Fujian

We drove to Fujian, the province just to the south of our Zhejiang, for a travel trying to find warmer weather. From the highway we could see Fujian has many many more temples than our Zhejiang. We stayed in a big city Xiamen on the ocean. Caleb and Joy played in the sand at the beach and we rode bicycles one day by the sea.



Then we stayed out in the countryside at the Tulou. “Tulou” means earth buildings. The Hakka minority built these large earth buildings about 200 or 300 years ago for protection. Many of the Tulou are round, with three or four stories inside. Up to 70 families typically sharing the same family name can live all together in one Tulou. There was a path along a small river connecting 10 different Tulou and small villages together. Giant trees grew by the side of the river. The best part of the Tulou area was the hotel where we stayed. A local family had added on to their house and made it a hotel. Each day the whole family was working hard to keep the hotel clean and make small repairs. They fixed home cooked meals for us. For example, home raised chicken soup with milk root dug up from the mountain. For breakfast, rice porridge with sun dried, pickled vegetable that grew everywhere around the Tulou. The grandmother of the family was an elementary school teacher. She used to live in the Tulou when she was a young girl.





We loved the visit in the countryside Tulou much more than big city Xiamen.