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Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Fujian Tulou

The Fujian tulou are Chinese rural dwellings unique to the in the mountainous areas in southeastern , China. They were mostly built between the 12th and the 20th centuries.

A is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth building, most commonly rectangular or circular in configuration, with very thick load-bearing walls between three and five stories high and housing up to 800 people.

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.

1. Fujian Tulou is found in a relatively small geographical area

Fujian Tulou- Author; Gisling- Wikimedia

Most of the tulou except Dadi tulou in are found in a relatively small geographical area, straddling the boundary between the , , and counties of province.

Some of tulous are also found in neighbouring Guangdong provinces such as in eastern of .

These are administered as a single tourist site (known as the Nanjing Tulou Scenic Area) with its entrance in Shuyang township.

Visits to this area therefore usually comprise a tour of the most distinctive and famous across both the “Yongding” and “Nanjing” tulou groups.

2. Many of its sites were inscribed by UNESCO as World Heritage Site

UNESCO Logo- Author; International Bureau of Education- Wikimedia

A total of 46 Fujian tulou sites were inscribed in 2008 by UNESCO as World Heritage Site, as “exceptional examples of a building tradition and function exemplifying a particular type of communal living and defensive organization [in a] harmonious relationship with their environment”.

3. Has always been  referred to as earth dwelling

Fujian Tulou- Author; Loh Seee Meng- Wikimedia

Since the 1980s, the Fujian Tulou has been variously called “Hakka tulou”, “earth dwelling”, “round strong house” or simply “Tulou”. Tu lou (土楼) literally translates as earthen structures.

Fujian Tulous’s literal translation is “Fujian earthen structures”, and scholars of Chinese architecture have recently standardized the term Fujian Tulou.

4. Fujian Tulou was described by early publications as the home of the Hakka people

A Hakka Woman- Sourse; Republic of China- Wikimedia

Early publications on tulous (the first of which appeared in a journal of in 1957) talked about tulous as the homes of Hakka people, primarily in of southwestern Fujian.

However, by the 1980s, a substantial amount of research was also published on the tulous of the Hakkas’ neighbours, the Southern Fujian people (known in Chinese as the ).

Those are primarily found to the east of Yongding, in particular in and of southeastern Fujian.

Parts of Hakka tulou belong to the Fujian Tulou category. While all south Fujian tulous belong to the Fujian Tulou category, they do not belong to “Hakka Tulou”.

In effect, “Fujian Tulou” is not a synonym for “tulou”, but rather a special subgroup of the latter.

There are more than 20,000 tulous in Fujian, while there are only around three thousand “Fujian Tulou” located in the southwestern region.

Fujian Tulou is however the official name adopted by UNESCO for all dwellings of this type.

5. Its layout followed a Chinese dwelling tradition

Author; Wa 18- Wikimedia

The layout of Fujian tulou followed the Chinese dwelling tradition of the “closed outside, open inside” concept. That is an enclosure wall with living quarters around the peripheral and a common courtyard at the centre.

A small building at the centre with an open front served as an ancestral hall for ancestry worshipping, festivals, meetings, weddings, funerals and other ceremonial functions.

The ground floor plan includes shapes such as circle, semicircle, oval, square, rectangle, and irregular pentagon.

6. Fujian Tulou’s foundation was built with paved stones

Author; Loh Swee Meng- Wikimedia

The foundation of tulou building was built with paved stones on top of compacted earth ground, in two to three tiers. There is a circular drain around the top tier foundation to prevent rainwater from damaging the tulou wall.

In most cases, the weight-bearing outer wall of tulou consists of two sections, the lower section is built from cut stone blocks or river cobbles held together with a lime, sand and clay mixture to a height of about one or two meters, depending upon the regional flood water level.

The compacted earth wall is stacked on top of the stone section. The construction of an earth wall from compacted earth mixed with sticky rice and reinforced with horizontal bamboo sticks was described first in building standard .

7. Its walls were built inclined together such that gravity force pushes them together

Author; Tigerzeng- Wikimedia

The walls were built inclined toward the centre, such that the natural force of gravity pushes the wall together.

This inward inclination method was also used in the construction of the . The thickness of the tulou wall decreases with height as specified in Yingzao Fashi.

The bottom two stories of tulou are solid with no window nor gun hole, windows are open only from the third to fifth stories because rooms at the bottom story served as family storage rooms and the upper stories were living quarters.

8. Its rooftops were initially covered with baked clay tiles

Author; Lennartbj- Wikimedia

The rooftops were covered with baked clay tiles, arranged radially. Atechnique that was used at regular intervals to compensate for larger circumference at the outside.

This technique allowed the tiles to be laid radially without visible gaps, and without the use of small tiles at the top, and larger tiles at the bottom.

The eaves usually extend about two meters, protecting the earth wall from damage by rainwater pouring from the eaves.

The wooden frame supporting the rooftop had no elements common in traditional Chinese buildings.

Circular corridors from the 2nd to the uppermost level were made of wood boards laid on horizontal wooden beams with one end inserted into the earth wall. The corridors are protected with a circle of wooden railings.

Stairwells are distributed evenly around the corridors, four sets of stairwells being the usual number. Each stairwell leads from the ground floor to the highest floor.

9. Luxurious tulous have in house water well for every household

Author; Tigerzeng- Wikimedia

Public water wells in groups of two or three are usually located at the centre court; more luxurious tulous have in-house water well for each household in the ground floor kitchen.

Most tulous have in built water pipes to offer protection to the upper wooden floors against fire (either accidental or as a result of attack).

10.  Fujian Tulou is recognized because of its outstanding universal value

Photo by Alien system on Unsplash

The Fujian Tulou are the most representative and best-preserved examples of the tulou of the mountainous regions of south-eastern China.

The large, technically sophisticated and dramatic earthen defensive buildings, built between the 13th and 20th centuries, in their highly sensitive setting in fertile mountain valleys, are an extraordinary reflection of a communal response to the settlement that has persisted over time.

The tulou, and their extensive associated documentary archives, reflect the emergence, innovation, and development of outstanding art of earthen buildings over seven centuries.

The elaborate compartmentalised interiors, some with highly decorated surfaces, met both their communities’ physical and spiritual needs and reflect in an extraordinary way the development of a sophisticated society in a remote and potentially hostile environment.

The relationship of the massive buildings to their landscape embodies both Feng Shui principles and ideas of landscape beauty and harmony.