Every weekend and on public holidays, Cuandixia buzzes with activity as day trippers from Beijing jump into their cars and troop out to the 500-year-old village.
"I want my grandchildren to see what China's ancient rural villages are like so they'll know how things used to look when I was a boy," said retired soldier Pan Qizhen, 69, posing with his toddler grandson next to an old grindstone.
In recent years, the village - known for its traditional courtyard houses built on a hilly landscape - has received an unprecedented boost in tourism thanks to the new love affair between the middle classes and the automobile.
The village - 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Beijing - has so far received 64,200 visitors since January, almost double the annual total of four years ago, when few ordinary people in China owned cars.
But this year, about two-thirds of its visitors come in their cars, village chief Wang Xiulian said.
As the spending power of China's middle classes rockets alongside its stellar economic growth, car ownership has become must for those with new-found wealth eager to show off to their families and friends.
Many tourists in Cuandixia - mostly professionals from Beijing - said they bought cars in the past couple of years and were delighted with the new freedom and joys of spending holidays in the countryside.
"It's so convenient to come by car - before we bought a car it was impossible to travel so far," said Hu Xiao'e, a 47-year-old accountant.
"It's good to get away from the crowd in the city and the air quality is much better here - it feels so relaxing," she said.
But few visitors appeared too concerned about the impact their cars were having on the environment in the countryside.
"If public transport is more convenient I will use it of course," said Liang Yaping, 54, a teacher who hired a car for the day.
"But as there are no direct buses coming here, I'm afraid environment has to come second."
China has 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities, according to the World Bank. Experts say the rapid rise in the number of cars is significantly adding to the pollution.
By the end of July, nearly half of the motor vehicles in Beijing, or 1.04 million, were privately-owned, according to state media.
The National Bureau of Statistics said more than 10 million cars were privately owned in China and the number was set to rise.
But the popularisation of car ownership in Beijing means neighbouring tourist spots like Cuandixia have received a much-needed boost.
Barely 10 years ago, the Ming Dynasty village hidden in a rocky mountain valley with few natural resources was poor, relying mostly on meagre income from growing corn, wheat, potatoes and walnuts.
The population dwindled to 20 in 1995 as most young people fled the countryside to work in larger towns and cities.
But thanks to the boost in tourism, the remote village's population is growing as young people return to work in the service trade, said Wang.
The village's income from entry ticket sales has more than doubled from 418,000 yuan (50,000 dollars) between January and the October "Golden Week" national holiday last year to 984,000 yuan in the same period this year.
Wang predicts that this year's total income would easily surpass one million yuan, compared with last year's 700,000 yuan.
During ordinary weekends, the village receives between 800 and 1,000 visitors who bring in up to 300 cars. In the first five days of the "Golden Week" holiday this year, some 5,000 visitors brought on average 400 cars to the village every day.
Many visitors who travelled to the countryside during the past week, said they loved the freedom to travel but were bothered by slow traffic and mass congestion, partly caused by a plethora of traffic accidents.
Last year 104,000 people died in road accidents in China, or about 285 every day, government figures show.
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