South China
The tulou are communal rammed-earth buildings — round, square, some four storeys high — built by Hakka and Minnan clans between the twelfth and twentieth centuries. Thirty of the finest, in Nanjing and Yongding counties, are UNESCO listed.
The case for going
The famous four-round-one-square composition, best from the hillside viewing platform at sunset.
The oldest and most lopsided of the round buildings, its timber frame visibly leaning after 700 years.
A riverside Zhang clan village with a 23-arch stone bridge and the stepped ancestral hall.
Five round buildings and thirty square ones in one valley, with far fewer visitors than Tianluokeng.
Salt-baked chicken, taro and pork belly, served at the long tables inside the earthen walls.
Practical
Subtropical, wet. Warm all year, heaviest rain May to August.
No airport — access is by road from Xiamen (2.5 hours) or Zhangzhou (1.5 hours), or by HSR to Nanjing station plus 40 minutes by car.
Airport. Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport (via Xiamen) (XMN)
Rail. Nanjing station on the Longyan–Xiamen line puts the Tianluokeng cluster 40 minutes away by car.
In pictures
Questions travellers ask
Two days: Tianluokeng's four-round cluster and the Yunshuiyao riverside village on day one, with Yuchang and Taxia's quieter valleys on day two.
Yunshuiyao village for the riverside evening, or inside a restored tulou itself — the overnight is what turns the cluster from a photo stop into the memory of the route.
Drive from Xiamen, about 2.5 to 3 hours, with the coastal rail to Nanjing as an option on the way. Most routes take a car for the flexibility between the valleys.
Yes — the fortified roundhouses are a UNESCO world-heritage vernacular unlike anything else, and the valley villages between them are the quiet heart of Fujian.
Routes through here
South China
5days
Fujian packs three different Chinas into one province: the Hakka earth buildings inland, the Arab-and-Indian trading port on the coast, and the colonial island of Xiamen. Five days, one high-speed line, no backtracking.
From US$1,300per person
Combine it with
Where to stay
Tsingpu · Ultra Luxury
A restored earth-building compound in Taxia village, run as a cultural retreat: twenty-odd rooms inside rammed-earth walls, wooden galleries, and a programme of paper-cutting, tea and Hakka cooking with village teachers.
From US$320 per night
Valid to 2027-03-31
