Fujian Tulous of Southern China

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Of all my China adventures this short trip to Fujian Province to visit the Tulous proved to be one of the best yet. My good friend David Zeng helped with all the logistics and we both flew into Xiamen to begin our journey. We left from Xiamen by bus and 3 hours later stopped in Longyan for the night. Longyan is a city of 1 million located in the southwest part of Fujian Province. We arranged a driver to pick us up the next morning and take us deep into the mountains another 2 hours to our first stop, Hongkeng Villiage.

Set amongst rice, tea and tobacco fields the tulou are earthen houses. Several stories high, they are built along an inward-looking, circular or square floor plan as housing for up to 800 people each. They were built for defense purposes around a central open courtyard with few windows to the outside and only one entrance. Typically each has at least one well for drinking water located at the center. Housing a whole clan, the houses functioned as village units and were known as “a little kingdom for the family” or “bustling small city.”

Strange but true: The cold war between communist China and capitalist USA in the 1950s and 1960s lay the path towards the Hakka Tulou fame.

During the cold war era, USA spy planes spotted a series of rounded objects that looked significantly like ICBM Missile Silos when viewed on grainy black-and-white photographs. They were the right size for a ICBM launching pad and each ’silo’ were surrounded by houses, water streams, farmlands and transportation tracks, concurring with Mao Tse Tung’s theory of hiding his fighting forces in the villages with the common people.

No wonder the military analysts of that period were excited as each ‘Missile Silo’ were self-sufficient with water, food and electricity. And there were hundreds of these ‘Silos’ all over YongDing, Fujian province. My, my….I am sure the top military brass of the period must have been losing sleep over this ‘missile silo’ discovery!

Land spies were dispatched over the years and eventually discreet inquiries were made when diplomatic ties between China and USA were re-established in the 1970s. Not surprisingly, even Beijing did not know of these ‘missile silos’ and eventually their location and purpose were established over various local officials in YongDing that the whole ‘missile scare’ were actually over a number of earthen houses!

Soon, scholars and academics from both countries heard about this incident and it piqued their academic interest to learn more about the Hakka culture, their communal way of life and their interesting Tulous.

The Hakkas were people who settled in Fujian from the Central Plains of China. After more than 1,000 years of struggle they formed their original folk customs in their residential buildings such as their food, drink, dressing, education and religion. These are the main components of Hakkas culture, of which the most unique is the earth buildings. Today there are more than 20,000 Tulou throughout southern Fujian. We saw dozens along our drive. We made our last tour stop to view the Tianluokeng Cluster located at Shangban Village about an hour from Zhangzhou. They consist of 4 circular buildings surrounding a quadrangular building like a plum flower, giving a spectacular view.

Tulou, the unique residential architecture of Fujian Province in southeastern China, was inscribed on the UNESCO's World Heritage List July 6, 2008 during the 32nd session of the World Heritage Committee held in Quebec of Canada, bringing the total number of Chinese properties on the list to 36. Definitely too much to take in over a short weekend, but well worth the quick visit. Better hurry and visit before the rest of China discovers them.

For more photos visit my Picassa album at: TulouTour

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Photos

Zhencheng Building
Located at Hongkang Village, Hukeng town, Yongding County Zhencheng Building was finished in 1912, but its construction was launched five years earlier.
Its constructors are three brothers in late Qing Dynasty. The three - Lin Deshan, Lin Zhongshan and Lin Renshan - were born in poverty but later became rich by becoming tobacco farmers.

Long Life
The local residents of the Tulous seem to enjoy a very relaxed and extended life.

Idle Chatter
Local men inside the Tulou sharing their many experiences.

Daily Life in the Tulou
The residents don't seemed too bothered with visitors in their home. Daily life continues as usual.

Rusheng Building
Circular Tulou about 23 meters in diameter built during the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1875-1908)

Ancestor Memorial
Tribute to their parents. Many generations have lived in the Tulou over the years.

Tulou - Earthen Houses
David makes note of the Chinese characters for Tulou.

Tianluokeng Cluster
Looking down on the village from the mountain top.

Tulou Police Station?
Fortunately we did not need to visit the police station.

Greetings from the locals
Very friendly locals every where we visited. They all seem to live a relaxed and carefree life.

Comments

[Holden]

Mind Blowing
Hey Dad, good pics and info. I like how you arranged it. Keep posting. Holden