Xidiguzen is not too far from Tunxi. I never have figured out if I was allowed to be in Xidiguzen or not. We went in a side entrance to the city, but apparently at the front entrance there is a sign saying that foreigners need special permission to enter the city.
No one in the city seemed to mind that I was there. In fact, I bet they were delighted - the place is a huge tourist trap! You walk down the streets, and someone standing at the door to one of the houses will say, "Come in and I'll show you my house. It's 400 years old, and..." and they show you the house and describe a few things. And then they show you what they have for sale, and hit you with the hard sell.
Curiously, the prices were okay (once you bargained them down). We bought a few things, but even though the prices seemed fine, I suspect we paid too much for them because of the monkey incident.
Word gets around fast in a small city: At every door we passed by, someone would pop out and show us some sort of monkey. A few vendors would bring us some monkey items, and when we didn't like them, go away and come back with some more. This went on for around 15 minutes until finally someone brought a monkey item that Mei liked. Once she bought it, the monkey vendors left us alone.