Xidi is located at the southern foot of the famous Huangshan Mountain. It is one of the most representative ancient folk house scenic spots in the southern part of Anhui Province. The name came from the fact that there was a river that ran west by the side of the village and there was also a post house that was used to send mails in the ancient times. The small and exquisite ancient village Xidi is 700 meters in length and 300 meters in width. There are about 300 families living in the village. Legend has it that the village was built by the decedents of the imperial family of the Tang Dynasty that fled from a calamity to the place. For over a thousand years, the village also underwent different social upheavals, but the beautiful and detached Xidi has retained almost two hundred ancient folk houses until today. These folk houses vividly display the basic appearances and characters of the villages of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

There are two crystal streams that run through the Xidi village. In addition, ninety nine high walls and deep lanes, grandeur residents and yards and exquisite flower gardens are distributed in the village. The Anhui-style buildings in the village are arranged exquisitely and most of them are constructed by dark marble, with brick, wood and stone carvings decorated in them. The exotic flowers, fowl and beasts carved from stones, towers and pavilions as well as people and skit carved from bricks, the refined wood carvings and beautiful colored drawings and frescos all reflect the artistic essence of ancient China. At present, more than 20 scenic spots have been developed, say, Lingyun Pavilion, Cishi (Cishi was a kind of official title) Decorated Archway, Ruiyu Yard, Taoli Garden and so on.  

There are many well preserved ancient memorial arches at Xidi, among which the most famous ones must be Hu Wenguang Memorial Arch that has a history of more than 400 years. The memorial arch possesses three doors, four pillars and five layers. It is carved by marble and all through the building, a lot of relief, openwork carving and round-sculpture are decorated on it. The whole building is solemn and elegant and its stone carving technique is also very outstanding. So, it is a representative of the Anhui-style carving building of the Ming Dynasty.

The layout of Xidi is neat and the structure of the village is also very artful. Meanwhile, the decoration of the folk houses is very luxuriant, with profound cultural connotation embedded in them. In 1999, together with Hongcun village, Xidi was judged by the UNESCO as “World Cultural Heritage”.