tulou

For centuries, each building, called a tulou in Mandarin Chinese, would house an entire clan, virtually a village.

NYT > Home Page By EDWARD WONG 2011

Beginning with the conservation of Lijiang Old Town in Yunnan, GHF's China Heritage Program has 3 active projects under way today: Foguang Temple in Wutai Mountain and Pingyao Ancient City, both in Shanxi Province, and most recently, Shengwu lou, a tulou (earthen building) of Pinghe County in Fujian Province.

Jeff Morgan: China's Heritage Sites In Danger (SLIDESHOW) 2009

In Tianluokeng, a remote village in Fujian province about an hour from Xiamen, 67 families of the Huang clan -- more than 250 people altogether -- live cheek-by-jowl in an old circular wooden structure called a tulou.

China's Family Ties 2007

Her husband's parents still live in a tulou, a ramshackle one across the street.

NYT > Home Page By EDWARD WONG 2011

Many are leaving tulou, which were originally built for protection, in favor of modern housing.

NYT > Home Page By EDWARD WONG 2011

Global Heritage Fund , a preservation organization based in California that has a tulou project, gives the same number.

NYT > Home Page By EDWARD WONG 2011

But Huang Hanmin, a scholar of the tulou who lives in Fujian, said there were many myths about the tulou, including the number.

NYT > Home Page By EDWARD WONG 2011

She was used to tulou living - she had grown up in a square one herself.

NYT > Home Page By EDWARD WONG 2011

The tulou once housed 100 families, but only 10 or so people live here now.

NYT > Home Page By EDWARD WONG 2011

"People don't clean it anymore," said Jiang Qing, 28, as she stood on an upper balcony in Huan Xing tulou, whose name means "embracing prosperity."

NYT > Home Page By EDWARD WONG 2011