Tu Lou, which means "dirt house" are ancient apartment style buildings made a few hundred years ago. So before I go one to write more about them, I have to say, they are indeed amazing!
There are over 20 000 Tu Lous of various sizes in Fu Jian Province. Tu Lou are built by Harkka people. In direct translation, Harkka means "guest people". They got their name because they were migrants from inner China a thousand years ago. Since they are not indigenous, they are referred to as "guest people". They have their own language, and they are known for being very hardworking and thrifty. Taiwan has a sizable population of Harkka community, so again, this is getting familiar!
The Tu Lous exist in three shapes. Round, square/rectangular and oval. Back in those days, the community needed a way to protect themselves from attacking robbers and bandits, so they invented such structure to enclose themselves. There are no window on the bottom floors facing outside. The windows on the top are not for fun either. They are for spotting and defense against intruders. All of the living amenities face inside.
Entering the Tu Lou, we were immediately greeted by a shrine structure. It's like a building within the building. This is where the residents worship their ancestors. Surrounding the shrine are kitchens where families cook meals. Then, there are the rooms, much like modern day apartments where there is a common corridor with individual rooms and common stair cases.
So how is this amazing?
Well, the material is strikingly amazing. It's made out of dirt, on soft foundation. There were no steel bars, so they used bamboo, and they are all still standing today despite centuries of earthquakes, typhoons, rain, sun, usage etc.
Secondly, in the west, it wasn't until the industrial revolution when people REALLY embraced the concept of living in tight community with shared spaces. I mean, just look around. There are plenty of land for everyone to build their dream home. They can very well have their own courtyard, their own pond to raise ducks and fish, land to farm their own crops and a physical land that they can pass down to their own family. They didn't. For unity and safety sake, they chose to live together, sacrificing the comfort, the ownership and freedom for more sustainable future.
Thirdly, just the concept of living more than one level is a rather big break through conceptually in my opinion, especially a few hundred years ago, when all they had was a need, but no experience or technical knowledge. They used what they had, which was dirt unlike various empires that built their cities using slaves to transport precious material from far way. They also found ways to make use of bamboo, which served the purpose well as strong but flexible rebars.
Then, the Americans thought they saw nuclear missile launch sites when they were peeping on China using their spy satellites because of the strange shaped houses. So they sent their researchers and discovered these hidden treasures. America Fuck Yeah!
Of course, the down side of opening these precious sites to tourists is, while they get the funding to be protected, they also became tourist traps. The locals start to sell souvenirs and they became the exotic creatures in a zoo... or safari. They no longer live the way they would have normally, but live to let me photograph, which I gladly did. I guess there is always a price for everything, just like the fee we had to pay when we entered the region.
and MANY MORE photos HERE!!!!! Click! Click! Click!
