Our own villages page gave Houwu one line: quiet, on the west side of Moganshan, about 30 minutes from Yucun (庾村). That undersells it. For many drivers it is where the visit starts. Between 08:00 and 17:30, signs on the mountain road send cars back down to the Houwu transfer centre.
Chinese travel sites add a 1,500 year old ginkgo. The oldest account we found says more than 1,400, and that figure came from a former village head, not a survey.
Moganshan (莫干山) is a bamboo mountain and former hill station in Deqing County (德清县), Huzhou (湖州), Zhejiang, about 60 km north of Hangzhou and 200 to 240 km from Shanghai. It is not Moganshan Road in Shanghai, the M50 art district. Houwu (后坞村) is one of the villages at its foot.
Houwu village, Moganshan: what it is and where
Houwu lies on the western flank, in what was Fatou township (筏头乡), about 30 km west of the county centre. It has 470 households, and its old market town, Jimiaowu (计庙坞), keeps about a kilometre of shops. The village sits in the core of a protected landscape belt along two streams, which limits building.
About 30 km west of the county centre, China Sports Daily (中国体育报), 29 April 2015, tier 2. https://www.sport.gov.cn/n20001280/n20745751/n20767239/c21821628/content.html
470 households, the Jimiaowu shops and the twin streams (双溪) landscape belt, Huzhou Daily (湖州日报), 28 May 2025, tier 2. https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-05-28/doc-ineyakcf9435506.shtml
Houwu is also a rated scenic area in its own right. The Huzhou roll of June 2023 listed Deqing Houwu village scenic area at 3A, separately from the core of the mountain.
Deqing Houwu village scenic area, rated 3A, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线), 9 June 2023, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/202306/t20230609_25838009.shtml
The transfer centre
Private cars have been barred from the scenic area road from 08:00 to 17:30 since 30 November 2018. Guests booked inside the scenic area who reserve parking may drive in at any hour. When Tide News (潮新闻) drove up in December 2025, the reporters found signs telling drivers to turn round for the Houwu transfer centre (后坞换乘中心), and staff spoke of two transfer points. The written record has named three since 2019: Yucun, Fatou and Houwu.
| At the Houwu transfer centre | The reading | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Shuttle hours | 08:30 to 17:00 | Tide News, December 2025 |
| Last bus up, last bus down | 16:30 and 17:00 | Tide News, December 2025 |
| How often | When full, or every 30 minutes | Tide News, December 2025 |
| Parking | Free | Sohu Travel, July 2019 |
The car rule, the guest exception, the signs, the timetable and the two transfer points, Tide News (潮新闻), 4 December 2025, tier 2. https://tidenews.com.cn/news.html?id=3315585
Three transfer centres, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 30 September 2019, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2019/09/30/031939856.shtml
Free parking at Houwu, reported, Sohu Travel (搜狐旅游, 权哥探店), 2 July 2019, tier 3. https://www.sohu.com/a/324235488_357973
Those were the December 2025 hours. The shuttle system has every reading we hold. Without a car, it is a taxi from Deqing station.
The ginkgos at the temple gate
No source we can cite prints an admission charge for the village.
Its one sight is a pair of ginkgos at the gate of Tianquan Chan Temple (天泉禅寺), in the part of the village called Kanshang (坎上). An account published in 2018 says the monk Weizheng (惟正) founded the temple between 535 and 546, and that Japanese troops burned it in 1941. The gate and the two trees survived.
The account reprints a 2015 report from the county paper, Jinri Deqing (今日德清). A former village head, Li Jianli (李建立), told it the south tree is male and the north one female: the husband and wife trees (夫妻树). He put the male at over 40 metres tall and more than 1,400 years old. It takes four adults, hand in hand, to circle it. When the leaves drop, in autumn and winter, the ground goes gold. We found no tree survey that dates the tree.
The temple’s history and the two ginkgos as Jinri Deqing reported them on 28 January 2015, Sohu (搜狐, 章家 account), 21 December 2018, tier 4, as published. https://www.sohu.com/a/283511134_120056432
Look, but leave the nuts. In September 2026 a county hospital doctor warned that raw ginkgo nuts (白果) are toxic in quantity and the fresh flesh can bring a rash within two days.
The ginkgo nut warning, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 24 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/24/035297964.shtml
Eating in Houwu
No dated source we found names a restaurant here. You’ll mostly eat where you sleep: of the 107 Houwu listings we hold, 91 list a restaurant.
Facilities on 107 captured Trip.com listings with a Houwu address, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, captured 8 August 2026, compiled 13 October 2026.
The village’s own food event is the New Year pig feast (年猪饭), held five times by 2025, and the village plans a banquet hall for it.
The pig feast and the banquet hall, Huzhou Daily (湖州日报), 28 May 2025, tier 2. https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-05-28/doc-ineyakcf9435506.shtml
It is a December event, not a Spring Festival one: the fifth sat 123 tables in the village hall on 16 December 2024. Chinese New Year on Moganshan covers the holiday itself.
Fifth pig feast, 123 tables, 16 December 2024, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线) photo channel, reader photograph, tier 2. https://photo.zjol.com.cn/202412/t20241216_30712523.shtml
When you book, ask whether the house cooks dinner.
Staying in Houwu
Houwu’s first guesthouse, the Shangri La (香格里拉), opened in 2005. By 2025 more than 150 of the 470 households were in the trade, and a hotel costing RMB 30 million had opened at Jimiaowu. The same report has an art hotel due in October 2025; no listing yet shows it trading, so it is not below.
The first guesthouse, the households in the trade and the two hotels, Huzhou Daily (湖州日报), 28 May 2025, tier 2. https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-05-28/doc-ineyakcf9435506.shtml
Of the 809 Moganshan listings we captured from Trip.com in August 2026, 107 give a Houwu address.
| Part of the village, as listed | Listings |
|---|---|
| Xiwuli (西坞里) | 29 |
| Xiacun (下村) | 16 |
| Lingjiaoxia (岭脚下) | 16 |
| Lujiaqiao (陆家桥) | 12 |
| Kanshang (坎上), by the temple | 9 |
| Jimiaowu (计庙坞) | 8 |
| A group number, or the village name only | 17 |
Listing addresses, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, captured 8 August 2026, compiled 13 October 2026.
A short list, chosen for what the record says about each. We rank and rate none of them and print no room rates; each link opens the live listing, with the rate for your dates.
| Listing | Address as listed | Why it is here |
|---|---|---|
| MOOKE&Co | No. 35 Jimiaowu | The Muke Cooperative, below |
| Moganshan Xinyuanju Resort Hotel | No. 66 Jimiaowu | The RMB 30 million hotel reported open in May 2025 |
| HOWOOLIFE | No. 52 Xiwuli | Houwu Life (后坞生活), on a trail loop the county paper described in 2014 |
| Mogan Shuangping Hotel | No. 23 Kanshang | In the temple’s part of the village |
| Moganshan Yaxuan Inn (Houwu Transfer Center) | No. 31 Xiacun | One of four listings named for the transfer centre |
The Muke Cooperative (木可合作社) is the reason to stop in Jimiaowu. The pink four storey building at Jimiaowu was the village credit cooperative. It opened in November 2023 for digital nomads: 16 rooms, each with a bathroom, and long work tables by the door. In September 2024 the writer Jiang Kan (蒋瞰) reported RMB 400 to 500 a night, RMB 2,023 a week or about RMB 4,000 a month, breakfast included. No children under 15.
The cooperative’s building, rooms, rates and rules, NetEase (网易, 文旅进行时), by Jiang Kan, 23 September 2024, tier 3. https://m.163.com/dy/article/JCPD5J150524BDFD.html
Listed as opened in 2023 at No. 35 Jimiaowu, Ctrip (携程) listing, read 13 October 2026, tier 4. https://m.ctrip.com/html5/hotel/hoteldetail/117536431.html
Most of the rest are minsu (民宿), small family guesthouses; what a minsu is explains the booking. Trip.com keeps no list for Houwu alone, so the long tail is in its list for the whole Moganshan resort.
The walk from Houwu
This is a desk route; nobody on this desk has walked it.
Moganshan’s national mountain fitness trail (莫干山国家登山健身步道) opened on 9 October 2014: 45.1 km in four loops, most of it in Houwu.
| Loop | Length | What the county paper said in 2014 |
|---|---|---|
| Dayangli (大洋里) | 9.6 km | The hardest, about 400 m of climb to a camp hut at 635 m |
| Yaowu (瑶坞) | 10.2 km | Mostly road and stone paving, past the Houwu culture hall |
| Yangshulin (杨树林) | 3.2 km | The shortest, gravel and steps |
| Tianquanshan (天泉山) | 22.1 km | The longest, from the culture hall over Tianquanshan |
The trail’s opening and its 45.1 km, mostly in Houwu, China Sports Daily (中国体育报), 29 April 2015, tier 2. https://www.sport.gov.cn/n20001280/n20745751/n20767239/c21821628/content.html
The four loops, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 20 November 2014, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2014/11/20/018710329.shtml
The hardest of the four has its own page: the Dayangli loop, stage by stage with the county’s heights for each point.
In 2019 the county also printed a 15 km walk from Houwu over Tianquanshan to Yucun square by way of Sword Pond (剑池).
The 15 km route to Yucun square, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线), 5 April 2019, tier 2. https://huzhou.zjol.com.cn/qy/dqx18223/201904/t20190405_9837182.shtml
Hiking on Moganshan covers the rest of the mountain’s walks.
Who should base in Houwu
Drivers from the west: the road delivers you to the transfer centre.
Walkers, since the longest loop starts at the culture hall.
Remote workers in for a week or a month, at the cooperative’s weekly rate. Families with children under 15 cannot stay there.
It does not suit anyone without a car who wants a choice of dinner. Yucun is half an hour away. Yucun on its own makes the case for the town.
The honest downside
Houwu has stalled before. The village head told Huzhou Daily that the protection rules held back building, and that after 2020 visitors to its outdoor park and lavender farm fell sharply. The bet now is on young people coming home to open businesses on the Jimiaowu street.
Building limits and the fall in visitors after 2020, Huzhou Daily (湖州日报), 28 May 2025, tier 2. https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-05-28/doc-ineyakcf9435506.shtml
The cooperative met the same wall. Jiang Kan reported its biggest problem: prices here are not low, so the “geographic arbitrage” that draws nomads to Southeast Asia is hard to pull off. On its pay what you want trial, one guest stayed six nights for RMB 72.
The arbitrage problem and the trial, NetEase (网易, 文旅进行时), by Jiang Kan, 23 September 2024, tier 3. https://m.163.com/dy/article/JCPD5J150524BDFD.html
And the clock: the last bus down at Houwu left at 17:00 on the December 2025 board.
The villages below Moganshan sets out the alternatives.
Last checked 31 October 2026 by Echo Peng. Prices, timetables and entry rules on this mountain move without notice, so confirm anything you are booking around.
Photographs on this site are representative illustrations, not documentary images of the specific building, property or service described.
