Xiamen: Tulou Earth Buildings: Spring Festival 2023

The buildings are in three main areas, each about 20 minutes from the other. By far the most famous is the 'four dish one soup' buildings and so we finished up the day there. 

From Xiamen, the Tulou Earth Buildings are about a 2 hour drive and so a nice easy day trip. I found and hired a driver for the day as the bus and train schedule looked complicated and truly not fun. He picked me up from my hotel and off we went. 

The first area was actually the most authentic of the three as fewer people seemed to visit it. From buying a ticket, I was pointed down a path next to a river, which proved to very very quiet and picturesque and eventually brought me out by a small town like street. In the river itself, was the town butcher who was just happily standing in water to wash away the blood of whatever animal he was cutting up at the time. I think a pig. All in all, I think the whole area was about a 3km walk along either side of the river and through the woods and a market. After sitting in the car for a few hours, it was a welcome break. 

The buildings themselves were smaller and looked a little less picture perfect and manicured as some of the others so it was a nice authentic feeling place. The families who lived in the buildings were very friendly and particularly curious of me, the random lone foreigner wandering about. From here, my driver took me to a second area which housed the largest buildings of the day. 

The second area, "BaGua House" is over 100 years old and just huge. Within each of the buildings are multiple families. Imagine a slice of cake as one family's home, often extending up 4 or 5 floors, and that's close to the layout of the building. There have been be up to 22 families in the past in just one building. All the houses face onto the central courtyard in which everyone cooks, cleans, socializes and so on. It's a proper self contained colony. Entrance to this building was included in the ticket price for the first location but access was limited to the ground floor. Very quickly some enterprising child approached me and said that for the huge sum of 10y, they would let me go upstairs and get a better look at the place from higher up. This turned out to be a fantastic decision as I took my favourite pictures from up on the top floor. 

This building is often called "the wonky building" as the higher floors do all seem to be at strange angles. I was told many stories but none really rang true. My favourite was that whoever was funding the build stopped paying for the builder's lunch time alcohol and so they deliberately built it a bit wonky. Doubt it's true, but I liked the image. 

This building's other claim to fame was its recent appliance in the Mulan movie (which I did not see) and so prompted a small Mulan trade craze in the small shops. 

The final area is the most photo famous area as it can been seen from the top of a small cliff behind the town. First you walk though the middle area and past a few shops then head up a very long flight of stairs to a viewing platform. The town itself was less impressive but the view from the top was very much so. The platform itself was busy and full of people fighting to get the perfect picture so I didn't stay long. Then I got picked up and we made our way back to Xiamen for my last few nights.