Fujian Tulou

Tulou (“earthen buildings”) are the communal homes built by Hakka and Minnan (Hokkien) families in the remote hills of south-west Fujian, mostly in Yongding and Nanjing counties. Their outer walls of rammed earth can be well over a metre thick, with few windows low down and usually one main gate, which made them easy to defend. Inside, rings of rooms several storeys high face an open courtyard, often with an ancestral hall at the centre; traditionally kitchens were on the ground floor, grain stores above and bedrooms higher up. A single large tulou could house hundreds of people from one clan. In 2008 UNESCO listed 46 of them, built between the 15th and 20th centuries, as the Fujian Tulou World Heritage site; many are still lived in and open to visitors, usually as a long day trip by road from Xiamen.