Inkslab carving master Hong Yuliang. [Photo by Zhu Liya/Yu Xianmin/China Daily]

Although most residents use tap water nowadays, some old people still use water from the canal.

Eight hills surround the village. If you take any of its three main roads or 99 alleys, most of which are curved, it is hard to find your way out of this labyrinthine community.

Only the locals know their way around their complicated yet organized neighborhood.

So if you want to get to the center of the village, you walk against the water flow in the canal, and if you want to get out of the village, you follow the direction of the water.

There are more than 100 villages in Huangshan, all beside rivers that value the shuikou, or the water mouth, located at the entrance of the village.

It is believed that the effort taken to design the shuikou is time well spent as feng shui pays a lot of importance to water, which signifies fortune.

Thus, making water an integral part of a structure is considered key to good luck.