Fujian Tulou: Small World in the Rectangular or Circular Buildings

Fujian Tulou is a type of Chinese rural dwellings of the Hakka and Minnan people in the mountainous areas in southeastern Fujian, China. They were mostly built between the 12th and the 20th centuries.

A Tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth building, most commonly rectangular or circular in configuration, with very thick load-bearing rammed earth walls between three and five storeys high and housing up to 80 families. 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.

The fortified outer structures are formed by compacting earth, mixed with stone, bamboo, wood and other readily available materials, to form walls up to 6 feet (1.8 m) thick. Branches, strips of wood and bamboo chips are often laid in the wall as additional reinforcement. The result is a well-lit, well-ventilated, windproof and earthquake-proof building that is warm in winter and cool in summer. Tulous usually have only one main gate, guarded by 100–130 mm thick wooden doors reinforced with an outer shell of iron plate. The top level of these earth buildings has gun holes for defensive purposes.

A total of 46 Fujian Tulou sites, including Chuxi Tulou cluster, Tianluokeng Tulou cluster, Hekeng Tulou cluster, Gaobei Tulou cluster, Dadi Tulou cluster, Hongkeng Tulou cluster, Yangxian Lou, Huiyuan Lou, Zhengfu Lou and Hegui Lou, have been 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".