Four dishes and a soup
From the hill.
Scott Edmunds — CC BY 2.0 · Windmemories — CC BY-SA 4.0 · gdczjkk — CC BY 3.0 · sunoochi — CC BY 2.0 · Zhangzhugang — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Motohiro Sunouchi — CC BY 2.0 · gdczjkk — CC BY 3.0 · gdczjkk — CC BY 3.0
The best-known group of Fujian's «tulou» earthen buildings, in the mountain village of Tianluokeng in Nanjing County, one of 46 Fujian tulou sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008. The cluster has a square building at the centre ringed by three round ones and a fourth oval one, nicknamed «four dishes and a soup»; from the hill above it looks like dishes on a table among green fields and mountains. Tulou are huge fortified homes built by the Hakka, with earthen walls up to about two metres thick, three to five storeys high and a single entrance; one building could house up to eighty families around a shared courtyard, and some are still lived in. Tickets are about CNY 90, covering Tianluokeng, Yuchang Lou and Taxia village, per visitor guides. The road from Xiamen is long, so set off early, or stay a night in a tulou turned guesthouse.
From the hill.
Two metres thick.
Communal life.
Nanjing County, about three hours west of Xiamen
Round or square fortified homes built by the Hakka with thick earthen walls, housing dozens of families around a shared courtyard; UNESCO-listed since 2008, with Tianluokeng tickets about CNY 90.