永定土楼 Yongding Hakka Earth Buildings

Wanting to do something in the week-long holiday for Chinese National Day rather than stay at Xiang'an campus the whole time, Izzy consulted her Lonely Planet China book and we settled on the idea of going to see the 土楼 tǔlóu, meaning earth buildings in English.They're situated in the mountains of 永定 Yǒngdìng county in the south of Fujian province meaning that they aren't too far away from Xiamen and are therefore fairly easy and cheap to get to. Two of our friends, Robin - a Chinese student who volunteered to show us round when we were here in March, and Sam - one of the others who came from Southampton in March and is now studying a Master's in International Relations on the main Xiamen University campus, agreed to come with us. We met up with them on Tuesday to discuss the trip a bit more and buy bus tickets. Conveniently there's a train and bus ticket office on the main university campus so we didn't have far to go after meeting up with the other two. Robin organised buying the tickets for 1pm the next day, it is useful/easier having a native speaker with us at times! The tickets cost 58元 (about £5.90) from Xiamen long distance bus station to the Tulou.

The 土楼 were built by the Hakka people who migrated to Fujian from the north of China hundreds of years ago and constructed these impressive multi-storey buildings out of earth, rice and bamboo as well as other materials they could find. The most famous are the round ones but they were also built in squares as well. They are sometimes described as early apartment buildings due to them housing hundreds of people on usually up to four floors. Some of the 土楼 are still inhabited by clans and families today although there are often spare rooms for visitors. We decided that to get the most authentic experience we should try to stay in one of them which meant that we couldn't organise accommodation or return ticket until we got there!

As soon as we got off the bus at about 4pm, a small Chinese lady pounced on us asking if we needed a place to stay and if we wanted to look at the rooms she had available in her 土楼 by the bus stop, a convenient location. The lady led us to a small shop/restaurant/reception area for her business and we booked our bus tickets back for 2:50pm the next day through her costing 60元 (about £6 meaning that she was getting a 2元 profit compared to what we paid for the way there). She then took us across to the 土楼 to look at rooms. We loved it straight away as the place had lots of character with the many chickens wandering around and clear evidence that the building was still lived in. We decided to get two rooms, a three-bed and a single room, for the 4 of us costing 45元 (about £4.60) each. Not bad for a unique experience! The 土楼 didn't have a bathroom or toilets though...

Inside the 土楼where we stayed the night

Our luxury hotel 

After paying for the rooms and being given the keys we went off on a tour around to see various 土楼 scattered around the mountains. It was too far to walk so the only options were go by car, 80元 （about £8 a person. A rip-off as it had cost us less than that for the three-hour bus journey to get there), or motorbike at 40元 each (about £4. The price had started at 60元 but we managed to get it down a little bit). Being students we of course went for the cheaper, and probably more fun, option of going by motorbike, three on each bike. The drivers took us up through the mountains and along dirt tracks to visit the more remote buildings, some of the views were stunning. We went inside one round one where we had to pay 10元 (about a £1) to have a look around. After that we went into a couple of square ones as they were free and we didn't really think that the round ones would vary that much!

Entrance to a 土楼

Very impressive buildings!

Over here! Me inside a 土楼

Izzy and I with the motorbike driver

It started to get dark and we couldn't really see much so we decided to head back to get some food and an early night. The lady who'd sold us the bus tickets and the rooms for the night had told us that we could go into the main 土楼 area for free if we went at 4am so the plan was to get up very early! However, once we got to our rooms I think we all wondered if we would actually sleep. We could hear fireworks, pigs squealing and the sound of KTV (karaoke - a big thing in China) as we were trying to fall asleep. We did manage to get some sleep in the end and woke up to the 3:30am alarm.

Mine, Izzy and Robin's room. The bed closest to the camera was mine, the other in the shot was Izzy's

Mine, Izzy and Robin's room. Robin's bed

Fireworks preventing us from sleeping!

The lady was right that we didn't need to pay as we entered the 土楼 area at 4am but it was cold, dark and we couldn't really see anything! After wandering around for a little while, we came across a small restaurant where the owners were busy getting things ready for breakfast, the lady still in her pyjamas. Although they weren't yet open, they took pity on us and allowed us to use the toilet and sit around while we waited for breakfast to be ready - boiled eggs and beef balls about an hour later after our arrival. We left the restaurant at abou 5:30am as it was getting light. Unfortunately just before 6am we got caught by security who told us that we needed to buy tickets even though we'd gone there so early. Seems like we got up early for nothing! We got student discount as well meaning that the tickets we originally thought were going to cost 90元 (about £9), were actually 45元 （about £4.60).

土楼 at about 5:30am

My ticket with the time 5:57.36 - proof of how early it was!

Now that it was light and we had our tickets we were free to wander around, have a look at the buildings and take a few tourist snaps. It was interesting to see the local people still living a fairly traditional life with a market selling vegetables and meat as well as women washing clothes in the river.

Tourist photo

Vegetable market stall

Mobile butcher

Another 土楼

Some square 土楼

Laundry day. We wondered if they were just doing it for the tourists but, as it was so early and there were so few people around, this must actually be how they still wash clothes

Growing crops

Not entirely sure what he was doing but there were loads of these mats around

Sam, Izzy, me, Robin

Apparently this tree was over 600 years old

By about 7:30am we felt like we'd seen all there was to see but had the slight issue of our bus back to Xiamen not being for another 7 hours. We went along to the bus station to try and get onto the 7:30 bus but it was full. The lady working there said that she would let us know if we could leave on the next bus at 12:30 but that it was unlikely. With plenty of time to kill, we went off to have our second breakfast of the day before wandering around the village and up the road where the bikes had taken us the evening before. We found a path leading off the road and decided to go for a little explore. It took as along over a couple of streams and up to a dam that seemed to still be under construction. From there we continued up a track, covered in earth from landslides, up the mountain. We saw quite a few tombs along the way but Robin told me it was disrespectful to take photos. 

World Heritage Site stone

Izzy on the dam

Impromptu hike

On our way back down the mountain we got a call from the lady at the bus station telling us that we could leave at 12:30 after all. This was good news except for the fact that we only had 45 minutes to get back there and it had taken us about 2 hours to get to where we were! We realised that our only way was to hitchhike so we went back down to the road and walked along with our arms out until a nice Chinese family from Guangdong - father, grandmother, grandfather and two children - stopped and allowed us to sit in the boot. I got to practise my Chinese as Robin seemed to think they'd be more likely to pick up foreigners! Unfortunately the car couldn't take us to the bus station as it was locals only in that area so we ended up running for about a kilometre to get there in time but needn't have worried as when we got there the bus was late as the driver was having his lunch. 

All a bit of an adventure!

Sam and Robin in the back of the Chinese family's car