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Published: April 20th 2017
When I travel in China, I am always impressed about the thousand years old history and the fascinating places someone might encounter along the way.
One of the places is the Fujian Tulou which is an area of 46 buildings constructed between the 15th and 20th centuries in south-west of Fujian province.
Around these structures are tremendously beautiful rice and tea fields.
The first Tulou I visited was a few floors high, round in shape with lovely baskets hung just outside on the balcony tegether with clothes.
I had a great feeling when I entered in one of these roundhouses and this brought me back to the time of when I was a child, remembering the house of my grandperents where we lived in and where everything was basic and essential.
This is what made me fell in love with this part of the world, living where everything is beautiful and very simple with wonderful people.
By the way, the "Tulou" could house about 800 hundred people.
The interior of these amazing structure is finely decorated and it is a beautiful example of human settlement.
They were used also as a defense agaist
the invaders during the wars and conflicts.
In particular, I love to see these traditional villages with the elder people gathering outside chatting, laughing and welcoming you with a broad smile.
I could see people working outside of their farm feeding their courtyard animals, washing their clothes, by hand, along the stream and smiling at me everytime I stopped watching them in performing their daily activities.
I was walking further up toward a famous tulou cluster that is best viewed from the top of the hill, when I saw a woman collecting her crop and asked her what was it but I could not get the word she spelt, probably she said that in her regional dialect, and this is one of the things that make learning Mandarin Chinese not easy, with the many local dialects that are present in every province allover China.
On my way up I crossed a little bridge that led to another fascinating Tulou and, there, I met two Chinese girls that were very kind to accompany me to visit the other structures.
We finally got to the top and the view was really awesome, Tianluokeng tulou cluster was one
of my favourite also for the location. These are five structures with a square one at the center, which is the oldest one, built in 1796, called "Buyunlou", three circular one and an oval one surrounding the central tulou.
This Tulou cluster is called the Snail Pit village.
On our way back to the village we saw fields of orange trees and, in one, there was the farmers that sold them and he gently welcome us inside his field and let us to choose which one to pick.
at the end we did not pay anything and continued our stroll to the entrance of this area.
Here, in this marvellous land, I always feel at home and the generosity of the people is immense. I would love to move somewhere and finding such friendly locals and this spectacular countryside.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Fujian Tulou
Lovely to read of your recognition of the friendliness of the Chinese when you enter their daily lives, Marcos. It is one of the reasons Denise and I have travelled so extensively in China. The Tulou dwellings in Fujian Province has been in our sights for many years but yet to get there. Thanks for the reminder.