Home > Destination > Fujian > Longyan > Attractions

Yongding Earth Towers

Ask Question

The Earth Towers in Yongding County of Fujian Province is considered as the mysterious ancient castle of China. It is said that the history of them embodies a family history of villagers; an earth tower is the spiritual home of the Hakkas; also each earth tower is an encyclopedia which you will never read through.  

In the history, the ancients of the Hakkas migrated to the southern Fujian from the South of the Yellow River, North of the Yangtze River, west of the Huai River and the east of the Hanjiang River. In order to defend themselves from bandits and invasion, the Hakkas chose to build their dwellings into the earth towers like castle. Therefore, the construction style of the towers is very much like fortifications: the external part is thick; the outer wall is very tall, fireproofing and waterproof facilities and other domestic installations are well equipped inside. Thus these towers are hard to be attacked while easy to be defended. 

For most earth towers, windows of the first and the second floors are usually not open to the outside for fear some attackers enter. The size of windows above the third floor also is also designed on the purpose of defense. On the fourth floor sets observation tower and loophole. The closed earth towers have almost no side doors but only one main door. The doorframe is often built with stone. A sink is usually installed on the top of the door, connecting with the water tank on the second floor. This is for fire protection. Inside the towers, their living space is divided into different units. Each unit is an independent living space. Some of them are connected through side doors while some are separate from each other.

A common feature of these earth towers is that their construction project took very long time, generally, two to three years. Some large one was built for decades, with generations' efforts. The wood material they used was between 300 to 500 cubic meters. The main building material is raw soil and the foundation bed was built with big and small stones. The earth wall was built with the mixture of raw soil, brown sugar water and lime. The additional material could strengthen the firmness of the wall. Also, the Hakkas buried some bamboo chips into the wall to make it firmer. In history of Yongding there were seven strong earthquakes, during which no tower collapsed.

Usually, the round towers and the square ones were constructed separately. A complex is often composed of several rings of towers, one around another one by one. The outer one is the highest while the inner one is the lowest. The walls are so thick that they can keep out the hot wave during the sweltering summer and can resist the cold wind in winter. What is more, the special structure of these towers function well in noise elimination. Therefore, the Earth Towers are really nice dwellings for the local people. 

As a pride of the Fujian Hakkas, the Earth Towers are a treasure of Chinese folk houses. In July 2008, they were officially rated on the list of World Heritage.

 Entrance Fee: CNY 50 

 Transportation: 
A. From Longyan: Take the buses from Longyan Long-distance Bus Station and get off at Yongding Hukeng Town.
B. From Fuzhou: Take the long-distance buses from Fuzhou to Longyan at Fuzhou Long-distance Bus Station, and then take buses to Yongding Hukeng Town. 
C. There are also direct long-distance buses from Xiamen to Hukeng Town.

Ask a Question about Yongding Earth Towers
Back Go Top