As promised - more photos of the Fujian Hakka houses, I'm hoping that you all took time to read up on their history, for as much as we try - we are not a good source for any factual information. I think proof of that would be that we mostly link to Wikipedia as a source.
Ok, the above is one of the later ones that we visited, where the inner temple was also part of a two story ring of housing. So, a ring within a ring, the inner being two stories and the outer four stories of families all living in, what we would like to believe, perfect harmony....
Another interesting tidbit about these houses is that they are on a tentative list to be a UNESCO World Heritage site, and as shown in the below photo the UNESCO Afficials noted the specialized tea that was produced in their region.
This was the man who lived in there, he was exceptionally proud to show off and serve their tea. The tea was excellent and we ended up buying a kilo, it is the tea that we are drinking now, pretty much every day.
This is the driver and our guide enjoying tea with us, in the background you can see Christine getting close up photos of either a local, the architecture, or maybe just a chicken.
The four of us in front of our last stop, Chengqilou - the King of Tulou
The Chengilou Tulou is absolutely amazing, it is actually four separate rings. The outer is four stories with 72 rooms on each level, the second ring is two stories with 40 rooms per floor, the third ring is 32 rooms, and the final center is a community center and temple.
Between the rings at Chengqilou
It is really hard to show the grandeur of this place, these last two photos are from the top floor. It is a lot of work trying to capture all the rings along with the outside scenery. All that and it was built in 1709...While there we also had an incredible meal of some local dishes and managed to see a wedding party where the woman was being carried along in a palanquin. Just an absolutely great way to spend a Saturday...
No comments:
Post a Comment