Day tour to Prince of Tulou-Hongkeng Earthing Building Cluster

After breakfasts, your guide and driver will escort you from the hotel to Hongkeng Tulou Cultural Village in Yongding County. The driving distance is about 3 hours.

The Hongkeng Earth Building Cluster is a residence of the Lin family. It was firstly built in the middle of the 16th century (Ming Dynasty). There are dozens of earthen houses of various types such as mansion house-style, circular, square, palace-style and other types of earth buildings. The current population in Hongkeng village who live in the earth buildings is around 2400. It is an ancient building group that embodies the extraordinary wisdom of the ancient Chinese people.
There are 13 large-scale earth buildings here built in the Ming Dynasty including Fengsheng Building and Yongyuan Building. And 33 large-scale earth buildings including Fuyulou, Kuijulou, Yanglinlin and Zhongzhulou which were built in Qing Dynasty.

Have a Chinese lunch in the village. Later, continue visit the earth buildings.

Zhengcheng Building: Featured as “the prince of the earth buildings”. At the World Architecture Model Exhibition held in Los Angeles in April 1986, Zhencheng Lou was displayed along with the Lama Temple and the Great Wall. Built in 1912, it covers an area of 5,000 square meters. It has a girder-lifting frame, with two laps- inside and outside. It was designed according to the traditional Chinese BaGua (eight diagrams) which affects Chinese people even till now.
Rusheng Building, the smallest circular building. Because it shapes the rice liter (called “Sheng” in Chinese) made by the hakka people, the building gained its name Rusheng which literally means “like the rice liter”. Many tourists call it a "pocket earth building." Rusheng Building is of single ring structure, the diameter is only 8 meters.

Fuyu Building, magnificent mansion style building. The construction began in 1880 and cost a fortune for more than 100,000 silver dollars. It took about three years to complete. Covering an area of more than 7,000 square meters, the Fuyu Building is one of the few sumptuous earth buildings. It is now also served as a local guest house for those who want to experience the local hakka life here.

Kuiju Building: Kui Ju Building was built in 1834 with a history of more than 160 years. The construction lasted about five years. It covers an area of 6,000 square meters and about 15 meters in height. There are 24 households with 107 people living inside.

Huanji Building: Built in 1693, the greatest feature of Huanji Building is the extremely strong seismic performance. It has experienced many earthquakes over 300 years. At the center point of the Huanji Building, if pedaling hard or speaking loudly, you can hear the clear echo, just like the whispering wall of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

After the tour, transfer back to Xiamen. You may rest on the vehicle during the three hour drive.