One-day Tour of Fujian Hakka Fortified Earth Building (Tulou)

Highlights

• Explore the most extraordinary type of Chinese rural dwelling, the circular Hakka rammed earth buildings, otherwise known as the Fujian Tulou. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is some of the most amazing architecture you will ever see, and you’ll see life continue in the tulou as it has for hundreds of years
• For this tour you will have your own private guide and driver, which will ensure that your day is safe, fun, and hassle-free

Hakka Tulou Tour Itinerary

The Fujian Tulou is "the most extraordinary type of Chinese rural dwellings of the Hakka and others in the mountainous areas in southwestern Fujian. They were mostly built between the 12th and the 20th centuries. A tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth building, rectangular or circular in configuration, with very thick load-bearing rammed earth walls between three and five stories high and housing up to 80 families. Smaller interior buildings are often enclosed by these huge peripheral walls which can contain halls, storehouses, wells and living areas, the whole structure resembling a small fortified city.

Drive about 2.5 hours from your Xiamen hotel to the Tianluokeng tulou cluster in Nanjing County. One square building, three circular buildings, and one oval building form the complex, arranged across the mountainside. View the cluster from above, then explore its architecture and learn about the families associated with these communal residences.

Explore the tulou complex and learn about daily life in these communal buildings. Continue to Yongding, where you will spend the night in a village known for its traditional Hakka earthen architecture.

Visit Yuchanglou, a five-story tulou built in 1308 by the Liu clan in Xiabanliao Village, Nanjing County. Known as the “zigzag building,” it has wooden posts that lean at unusual angles. Its outer ring is about 36 meters in diameter, with 50 rooms on each floor. The ground-floor kitchens include individual wells, a distinctive feature of this historic communal residence.

Visit Chengqi Lou in Yongding County, a large circular tulou built in 1709 and included in the UNESCO-listed Fujian Tulou group. Four concentric rings surround a central ancestral hall. The four-story outer ring measures about 62.6 meters across, with rooms traditionally used for kitchens, grain storage, and family living quarters. Explore the shared corridors and courtyards to understand how the building supports communal life.

Other buildings in this cluster include: a three ring Shenyuanlou, outer ring 70m diameter; a Wujiaolou (pentagon) with irregular pentagonal floor plan and a rectangular tulou, the Shi-Ze lou.

After our visit to Chengqi Lou you will be drive back to your hotel in Xiamen, ending your tour.