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The Ancient Town of Fenghuang, China

The town of Fenghuang is located in the Hunan province in China along the banks of the Tuo Jiang River. The town is exceptionally well-preserved and relatively untouched by modern urbanization.

The legacy of the Ming And Qing dynasties are preserved within the town, spanning 300 years of ancient heritage. In the ancient town zone, preservation of over 200 residential buildings, 30 streets, and hundreds of other ancient features and landmarks of the town has continued for hundreds of years.

Because of its unique geographical location, Fenghuang never suffered from the destruction of any natural disaster or suffered invasion from any wars. Even during the war of resistance against Japanese invasion, the isolated town of Fenghuang did not suffer occupation. In 1949, Fenghuang was peacefully liberated.

In the following 50 years, Fenghuang was spared any large-scale construction that occurred in nearby districts. As the people of Fenghuang cherish their valuable heritage, the local government has conducted strict control over all construction, continuing the preservation and the authenticity of the ancient town.

THE AMAZING SKETCHBOOKS OF GUILLERMO DEL TORO

For all of the difficulty that Guillermo del Toro has experienced in getting his projects off the ground, his imagination is famously restless and unquenchable. A gifted artist who’s as capable of bringing his visions to life with a pencil as he is with a camera, del Toro is known to first begin creating his film worlds in the pages of his sketchbooks (del Toro once left his “Pan’s Labyrinth” notes in the back seat of a cab, and the loss might have killed the movie if not for the kind efforts of the cab driver to return the book). While most of the notes and illustrations that fill del Toro’s sketchbooks may never be available to the public, many pages have made their way to the web, and many more can be found in various books and on the Criterion Collection DVDs of “Cronos” and “The Devil’s Backbone.” Here, we’ve collected the images that we could find, a modest collection that nevertheless provides a thrilling glimpse into the mind of an extraordinary storyteller.