Visit to Tulou

Last Thursday, we took a bus to visit Tulou in Nanjing county. A tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth building.

After we arrived at the scenic spot, I was impressed by the beautiful scenery around me. Full of mountains and trees, the whole area brought us close to nature. The weather was nice at noon. In fact, we took this decision as a group through a democratic voting procedure! And in the end, it turned out to be the right day to go on a trip.

We first visited a group of Tulou named “four dishes and one soup”. The name derives from the different shapes of each building. The four round-shaped buildings represent dishes, and the square-shaped one in the middle represent the soup. After taking a group picture outside, we paid a visit inside the buildings.

The first floor of Tulou buildings are all full of stands selling homemade tea and some other snacks. There were also beautiful paintings about Tulou hanging on the wall. Crowded with tourists, the building seemed not a peaceful place to live at all. We had a look at the structure inside Tulou, which showed harmony between those families lived together

Later we visited the oldest Tulou building in Fujian province, which was built about 700 years ago. It consists of five floors and was built by five families. The most interesting thing is that the pillars holding the whole building are oblique. It has been standing there for centuries despite people’s fear over safety.

At last, we went to an ancient village named Taxia village. The village is famous for its clear mountain stream and various bridges on it. We learned about the history and stories of Hakka people who lived there.

Although my back suffered from the long bus trip, it was a nice day! I also learned more about Fujian province. I hope we may have chances to go out again later.

Ruyue – 12 May 2015