A new UNESCO World heritage: Fujian Tulou

UNESCO held a session on July 7, 2008 in Quebec city, Fujian Tulou was added to the UNESCO World Heritage

Site list.<p>

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1113

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<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/7367630-lg.jpg"width=700><P>

Zhen Cheng Building in Yongding county, Longyan city, Fujian province <P>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/7514669-lg.jpg"width=700><P>

Snail Pit tulou quintet, Nanjing county, Zhangzhou city, Fujian<P>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/7514673-lg.jpg"width=700><P>

Interior of a 1308 5 storey community earth building, in Nanjing county, probably the earliest high rise community

apartment concept building in the world.

Zhangzhou city, Fujian. <P>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/7514677-lg.jpg"width=700><P>

Residents of tulou playing cards<P>

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Martin - thanks for the news. Some interesting photos, what camera/lens/film did you use? And when did you go there and

where did you stay? Any tips/thoughts on visiting there?

Richard, I visited Zhangzhou and Yongding near the end of October of 2007. I shot with R5+ Elmarit 19/2.8, Kodak

ASA 200 color film and Lumix FZ30 digital camera.<P>

I flew from Shanghai to Xiamen on Eastern Airlines, you can book airline ticket from www.elong.net

or www.ctrip.com with good discount from abroad, paid by MC or Visa. But it is preferable to

book ticket 2 to 3 days before flight, you get more discount that way. We booked our tickets from travel agent

stationed in a Shanghai hotel<P>

We stayed in Xiamen for one day visiting various local attraction. Then on the next day went to the long distance

bus terminal at Hubinlu ( lake shore road)

to enquire private bus to visit Zhangzhou tulou and Yongding tulou. If you go there, that is the the prefereable

transportation, don't take the publi bus, they stop only at the city of Zhangzhou or Yongding,

there will be at least another 2 hour car ride to the tulous sites<P>

I can't remember what the rate was, but it was quite reasonable. Don't expect private taxi for two, although the

agent told us so, but we end up sharing a small van with 3 other people, it was ok.

There are good highway from Xiamen to Zhangzhou, it took 2 hours, then turned into winding mountain roads for

rocky ride for another 2 hour, and arrived a small hotel at distination. The one night hotel plus

dinner and breakfast for two were included in the package. <P>

The country hotel was small but neat, with a hot water sink and a toilet. The Hakka style meal was ok.

Or you can choose to stay overnight at the hostess's tulou across the street, but with in inconvenience of using

public washrooms.<P>

The tour started after lunch and ended at evening dinner time. The next days we had another half day sightseeing

trip, back to hotel, had lunch and board a van back to Xiamen.

There are day trips from Xiamen to Yongding tulou, but I strongly suggest against this, as it took

4 hour one way, 8 hours to and fro, people end up with only a hour or 1.5 hr for site seeing, you are going to miss a

lot of important tulou sites<P>

Stay over one or more days is preferable. We stayed one night, and was able to see nearly all the most famous

tulous, such as the king Chengqilou, the prince Zhengchenglou, the Snail Pit tulou quintet, the oldest

tulou built in Yuan dynast 1308, and Chuxi tulou group etc<P>

We still misssed Eryilou, if I could stay one more night......<P>

You must bring your widest lens with you, my Elmarit 19mm not wide enough, not able to capture the

complete circular sky<P> You also need a digital SLR to save you from constant changing film<p>

The hostess arrange different vans to take us to various sites. At the sites, usually the owner of the

earth building served as tour guide, you are pretty free to go around inside outside upstairs downstairs

to explore the architecture, the defense system, the secret passage ways, gunholes etc on your own<P>

Mosquito, yes, we brought a small bottle of Deep Wood insect repellent with use and a Sunbean ultrasound

mosquito repeller, it worked.<P>

The entrance fee for each tulou was not included in the travel package, but the fee was minimu.

The tulou is a unique architecture, with strong defense capability, it was also a habitat for equals, all rooms were

built the same size and style, no special treatment for patriarch or upper class, no penthouse for the affluent, every

family owned a compete set, from ground floor to "penthouse", they even shared farmlands--- that was habitat of

Utopia.<P>

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, regards, martin

martin, thanks for sharing your experience. there was a bbc documentary called wild china last month. i never knew parts of china was so breathtakingly beautiful. they also covered this building in some detail. so it was nice to see your shots. do you have all the shots in some special gallery somewhere?

best regards

Starvy, I have a Tulou folder here:<P>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=789365">Fujian Tulou</a>