Earth houses in southeast China

CCTV.COM (04.10 2003 11:27)

    There is an extraordinary kind of building錛?called Tulou錛?or the earth houses錛?scattered among the mountains of Fujian錛?Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces.

    Nanjing county in Fujian Province錛?southeast China is home to more than 1000 earth buildings. The circular ones錛?in particular錛?look as if they've touched down after a trip along the intergalactic super highway.

    The Tianluo Pit village in the county has more than 100 households living under five roofs and everybody goes by the same family name 錛?Huang.

    There is only one entrance to each building. A dozen or so households share this building. Their homes are arranged vertically. The kitchens and living rooms are on the first floor錛?the storerooms are on the second and the bedrooms the third.

    The local people call themselves Hakkas錛?which means "guests". They trace their ancestry back hundreds of years ago to northern China. In some ways錛?their lives have changed little.

    When you live in a city it's not unusual not to know your neighbor's name. But something like that would be unimaginable here. Everybody belongs to one family. And people share each other's ups and downs.

    The Earth Building Hotel in Najing county is half錛峚n錛峢our's drive from the village. The best room is 50 yuan a night and錛?for that錛?you get hot water and a TV. It's clean and serves good food.

Editor:Inner