Yongding Tulou

Background

The Yongding tulou are spread across Yongding District, Longyan, Fujian; the clusters around Hongkeng, Gaobei and Chuxi in Xiayang are the best known, set among rice paddies, tea gardens and tobacco fields. In 2008, 46 Fujian tulou sites were inscribed as a World Heritage Site, including many in Yongding; the Yongding tulou scenic area is also a national 5A tourist site, divided into the Tulou King, Tulou Prince and Chuxi Ancient Tulou Village areas. Tulou grew out of fortress-like homes built against bandits. Their walls are rammed from raw earth mixed with lime, sand and clay, reinforced with bamboo strips, up to about 2 meters thick at the base and thinning toward the top; the lowest courses are often stone or cobbles to resist digging. The ancestral hall at the center hosts ancestor worship, festivals, weddings, funerals and meetings, and every family's rooms face it; larger tulou usually have two or three shared wells in the courtyard. Zhencheng Lou in Hongkeng village was completed in 1912 by descendants of a wealthy tobacco merchant. It has two rings: an outer ring of four stories with 184 rooms and an inner ring of two stories with 32 rooms, and the outer ring is divided into four segments following the bagua. Greek-style columns in the hall and wrought-iron railings on the second floor show Western influence.

Local customs

• Look down on the tulou in the hills from the viewing platform at Chuxi village
• enter Zhencheng Lou to see its bagua layout and East-meets-West hall
• count the four concentric rings of Chengqi Lou
• spend a night in a tulou guesthouse
• try Hakka pounded tea and farmhouse dishes.

Travel tips

• The tulou clusters are far apart, so hire a car or use the scenic-area shuttles
• it is dim inside, so a small flashlight helps
• ticket and lodging prices are as officially announced, and mountain roads are slippery in the rainy season, so watch your step.
• Take a high-speed train to Longyan Station, then a bus or hired car to the Yongding clusters
• there are also buses to Yongding from Xiamen and Longyan. Any season works: in spring the flooded terraces and rapeseed flowers set each other off, autumn is clear and crisp, and summer brings frequent rain in the hills, so carry rain gear.