Last Wednesday, to be exact on the 9th of November we went to Nanjing, which is a small town in Fujian Province, and saw plenty of wonderful landscapes. We had been planning for this cultural activity since 2 weeks ago, and everybody was very excited about this special outdoor activity. According to the coordinator Ms. Lee, the most worth-seeing scenery spot is Tulou, which is the name to describe buildings built by Hakka people. Let’s see!
Our local tour guide was a lovely young lady; her name is Candy. She introduced us about the custom and culture of Hakka people. Questions like “where is their origin?”, “where do they mainly live?”, “What does Tulou look like?” are answered by detailed descriptions. Unfortunately, we encountered a traffic jam on our way to Nanjing, so the schedule was delayed for 3 hours. Even though the bus ride took longer than expected, we all still had high spirits. Some girls started singing songs together, and we didn’t feel bored on the way to Tulou. When we finally arrived, it was almost lunch time. We were divided into 4 groups and filled ourselves up with tasty Hakka food. Most of the vegetables were organic, and were handled with Hakka style of cuisine. And those dishes were new to both Chinese and Dutch students. 
Our first sight is a round-shaped Hakka building, which is named Yuchang building. The exterior appearance of it is more like a giant mushroom. That is to say, the main body is cylindrical and the roof on the top of the cylinder is huge and outstretched. After we entered the front gate, we saw the inner structure of Tulou. Yuchang building is a 5-floor architecture. Each floor is functionally different. The first floor is kitchen, the second and third floor are living spaces. Hakka people are very hospitable. When we walked around and looked around, they warmly treated us with tea and cookies. Some of them are happy to chat with us, asking where we came from. I can see that they are curious about the outer world. There’s a small cabin inside the Tulou. According to hakka people, the cabin is used for worshipping. They have a statue of Buddha on the shrine and worship it on some special days of lunar calendar.
Then we took a shuttle bus to a group of Tulou buildings. This is one of the most famous scenes of Tulou scenery area and I saw it many times on the welcome boards and brochures. Hakka people gave it a name “Four dishes and one soup”. You can see from the photo we took below. They are actually 5 Tulou with different shapes. There are round-shaped, oval-shaped and square-shaped and that is where this spot gets its name. We went downstairs and while observing them from above, Candy took a picture of us with Tulou. We went back home late at night. And everyone was so tired!
