A UNESCO World Heritage site and one of China’s major tourist destinations, Huangshan is a mountain range in the southern province of Anhui, famous for its unique granite peak scenery. Besides the scenic area around the site, the observatory focuses its efforts also on two villages, namely Xidi and Hongcun, which are located in Yi county, Huangshan City, and which are also listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These two villages are vivid illustrations of a type of human settlement created during a feudal period and based on a prosperous trading economy. The observatory monitoring these sites focuses especially on environmental and cultural heritage protection.