Beautiful Seaside Village on Gougi Island is Disappearing Under a Blanket of Green Ivy
2 min readImagine an entire town swallowed by nature. If you happen to be in China at the mouth of the Yangtze River off the eastern coast, and you are lucky enough to discover a tiny island you may find yourself in one of the best-kept secrets in China.
Houtou Wan Village, located on Gouqi Island, belongs to a group of 394 islands known as the Shengsi Islands in the Zhoushan Archipelago. it’s a very small island being only 3 miles wide.
One can travel by boat and find oneself in the silence, far from the maddening crowds. With only the singing of birds, one may be transported to an emerald town of ivy.
Like a scene out of the fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, all the houses and streets are being engulfed by Nature’s vegetation.
Once upon a time merely half a century ago, the fishing community enjoyed a normal life.
But slowly but surely most of the inhabitants of Houtou Wan Village all left when the bay could no longer meet the growing needs of the community.
Save for wandering tourists and a handful of elderly residents who want to live out their last days in peace, Houtou Wan Village the entire town will soon be nothing more than a myth.
