A 500 year old roundhouse

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Xiayang, China

Jiqinglou, Chuxi Tulou Cluster – Fujian Tulou
That´s the name of the place we spent the night in. It´s a big, round house in four levels. Built of a earth/clay mixed with stones. They were built mainly to defend the villagers from enemies and animals.

We came there after a long trainride (10h with most of our luggage on our lap) on the bullit-train from Shanghai-Long Yen. We met up with the local guides at the station and we had another 1,5h in a private bus on bumpy roads before arriving the tulou.

One of the houses has partly been converted to hostel and a simple café/restaurant where you can get your noodles. Our room was nice with a working heater/AC and an ensuite with hot water.

The next day we started with a tour of the main tulou that is a museum today. Our guide even showed us the secret escape-way out. Then we went on the bus to another village 40 minutes away where we got a lesson in the way of drinking tea again. After that we had a local kind of lunch with homemade wine.

A three km walk through a small village took us to our bus again.
3,5 h later we checked in to the hotel in Xiamen with nice soft beds and pillows. This is a rarety in China. They mostly sleep on planks and hard pillows 🙂

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