As I have said elsewhere in these pages, I originally envisioned a trip of one week each of biking, birding, go and history/language but had to give that up after being unable to make any progress scheduling such. Plan B called for finding Inns/B&Bs where someone spoke English and could help me spend time on those 4 activities.
The first candidate I discovered in the plan B quest was Ed at Skywells. He answered my emails. He gave advise about other cities to visit. So, to some extent I planned the trip around that. I decided to stay at Skywells 4 days instead of 3 in the other cities. My origain plan was to slowly work my way out to Skywells from Shanghai but when presented with the warning that October 2 would be the start of a national vacation week, I reoriented the trip to go out toward Skywells first and work my way in toward Shanghai. The reasoning being: one can imagine all kids of disruption over a holiday but it is hard to image that a city the size of Shanghai is going to be seriously effected so I want to be there for the holiday.
The idea of this page is to present Skywells. There is a lot of information on the internet about it. I won’t pretend to match that but I can give you links to those sites and recount my own personal experience.
The primary web site is wuyuanskywells.com.
There are extensive guest reviews on bookings.com that are linked to from the above site with the menu choice
booking.
The area is wonderful, the village is unique, the rooms are great but the real secret sauce is the proprietors, Ed and Salina. 
There are lots of beautiful pictures of this lovely couple on the web but this is the real people having breakfast. Their daughter is Victoria and the young woman with her back to the camera is Jesica. I am sure that is not her real name but that is the “English” name she uses so we will not have to butcher her real name.
As long as I am starting with breakfast, let me continue with food. On the black board behind their heads, if you just blow it up enough, you can read:
Breakfasts
Time: 8:00 – 10:00
Free Flow Plan Tea/Coffee
Buffet – Help Yourself
Lunch/Dinner
Time: 11:30 – 19:30
80 Yuan /head
You get what comes out of the Kitchen
I found this wonderful! I rode a borrowed bike each day and came back for lunch the first day but once I felt comfortable, I just stopped and ate at restaurants along the road.
I felt so at home, I am a very prejudiced reviewer. The last thing I would want to do is work against any marketing message Ed and Salina are backing. In fact, I’ll be sure and point them to this page and will be more than willing to take it down if they ask. What I am thinking of is fancy dining. A potential guest might read this (Tom, get real, no one reads this stuff!!) and miss out on Skywells. I would encourage them to speak to Ed. I have seen him put on his fancy dress and serve fine wine with the towel on his arm. I think their kitchen can turn out something to knock your socks off. The point is, on the normal days, we are all very lucky to eat what comes out. It is so varied! and it keeps coming! Not many places you can go and eat what the owners are eating!
Ok, onto the actual hotel. Here is the one sign I ever saw on the path in from the town square:
On the web site, Ed does a wonderful job of talking about the history and feel of the house. I just give you a few random inside shots:
Each time you round a corner you are tempted to take a moment and look at the details:
Lots of pictures but let me talk a little about what does one do at Skywlls beside eat and sleep? I mainly rode one of their loaner bikes. I talk about that in other pages on this site. I did not do any of this but it sounds as if they have established day trips that involve hiking up to water falls, painting umbrellas and working with pottery. Generally, I have a lot of confidence that if you express an interest in an activity and give them enough lead time, they will have something that you will really enjoy.
This is my room, after I throw my cloths everywhere of course:
Salina had a wonderful story about study abroad. She started freshman year in the United Kingdom, my memory says Midlands? She spent most of that year with a contingent of students from China but then decided that she was not taking full advantage of this opportunity her parents had provided and integrated with the English speaking world for the rest of her studies. You will enjoy the result, her now near native speaker command of the language.
Back to eating and drinking! The dining room has many tables. You can sit alone or join others. People who enjoy alcohol will naturally gather at the bar before and after dinner and Ed is a master of mixology. He is correctly proud of his inventory of beers. and I am a bit of a beer snob.
I did not spend time on the third floor other than to look at the large Moon, but it is a greenhouse to the stars and a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the vista.
Onto the old house has been added a new structure that includes the restaurant and courtyard. This is the outside wall of that part:
There is even a small garden were I caught a few mushrooms!
mushrooms
Each morning I would get up before breakfast and walk. Usually along the stream next to the village, but also onto the next close village. The villager are out. Fishing, tending the fields. I’ll gather pictures from these walks in another post but here is a water feature in the stream:
And a water wheel spoke no longer needed:
I’ll end with a shot of the town stage:
And even a couple town dogs:
One last Salina story. On her first day at college orientation in the UK, Phil? was helping her, took her letter of acceptance and then lost it. It took hours, maybe days to get the situation straightened out. If you are this Phil, I would suggest you find another hotel.