Magnificent Earth (Tulou) Building in Fujian

Post Time: Sep 15 2011 By Charlie Chan

Driving up north out of Xiamen, getting to the ShenHai High way, and passing Zhangzhou city, with an exit at Nanjing, the road signs will lead you to different Fujian local earth buildings, also called Tulou building.

In order to avoid the natural and man-made disasters, the people from Central Plains moved to the south in Xia and Shang Dynasty, and gradually they formed the Hakkas people groups, settling in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. The Hakkas people lived in the mountains and they built up the earth buildings where the whole clan could stay in and could also defend against the enemy’s invasion. After hundreds of years, the Hakkas earth buildings still exist and become the cultural heritage.

The earth building groups in Nanjing county of Zhangzhou city is the closest one to Xiameng. Tianluokeng Earth Building group is one of the big ones, which is about 2.5hours ride away from Xiameng. Our tours starts from this Tianluokeng Earth Building group. At the entrance of the reception center of Tianluokeng Earth Building group, we need to change to the local shuttle bus and the Tianluokeng Earuth Building is behind the mountains. The scenery on the way is already beautiful and we can also see the earth buildings along the road, not very big though. The earth building group is actually a village, the villages have already built up some building with different styles. Even though, we can still feel the grandness of the earth building group.

This is a very classical photography angle of the Earth Building. Most of the earth buildings are round and square in shape.

Let’s change another angle, the earth buildings high and low around the mountains

There is only one gate for the earth building, both for entry and exit. The earth building usually consists of rammed earth outer wall and internal wooden framework.. The solid and firm out wall can well defend against the enemy’s invasion and the internal wooden framework is dry and comfortable, good for living. The well preserved earth buildings have a history of more than 700 years

The overlooking of the earth building is like a small stadium

The earth building has a spacious yard. A temple is built in the middle of the earth building, for the worship of the whole clansmen

The earth building is getting more and more commercial these days, due to the opening to tourists and the increase of the vendors. From the second floor of the earth building, we can find out that the upright columns lean to different directions, which is quite against the stability principle of architecture.

The earth building is full of rich flavor of life. Local people are drying medical herb or vegetables in front of the building

There might be their favorite local bacon in the baskets

An old lady with a peaceful looking

Life here is far away from the noise of the big cities, it is peaceful and relaxing

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