Fujian Tulou

Fujian Tulou Introduction

Brief Introduction

Fujian Tulou, mostly built between the 12th to the 20th centuries, is a unique kind of rammed earth building of the Hakka and other people in the mountainous areas in southwestern Fujian province in China. Tulou is usually a large enclosed building, rectangular or circular in configuration, with a very thick weight supporting earth wall and wooden skeletons, from three to five storey's high, housing up to 80 families. These earth buildings usually have o­nly o­ne main gate, guarded by 4-5 inch thick wooden doors reinforced with an outer shell of iron plate. The top level of these earth building have gun holes for defense against bandits. Now many tulou buildings have been inscribed by UNESCO as World Heritage Site.

Zhenchenglou, nicknamed "the prince of tulou", belongs to Hongkeng Tulou cluster. It is located in Hongkeng village, Hukeng township of Yingding county. Zhenchenglou is a double ring tulou, its outer ring is 4 storey high, total 184 rooms, the inner ring is 2 storey with 32 rooms. The outer ring was partitioned into four segments according to Bagua concept of Chinese Fengshui.
 
Chengqilou nicknamed "the king of tulou", of Gaobei Tulou cluster at Gaotou village was built in 1709. It is massive rotunda tulou with four concentric rings surrounding an ancestral hall at the center, the outer ring is 62.6 meter in diameter and 4 storey tall 288 rooms, with 72 rooms o­n each level, circular corridor o­n 2nd to 4th floor, with 4 sets of staircases at cardinal points connecting ground to top floors.
 
Yuchanglou is a five-story tulou located at Nangjing county Shuyang district Xiabanliao village. It was built in 1308 Yuan dynasty by the Liu family clan. It is o­ne of the oldest and tallest tulou in China. Yuchanglou has been nicknamed the "zigzag building", because the vertical wooden post structure is not straight and perpendicular, but zigzags left and right. It was built that way due to an error measuring the building materials. But in spite of this apparent infirmity, this tall tulou withstood 700 hundred years of natural elements and social turmoil. Yuchanglou's outer ring is 36 m in diameter and boasts five stories, with 50 rooms o­n each floor.
 
The Fujian Tulou is the most representative and best preserved examples of the tulou of the mountainous regions of south-eastern China. The relationship of the massive buildings to their landscape embodies both Feng Shui principles and ideas of landscape beauty and harmony.
 

Fujian Tulou Features

Long History
The architecture form of Tulou came into being in Song and Yuan Dynasties, and afterwards, Tulou is continuously being mended and optimized into better structures. In 80s of 20th century, the Tulou in Yongding County was o­nce mistaken by the United States as mushroom-shaped nuclear equipments. While they don’t know that the Tulou has stand o­n earth for several centuries before the first mushroom cloud raised.
 
Special Architecture Structure
Tulou is the unique clay building in mountain areas in the world. They were built as the original physical features with appropriate arrangements. Most of the Tulou in Yongding County has three features in common: distinct axis, nuclear hall and corridors leading to all directions. Besides the common round shape, the Tulou also has quadrate o­nes. The exquisite structures, convenient functions and large scale make the Tulou world-famous.

Fujian Tulou Tickets

Admission fee: RMB 50~100/person
 
Opening hours: The whole day

Fujian Tulou Transporation

Transportation
The Fujian Tulou buildings are scattered in mountainous Southwestern region of Fujian province, connected to Longyan City and Zhangzhou City by winding mountain roads. However there are highways from these two cities to Xiamen or Fuzhou. There are commuter buses from these cities to Longyan or Zhangzhou, about 4 hours drive each way.