China Trip - Day 6

Day 6 (19 February 2010)

After a nice rest at Zhang Zhou, we prepared ourself to go to a very special place today. On 9.00am we took our breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. After 30 minutes of meal, we start our journey to "Fu Jian Tu Lou" (Fu Jian = Hokkian, Tu = soil, and Lou = building). Fu Jian Tu Lou is a Hakka village which located on the hill, so the temperature is quite low. The unique about this village is their buildings are made into circle, and the material to build their houses are mainly in clay, gravels and sand.

After about 3 and half hour of journey, we reached to a hotel inside the village. The name of the hotel is "Hong Tu Lou" Hotel (Hong = red). This hotel that we arrived are once a mansion, then it had been preserved and made into a hotel. All of the surroundings, are unique and ancient. Since they're located on the hill, they doesn't need an air-conditional during summer, and they also doesn't have heater to call us around. We doesn't plan to stay a night (consider we're lucky), we just went to the hotel for our lunch. During lunch they're providing us some local Hakka dishes, one of them are chicken with black caramel sauce, which is very similar with my mom's cook (Lolz, it was surprise that I can taste something which is same as my mom's cook in China).

Picture 6.1 - The banner at the entrance of Fu Jian Tu Lou (located downhill)

Picture 6.2 - See how the villagers take their lunch (^^).

Picture 6.3 - The front view of the "Hong Tu Lou" Hotel at the main road.

Picture 6.4 - Me, with the name of the hotel.

Picture 6.5 - The staircase to the hotel, with some vegetables planted at the site of stairways.

Picture 6.6 - Me in front of the hotel.

Picture 6.7 - The garden in front of the hotel.

Picture 6.8 - "Yee" the Tian Ji (田鸡).

Picture 6.9 - Inside the hotel (Really ancient, eh...).

Picture 6.10 - Take 2. Ground floor, dining rooms; 1st and 2nd floor, bedrooms.

Picture 6.11 - The wooden staircase that reaches to top of the hotel.

Picture 6.12 - The ground floor view, from first floor.

Picture 6.13 - The walkway in first floor, on the left are the rooms.

Picture 6.14 - After our lunch (eh, eat until so clean?).

After our lunch, we walk around the hotel and have some rest. During rest, we tasted a very special tea made from various kind of flowers, it was very tasty, the sweetness of the flower can last for a long duration. Sadly, I didn't brought it. This kind of flower tea are just available in this village. Hope I would have the second change to go to this village and enjoy this tea again. After enjoying such a great tea, I went to the hotel's garden again. This time I saw a very special flower to me, the "Mei Hua". For me, every year I would see this flower, in my house; an which is artificial "Mei Hua" to decorate our house for the coming Chinese New Year. But this year, I can enjoy a real "Mei Hua" in this Chinese New Year.

Picture 6.15 - Me with "Mei Hua"

Picture 6.16 - A close-up view of true Mei Hua.

After some rest, we finally start to go to the main tourist attraction places. At 3.00pm we start moving to "Yong Ting", an ancient Hakka village. Below are some pictures that I had taken for the whole trip.

Picture 6.17 - A "Transport Vehicle" (don't know what I should call it) that took us to the destination.

Picture 6.18 - The places that we wait for transport (important here is the round structure, very special)

Picture 6.19 - The entrance to the "Yong Ting", need to pay entrance fee tim =(

Picture 6.20 - After the entrance we still need to walk = ="

Picture 6.21 - Yey!! finally we saw a building in front of us (a temple)

Picture 6.22 - A beautiful river view at the side of the road.

Picture 6.23 - The front view of the temple (the first building that we saw). We didn't manage to go in and have a look.

Picture 6.24 - A Chinese paddy wine shop just after the temple.

Picture 6.25 - Our first destination in "Yong Ting", the main attraction: "Zhen Cheng Lou". A round structure design with a very good "Feng Shui".

Picture 6.26 - Inside the "Zhen Cheng Lou"

Picture 6.27 - The hall at the center of the building.

Picture 6.28 and 6.29 - The right side and the left side of the building.

Video 6.1 - The center of "Zhen Cheng Lou".

Picture 6.30 - The side of the building, we can see that there's many rooms surrounded the building.

Picture 6.31 - This picture shows there're many family staying here.

Picture 6.32 - The "Yang" well, which located on the left side of the building, the "Ying" well is on the other side, just opposite the "Yang well.

Picture 6.33 - A heavy metal door that really heavy.

Picture 6.34 - A picture shows the top view of "Zhen Cheng Lou".

During our visit in "Zhen Cheng Lou", I had brought a sets of cookies for my mom. If I don't, I'm very sure that she will mumble me (lolz). Well, after our visit of "Zhen Cheng Lou", we straight to a building where we can meet some talents in this ancient village.

Picture 6.35 - The stage to watch the local talents present their show.

Picture 6.36 - The "King" of whistle with a leaf. He really does some magnificent songs for us.

Picture 6.37 - A local playing two pi pa. (is it pi pa ah? if I was wrong please tell me)

Picture 6.38 - A master that can play many instruments at one time.

Picture 6.39 - She (on the right side) was singing an local Hakka song.

Once the local finish their performance, we start going back. Before we go back, we went to the wine shop to buy a bottle of "mi jiou" (paddy wine). When we visit the wine shop, I found out that they have various ages of wine, starting from 1 year old, 3 years old and 5 years old. I tried the first two wine, it taste really good, but I didn't try the 5 years old wine. So I brought the 5 years old wine.

Picture 6.40 - Front view of the wine shop.

Picture 6.41 - This is how they store their paddy wine, the room is warm.

After we brought our things, we straight to the bus and start heading to Shen Zhen. We reach to Shen Zhen about 6.00 am. (We shall continue on my next post)