecting the changes of Chinese feudal society," a "museum of Chinese faming and intellectual civilization," and a "living specimen of the historical and cultural belt along the Yangtze River Valley." The village grew during the Five Dynasties period (907-960), flourished during the Song Dynasty (1206-1368), flourished again during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and declined again during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). All families in the village are surnamed Dong, and the villagers regard Dong Zhongshu, a great Confucian scholar of the Han Dynasty, as their first ancestor. The village has produced 32 jinshi, people who passed the highest imperial examinations; two zhuangyuan, or, Number One Scholar, the title given to the highest scorer on the imperial examinations; and more than 100 juren, people who passed the imperial examinations at the provincial level. Today, the village has nearly 800 families and 5,000 inhabitants. More infomation to


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Keywords: ancient, asia, asian, children, china, chinese, countryside, east, group, historical, history, keng, liu, liukeng, orient, oriental, relics, tour, tourism, tourist, tradition, traditional, travel, village