Nearby the Huangshan Mountain there are dozens of villages, which still preserve a lot of ancient houses dating back as far as to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The ancient houses are all large compounds with courtyards, private gardens, where generations of one family lived together, still observing an old life style. These old houses are regarded as a "living museum of ancient Chinese architecture". For those who want to see real China and its people in the raw and unadorned, the ancient villages in Yixian are a charmer.

Jiuhua Mountains, one of the four sacred Buddhist Mountains in China, is located between Huangshan Mountain and Yangtze River, only two and half hour bus ride from Huangshan and 40 minutes from the port city Guichi on the Yangtze River. Recently luxury cruise ship began operating between Shanghai and Wuhan. Jiuhua Mountain, together with Lushan Mountain, Nanjing and Yangzhou, becomes a very popular destination for cruise tourists.

Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province, is the province's political, economic and cultural centre. It is the gate way to Anhui Province. The Fengyang County, which is about 3 hours bus ride from Hefei, provides an excellent day excursion for tourist in Hefei. Fengyang is the birthplace of the first Ming Dynasty emperor - Zhu Yuanzhang. Originally, the emperor wanted Fengyang to be the Ming Dynasty Capital, so he ordered the Forbidden City to be built there. The gigantic project was nearly finished when the emperor decided to move his capital to Nanjing, so the original Forbidden City in Fengyang was abandoned. Today parts of the city wall, city gates and city moat still exist. The ruined Forbidden City is much larger than the Forbidden City in Beijing.