a quiet and peaceful village, Yunshuiyao

my previous about this beautiful ancient village

Life under the ancient banyan tree

A beautiful ancient village, Yunshuiyao

Skywatch Friday #77: evening sky in China

the beautiful evening sky

in China, Zhangzhou Nanjing

Tulou area

A beautiful ancient village, Yunshuiyao

Yunshuiyao is an old village in Zhangzhou Nanjing area, where the Fujian tulou buildings located here, actually the place is called Changjiao, a beautiful ancient village which is named after the Changjiao Brook that connects the two famous Tulou-Heguilou and Huaiyuanlou. I have posted about the Tulou here. Along the banks of the brook are ancient banyan trees, (some of them are more than 1000 years old history), ancient building and patches of farm land. A walk through the village will bring you back in time to Chinese traditional rural life. The name Yunshuiyao are named after the film The Knot(Yun Shui Yao) was shot here, that is an romantic love story, the poetic rural scenery add to the romance and purity of the love, which presents a beautiful and untouched village. Since then this small village was renamed "Yun Shui Yao Ancient Town" and become a popular tourist area.

This huge banyan is the biggest banyan in Fujian province, Under the big banyan is a cobblestone-paved old road, stretching to the faraway. A river run under the tree, The actor and actress once walked across the river hand by hand, and this scene has became a classic shot. I was watching a few of couples doing the same pose...

 

 

 

The elegant scenery plus the unique cultural resources has attracted a lot of people here, but as the location is still far from city, the nature of the village still remain.

 

 ...and life is beautiful

 when you know to appreciate the simple happiness.

country side and water wheel, I like the views

Wish you like them too, and thank you for visiting my blog, a slice of my life here and there...



An unique place in China-Fujian Tulou part 5

Continue...Wonderful Fujian Tulou building

 some photos taken during the trip post here:

well inside the Tulou building, every Tulou have it

Tulou house and its lanterns

 after rain, the lovely green brighten the grey theme in the Tulou  

 

stone pathway inside the Tulou

 

rainy rooftop with lovely green moss

 

An unique place in China-Fujian Tulou part 4

Continue...Wonderful Fujian Tulou building

 

Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster

福建土楼 南靖 田螺坑土楼群

Tianluokeng Cluster is one of the better known groups of Fujian Tulou. Located at Nan Jing, an hour away from Zhang Zhou, this is the main tourist attractions for those who really wish to visit the earth houses. But I was in a rush during my trip to Zhangzhou, I couldn't stop by to visit these Tulou buildings, Picture taken from a viewing platform in the nearby hills, so that one can admire the five giant tulou — square, round and oval — from above.

on the way...
 

...models of the Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster are sold everywhere as souvenirs, but I am so interested in thoses stones which people just left them at the corners, it is too heavy for me to bring back to Singapore.

Somewhere in the middle of our two hour journey, the beautiful scenery!

An unique place in China-Fujian Tulou part 3

Continue...Wonderful Fujian Tulou building

...an entry to another Tulou, before Chinese New Year, people will like to do some spring cleaning to get rid of the bad luck in a year,  Families also do some decorations for their homes with red-colored paper-cuts and couplets with ‘good fortune’ or ‘happiness’, ‘wealth’ or ‘longevity’ etc, from the Chinese words shown on the top of the gate"两姓合婚", it means tow different surname of couple get married,  there is a newly married couple stay in the house. :) Not sure what is the special to celebrate.

...the outside look of the building, I was told it was built by clay, sand and brown sugar, according to the locals said the reason why they mixed with sugar is because the walls itself has 2 functions, one is for the protection and the other is the wall itself can be their food supply in case of emergencies like drought, earthquake etc. Not sure if it is stories made up for fun.

珠联合璧，the four Chinese characters means "a happy combination"

 

Life inside the Tulou...Though the Tulou building have become tour attraction, most of the young generations go to other big city to make a living, yet still there are many residences occupy the old building today, they make a living by selling souvenirs, local products such as tea, red mushroom etc...some of them run home stay business too.

 ...continue tomorrow

An unique place in China-Fujian Tulou part 2

...Conitued from An unique place in China-Fujian Tulou part 1

...this round Tulou is Yuchang Lou 裕昌楼, one of the famous Tulou buildings,  it is often also known as "the tilted building "or "zigzag building",  which you cannot see from the outside, but once inside you will see the vertical wooden post structure is not straight and perpendicular, but zigzags left and right. The greatest slant of the supporting pillarsis at an angle of 15 degrees and these are on the corridors to the right and left as you go in.

The building was built in 1308 Yuan dynasty. It is one of the oldest, biggest and tallest round tulou in China, covers an area of 6,358 square meters with 5 storeys and 270 rooms. It was built that way due to an error measuring the building materials. But in spite of this apparent infirmity, this tall tulou withstood 700 years of natural elements and social turmoil.

 

Yuchanglou's outer ring is 36 m in diameter and boasts five storeys, with 50 rooms on each floor.

Each of the 25 kitchens on the ground floor at the back half of the circle has a private water well beside its stove. This is the only tulou in all Fujian with such convenient water supply.

 

The original wooden sculpture, though some of them were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution...

 The interior is mostly wood and bricks

...souvenirs

An unique place in China-Fujian Tulou part 1

Just because of this image on the left I saw from internet a few months ago, I decided to visit this place-Fujian HakkaTulou. ( I am still wondering where to get the angle to take such an amazing picture, though I have taken a lot of photos during my 2 days trip. ) 

UNESCO'S World Heritage Committee added Hakka Tulou earthen houses to its heritage list in July 2008. Since then Fujian Tulou has received plenty of visits, I paid mine in Aug 2012. 

The name Tulou is actually made of 2 Chinese words – tu (土) lou (樓). Tu means earthen in this context, while lou means building. The Hakka dwellings are known as Tulou 土楼, literally meaning “mud buildings”. The border where the three provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi meet is littered with tulou’s. I have been to many places in China in the past 20 years, Fujian Tulou, I will list it as an amazing, unique place of China, a place you shouldn't miss it...I am glad to have a chance to visit one of the villages where those unique old buildings nestled in gorgeous tea and rice terraces in the mountainous, and the new concrete town houses and commercial buildings are just all over built nearby the old houses which most of them have more than 1000 years old history. 

Unlike other popular tourist area, the tulou in Fujian are not easy to get to from any larger city in China. Fujian Tulou buildings are mainly distributed in Longyan Yongding, Zhangzhou Nanjing and Hua An. The nearest big city is Xiamen, it is about 3 hours driving from airport to Zhangzhou Nanjing Tulou, It is better to hire a car or follow a local tour to the places, as all the Tulou buildings are quite spread out in a few different villages in Zhnagzhou.

My first stop is Zhangzhou Nanjing, Yunshuiyao, a very quiet and nice small village to relax during the weekend. One of my friends offer us a one nite stay at the hotel Painting Base in Yun Shui Trackway (漳州云水古道写生基地), it is very near to the Tulou area. We were stopped to buy the tickets at the tourist reception center in Shuyang village. All the prices for the tulou are posted in English & Chinese. Most tickets provide entry into 2-4 different tulou or village areas at 90RMB.  Along the way there are a few of  gate checks to see if tourists are carrying tickets, but yet there are still plenty of locals waiting along the road to offer their transportation, home-stay services and cheaper entry tickets, not sure how does it work. However we follow the rules :) Across the old stone bridges in the left picture is the hotel where we stayed, well, Nanjing (南靖) is a beautiful place, I will post more photos just of it in the next few days.   

...and this is the first Tulou I spotted on the way to hotel, at Zhangzhou Nanjing Yunshui Yao. Even after the tulou received world heritage status and attracted countless visitors, there are still people living within, generation after generation, with a close bonding.

A tulou is usually a large, enclosed building, most rectangular or circular with very thick load-bearing rammed earth walls between three and five stories high and housing up to 80 families. The ground level is for livestock and kitchen; grains and other food stuff are stored on the second level while the higher floors are for living, a common courtyard at the center. The walls are constructed of local materials- mainly mud with straw, reinforced by bamboo strips. The floors are constructed from thick wood panels. The building is designed to be a well-lit, well-ventilated, windproof and earthquake-proof building that is warm in winter and cool in summer.
...the village, the police station and the newly built houses


I visited a few different Tulou buildings during the two days trip, they look about the same,  a traditional communal residence of the Hakka community.  Huaiyuan Lou is one of them, it is probably the finest tulou here. 

Huaiyuanlou includes a ring building and a central hall, it was built in 1909 with four storeys, 136 rooms, residences of generations still occupy the old building today.

Imagine sharing a house with grandparents, parents, siblings and every one of your snotty cousins, sisters-in-laws, brothers-in-laws, and so on, days by days, 80 families not 8 families!!

I  think only Children will be happy, Children are always happy...

...the old uncle was listening to radio and singing a hokian song, I saw a few of locals busy doing in the kitchen, treat our tourist in and out at their house are Transparent.

 

All of the cooking facilities are located in the public courtyard, to minimize the risk of fire in the wood-and-earth structures.

I just cant image how they are leading their life in such an enclosed place, there is no provicy at all.

 

...another Tulou building not far from Huaiyuan lou

Retangular Tulou ( Ancient apartments)

...

to be continued