After breakfast, your guide and driver will meet at your hotels and then escort you to see the earthen buildings (Tulou) in Nanjing County with a 3-hour scenic drive. Fujian Tulou are the traditional dwelling houses of Chinese Hakka people with round, square or rectangular appearance for living in family groups and have been listed as UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 2008. And Nanjing Tulou is a key part of Fujian Tulou heritage site and keeps the famous and more primitive earthen building to discovery.
First, walk up to the viewing platform to have a bird’s eye view of the must-see Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster from the best angle, which is the most famous earthen building cluster known as “Four Dishes and a Soup” with 3 round, 1 oval and 1 rectangular well preserved earthen building looking really like a set of meal on the natural tablecloth of the lush mountain an graceful rice terraces surrounding.
Next, go to discover Yuchang Building that was built during 1308-1338. It is the present oldest Tulou and the largest and highest round Tulou with highest floor height in Nanjing region. Also, it is famous as “Zigzag Building” because it looks about to totter with a maximum inclination of 15 degrees due to weather beats and earthquakes, however, it stands quite still till nowadays. Walk into this Tulou and closely look at the zigzag wooden pillars which have well supported such huge building for over 600 years.
Then, visit Taxia Village. With an “S” shaped stream floating across the entire village, two earthen buildings located just right on the two curves, and multiple big and small Tulou built along the banks, this village is reputed as a “Water Town of Taichi” with rich Tulou flavor. You will not miss Yude Building known as “Apron Building”, Deyuan Hall with outstanding sculptures of birds, beasts and flowers and also the 24 Hakka stone flagpoles beside the semilunar pond.
After that, walk to Tsingpu Tulou Retreat to enjoy featured Hakka activity arranged according to the Tsingpu’s schedule. (Usually there are cooking class, Tulou model painting, Hakka orange tea making, Hakka liquor making, glutinous rice cake making, bamboo weaving, colored drawing on ceramics, etc. in the afternoon, which lasts for about 1.5-3 hours based on the different activities.) Learn some Hakka culture during the fun time there!
Enjoy your dinner and accommodate at Tsingpu Tulou Retreat. It is a luxury boutique hotel refurbished from 5 century-old Tulou covering 3,700 s.q.m. and joined as a member of the international Design Hotels alliance. This retreat has 22 two bedroom suites and is finely designed with green killas and warm solid wood in classic Chinese antique charm and modern luxury. All rooms with cozy linens and advanced equipment give you the best holiday mood at the real Tulou village. Also, public courtyard, exhibition space, yoga hall, children’s playground, abundant well displayed artworks, etc. are all nice for vacation releasing and aesthetic pleasure. (The hotel rates differ by room types and date. Please let us know which type of room you'd like to stay so that we can book in advance as the rooms sell out very quickly especially during peak season)