The villages in the hills of Youyu are relatively poor, because of a shortage of farmland. It held a strategic position in the defense of the Great Wall, and many of the fortresses still stand on its surrounding hills.

Cave dwellings formed by tunneling into the loess cliffs are still in use extensively even though gradually farmers are moving out of the caves to live in houses. Many of the former dwellings have been converted to storage spaces. The affluence of a village can usually be measured by the number of houses it possesses.

Picture source: George Leung (1999)