Across this site we have said that Xiantan holds about 135 guesthouses in a village of under 2,000 people. That figure is seven years old. It comes from a Shanghai newspaper’s visit in spring 2019, and the three dated counts since are all higher.
The other claim to test is an American writer’s. In 2023 David Fishman skipped Yucun (庾村), “the lively town seat”, for “sleepy Xiantan Village”. With a car he still has a point. Without one, his case mostly falls apart.
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 in Putuo. Xiantan (仙潭村) is one of the villages around its foot.
Xiantan village, Moganshan: what it is and where
Xiantan lies on the northern foot of the mountain, with Tianquanshan (天泉山) behind it. The village covered 11.8 km² in 2019. Until the guesthouses came it lived on bamboo shoots and cane. Fishman put the mountain itself around 10 km away.
Northern foot, 11.8 km², under 2,000 people, 135 guesthouses, Shanghai Observer (上观新闻), 3 April 2019, tier 2. https://www.shobserver.cn/wx/detail.do?id=142561
Quiet over Yu Village, about 2,000 people, about 10 km off, David Fishman, Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones, 5 July 2023, tier 3. https://www.feelingthestones.com/p/weekend-getaways-perfected-escaping
The count, source by source:
| Year | Guesthouses | Residents | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7, when Mofan (莫梵) opened | not given | Xinhua Daily Telegraph; The Paper |
| 2017 | more than 120, the most in the town | not given | Xinhua Daily Telegraph, 2025 |
| 2019 | 135 | under 2,000 | Shanghai Observer |
| 2021 | 158 | more than 2,100 | The Paper |
| 2023 | 166 | not given | People’s Daily |
| 2024 | more than 150, for “Da Xiantan” | not given | Xinmin Evening News |
7 then more than 120 guesthouses, Xinhua Daily Telegraph (新华每日电讯), 19 March 2025, tier 2. http://www.news.cn/local/20250319/6f3d6119568c45df9f68e7585d6a97c8/c.html
158 guesthouses, more than 2,100 residents, The Paper (澎湃新闻), 11 November 2021, tier 2. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_15128835
166 guesthouses and the Da Xiantan brand, People’s Daily (人民日报), 12 June 2023, tier 2. https://www.crnews.net/zt/srxxzjqwgcjy/zqbwjsyy/955610_20230612122458.html
Da Xiantan (大仙潭) is the name Xiantan shares with its neighbours Nanlu (南路村) and Sihe (四合村), so the 2024 figure may count more than one village. Read it as above 150 and rising slowly.
Who opened first depends on what you count. Fishman’s host said he took paying guests in 2003. The 2019 report dates the first guesthouse “in the real sense” to 2013.
What costs nothing in Xiantan
Less than it used to.
The village costs nothing. The Paper reported a footpath laid along the stream in 2021, so that guests could walk after dinner. People’s Daily lists a thousand year yew (红豆杉) among the things the village wants to make more of. The Xiantan art museum (仙潭美术馆) opened in 2023 on three floors and 850 m², and over National Day 2024 its resident artist was showing more than 30 of his own works. We found no admission price for it in any source.
The art museum’s 850 m² over three floors, Xinmin Evening News (新民晚报), 8 October 2024, tier 2. https://view.inews.qq.com/a/20241008A046CM00
The old village school is now a reading room, 甲野书房·文杏里 (Wenxingli). Since the village put up a sign calling itself Moganshan’s screenwriters’ village (莫干山编剧村), more than 30 screenwriters have moved in. Neither source prints a price for the reading room.
The bookroom and the screenwriters, China News Service (中国新闻网), 3 March 2026, tier 2. https://www.chinanews.com.cn/sh/2026/03-03/10580234.shtml
What is no longer free is the walk Fishman took. Biwu Dragon Pool (碧坞龙潭), a chain of waterfalls and pools up the slope behind the old Biwu end of the village, had “no ticket gate, and no entrance fee” when he walked it in June 2023. Since the second half of that year a company under the county supply cooperative has spent more than RMB 8 million on it, and it sells tickets through Douyin, Kuaishou, Meituan and Ctrip. By the operator’s own figure it drew about 85,000 visitors in 2024.
Biwu Dragon Pool’s investment, tickets and 2024 visitors, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 13 March 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/03/13/034904107.shtml
The last price the county paper printed dates from the works. During them, Deqing News reported on 3 November 2023, the ticket fell to RMB 20, and it was to go back to RMB 60 once they finished. No county source has printed a price since, so check the figure on the platform you book through.
Ticket RMB 20 during the works and RMB 60 afterwards, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 3 November 2023, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2023/11/03/034421443.shtml
Eating in Xiantan
No source we found names a dish of Xiantan’s own. You’ll mostly eat at your guesthouse. Of the 129 Xiantan listings we hold, 98 list a restaurant among their facilities.
Facilities on 129 captured Trip.com listings, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, captured 8 August 2026, compiled 4 October 2026.
That is how it started. Before anyone offered a bed, the 2019 report says, villagers set out round tables at home and cooked for passing visitors.
The village has filled in since. The Paper counted ten restaurants, five farms and two cafés in 2021. People’s Daily counted ten restaurants, seven cafés and three tent camps in 2023. By March 2026 China News Service found a café, Beiye (北野), serving breakfast to the first visitors of the day.
Ten restaurants and seven cafés, People’s Daily (人民日报), 12 June 2023, tier 2. https://www.crnews.net/zt/srxxzjqwgcjy/zqbwjsyy/955610_20230612122458.html
That’s still not a high street: ten restaurants across 11.8 km². Book half board, meaning breakfast and dinner, or ask your host what is open that evening.
Staying in Xiantan
The listings bear out the “homestay capital” label. Of the 809 Moganshan listings we captured from Trip.com in August 2026, 129 give a Xiantan address or the old Biwu one. Liaoyuan (燎原村), the administrative village that contains Yucun, has 73. The two Wuxing listings below are in neither count.
| Part of the village, as listed | Listings |
|---|---|
| Biwu (碧坞), including Jiangnan Biwu (江南碧坞) | 33 |
| Langjia (郎家) | 19 |
| Along the Xiaoyu road (晓于线) | 7 |
| Another named hamlet | 29 |
| A village group number, or the village name only | 41 |
Listing addresses, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, captured 8 August 2026, compiled 4 October 2026.
Two listings with Xiantan in their names give addresses in Daixi (埭溪镇), in Huzhou’s Wuxing District (吴兴区). Check the address, not the name.
A short list, chosen for what the record says about each. We rank and rate none of them, and print no room rates, which move daily.
| Listing | Address as listed | Why it is here |
|---|---|---|
| Langwei Qiaomu Hostel | No. 75 Biwu Village | Carries the name of the family house in Fishman’s account, 郎为乔木 |
| Lost Villa, Biwu | No. 49 Biwu Village | Listed as 大乐之野, the brand Xinhua places in Biwu |
| Juesu Hot Spring Hostel | Biwu, Xiantan Village | One of four Xiantan listings with hot springs |
| July Bamboo Qinxiantan Boutique Hostel | Village Group 3, Xiantan Village | A hostel, by its name |
| That Week Holiday Inn | 100 m east of the village committee | Gives the village committee as its landmark |
Most are minsu (民宿), small family guesthouses; what a minsu is explains the booking. Trip.com keeps no list for Xiantan alone, so the long tail is in its list for the whole Moganshan resort, and where to stay covers the rest of the mountain.
The walk from Xiantan
This is a desk route: nobody on this desk has walked it. In 2019 the county’s spring programme printed a 15 km walk that starts at Houwu (后坞) or Xiantan and climbs over Tianquanshan. It crosses the high ground by Guaishijiao (怪石角), Dakeng (大坑) and Zhonghuashan (中华山), then drops through Luhuadang park (芦花荡公园) and Sword Pond (剑池) on the Chiang Kai shek road (蒋公道) to Yucun square.
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
A full day; from Dakeng to Sword Pond it is inside the scenic area. Hiking on Moganshan sets out the ridge.
Getting back is the hard part. In 2025 a weekend shuttle, the Kailas (凯乐石号), ran from Biwu Dragon Pool through Yucun to Wusi (五四村), 08:00 to 17:40 on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from May to October, at RMB 5. No source we can reach confirms it ran in 2026.
The Kailas shuttle’s route, hours and fare in 2025, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 24 June 2025, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/06/24/034991600.shtml
Who should base in Xiantan
Fishman’s reason was quiet.
On that, the village agrees with him. In 2019 Shen Jiangrong (沈蒋荣), who opened Mofan and later led the village, argued against a glass walkway. If 30 coaches came, he asked, what would be left of the quiet, which was “our biggest selling point”?
The glass walkway argument, Shanghai Observer (上观新闻), 3 April 2019, tier 2. https://www.shobserver.cn/wx/detail.do?id=142561
So base here if you have a car and two nights or more, outside a holiday. You get the widest choice of guesthouses on the mountain, and the quiet.
Without a car, the case reverses. Xiantan has no transfer centre; the three are at Yucun, Fatou (筏头) and Houwu, and every trip into the scenic area starts at one. Sleep in Yucun and the coach is a short walk away; Xiantan means driving.
The 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
Yucun on its own makes the case for the town, and the shuttle system has the coach times.
The honest downside
Many of those guesthouses are alike. Mofan’s 26 year old manager told Xinhua in 2025 that his family’s guesthouse built the first pool here “and now it’s standard”. Xinhua found the houses alike in architecture, decoration and activities.
And the market has turned. Xinhua put Moganshan’s average guesthouse occupancy at about 70 percent before 2021 and about 55 percent in 2024, without naming its source, and reported owners cutting prices to keep up. The habit is not new: in 2019 some owners were already selling RMB 1,000 rooms at RMB 500. Midweek bookers gain. One owner told Xinhua the thinner margins leave less for upkeep.
The pool, the occupancy figures and price cutting, Xinhua Daily Telegraph (新华每日电讯), 19 March 2025, tier 2. http://www.news.cn/local/20250319/6f3d6119568c45df9f68e7585d6a97c8/c.html
Rooms discounted from RMB 1,000 to 500, Shanghai Observer (上观新闻), 3 April 2019, tier 2. https://www.shobserver.cn/wx/detail.do?id=142561
It isn’t empty, either. People’s Daily gave 150,000 visitors a year. That is the village’s own figure, not a statistics bureau count.
About 150,000 visitors a year, People’s Daily (人民日报), 12 June 2023, tier 2. https://www.crnews.net/zt/srxxzjqwgcjy/zqbwjsyy/955610_20230612122458.html
And the odds of English at the door are lower than at the design led end of the market. In 2019, 90 percent of the guesthouses were run by local families. Message before you pay; you’ll know inside a day.
90 percent of guesthouses run by locals, Shanghai Observer (上观新闻), 3 April 2019, tier 2. https://www.shobserver.cn/wx/detail.do?id=142561
The villages below Moganshan sets out the alternatives.
Last checked 15 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.
