Tianluokeng Tulou cluster

Tianluokeng tulou cluster is one of the better known Fujian Tulou cluster. It is located in Fujian province, Zhangzhou City, Nanjing County, Shuyang Township, Tian Luo Keng Village in southern China.

The cluster consists of a square earth building at the center of a quincunx, surrounded by four round earth buildings , figuratively nickenamed "四菜一汤, Si cai yi tang" .

A tulou is a unique architecture found only in the mountainous areas bordering Fujian and Guangdong in southern China. The "Earth building" is an enclosed buildings, usually square or circular in shape, with a very thick earth wall and wooden skeletons, from three to five storeys high, housing up to 80 families. These earth buildings have only one entrance, guarded by 4-5 inch thick wooden doors re-enforced with an outer shell of iron plate. The top level of these earth building have gun holes for defence against bandits. In spite of the earth wall, some of them are more than 700 years old, surviving thru centuries of natural elements, including earth quakes, yet still standing solid. There are more than 35,000 earth buildings to be found in southern China, among them a little over 3000 have being classified as Fujian Tulou

In July 7 2008 UNESCO 32nd session held in Quebec city Canada, Tianluokeng tulou cluster was inscribed as one of 46 Fujian Tulou World Heritage Site.

The five earth buildings at the Snail Pit village are:


*The square earth building named Buyun building at the center of the quincunx. It was the first earth building at this site, built in 1796. It is three storeys high, each storey has 26 rooms, four sets of stairs, and a circular corridor in front of the rooms. The Buyun building was burnt down by bandits in 1936, and rebuilt in1953 according to the original shape.
*The Hechang building, a three storey high round earth building,
*Zhenchang building, three storey, round shape, 26 rooms per storey, built in 1930
*Ruiyun building, built in 1936,
*The last Wenchang building of 1966, 3 storeys, 32 rooms per storey.

The cluster is located about four hours drive by motor coach or taxi from Xiamen, through winding and pumpy narrow mountain roads.