The hillside view
Rings in the valley.
Vincent — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Zhangzhugang — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zhangzhugang — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zhangzhugang — CC BY-SA 3.0 · 高晶 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gisling — CC BY-SA 3.0 · 文子言木 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zhangzhugang — CC BY-SA 3.0
A Hakka village of the Xu family, settled in this mountain valley since the fourteenth century, where thirty-six round and square tulou are scattered among terraced fields; ten of them joined «Fujian Tulou» on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2008, and all their names share the character «qing», celebration, a wish for many descendants. The largest and oldest is Jiqing Lou, built in 1419 under the Ming, with two rings: an outer one of four storeys with 53 rooms on each floor, split by seventy-two staircases into seventy-two separate units each with its own stairs, and a single-storey inner ring. Chuxi is at its most beautiful seen from the hill opposite, when the round houses look like rings scattered through the valley between green mountains; it is quieter and more remote than the Hongkeng and Gaobei clusters. Tickets cost about CNY 70, and it opens from 6.30 am into the evening, per visitor guides.
Rings in the valley.
72 staircases.
On the valley slopes.
Chuxi village, Xiayang town, Yongding District, Longyan, Fujian
Hongkeng is the easiest, with the best-known houses, and Gaobei is close by with the «King of Tulou»; Chuxi is farther but the most beautiful from the hills, and quieter.