Visiting the Hidden World of the Great Family in the Mountains - Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster

🚙 Setting off from Zhangzhou city, my northern friend and I drove to Nanjing County to visit the famous Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster - 'Four Dishes and One Soup'. 🌴 As we were about to reach Tianluokeng, we turned off the spacious highway onto a winding mountain road, and my northern friend marveled at how green the mountains are in the south. 👉 However, the already narrow mountain road was lined with parked cars, which made us nervous. As expected, it was time to start the holiday mode of searching for a parking spot. 👉 We moved up the mountain at a snail's pace with the traffic flow, and finally, we reached the entrance of the scenic area without finding a place to park. But just then, a car parked by the road drove away, and my easy-going northern friend carried on the excellent Minnan tradition of 'no pain, no gain', saving us from a two-mile walk. 👉 At the entrance of the scenic area, we could look down at the depression where the Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster is located. The Tulou Cluster finally came into view, spectacular and mysterious against its naturally privileged terrain. 👉 The Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster, built during the Ming and Qing dynasties, is one of the best-preserved Tulou clusters in Nanjing County. We walked down the steps to the foot of the Tulou, feeling the simplicity and grandeur up close. Inside the Tulou, which is about three or four stories high, the square Tulous mainly have a courtyard layout, while the round Tulous show a unique rotational symmetry structure with crooked wooden stakes. In the center stands a temple, leaving a deep impression. Words like ancient, solemn, crisis, deity, and totem came to mind. 👉 The residents inside the Tulou conduct tourist business while living their daily lives, with dining tables set up outdoors. We ate several dishes cooked by a Hakka grandmother in a round Tulou, which tasted quite good. My northern friend ate two bowls of rice by himself, and the picture shows the local specialty vegetable, Buddha's hand squash. The grandmother also invited us to visit the second and third floors. 🚙 The scenic area is not large, and we finished our visit in less than half a day, including mealtime. Friends with more time can also visit Huaiyuan Lou, Yuchang Lou, and Yunshuiyao. We were already heading towards the sunset at Dongshan Island.