A few years ago, Guorong made it to the national list of "historical and cultural villages" largely as a diligent keeper of feng shui standards.

The village, in Shiqian county in Southwest China's Guizhou province, is set amid an entire range of unnamed mountains and a river. Its appearance, say feng shui practitioners, resembles that of a "turtle touching water".

A few centuries ago, a retired local official surnamed Zhou is said to have spotted the village from his passing boat and decided to stay back. His family led a happy life for generations, but the family ran into misfortune when some of its members went to live elsewhere. So, a male descendant returned to the village in his 60s and had three sons, re-establishing the family.