Meizhou (Chinese: 梅州; pinyin:
Méizhōu;Cantonese: mui4 zau1), historically known as Kaiying or Meihsien, is a
prefecture-level city of eastern Guangdong Province in the south of the
People's Republic of China. It has an area of 15,836 km², and a population of
5.05 million. Meizhou is honored with the Hometown of Culture, Hometown of the
Overseas Hakka Chinese and Hometown of Football.
The name Meizhou comes from the Mei River and plum blossom
(mei). Meizhou was established as a prefecture named Jingzhou in the Southern
Han (917-971). It was changed into Meizhou in the Northern Song Dynasty
(960-1127) and Jiaying Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). After
several subsequent shifts of jurisdiction, it became Meizhou City in 1988. Now
Meizhou is a famous historical and cultural city.
Meizhou is located in the northeast of Guangdong Province,
with Fujian Province in the northeast and Jiangxi Province in the northwest.
Meizhou City complex geological structure was formed mainly from granite,
spouting rocks, metamorphic rock, shale, sandstone, red rock and limestone.
Fujian Tulou (simplified Chinese: 福建土楼;
traditional Chinese: 福建土樓; pinyin: Fújiàn Tǔlóu,
"Fujian earthen structures") is a type of Chinese rural dwellings of
the Hakka and Minnan (Fulao) people in the mountainous areas in south-eastern
Fujian, China. They were mostly built between the 12th and the 20th centuries.
A tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth
building, most commonly rectangular or circular in configuration, with very
thick load-bearing rammed earth walls between three and five stories high and
housing up to 80 families. Smaller interior buildings are often enclosed by
these huge peripheral walls which can contain halls, storehouses, wells and
living areas, the whole structure resembling a small fortified city.
Zhenchenglou 振成樓, nicknamed
"the prince of tulou", belongs to Hongkeng Tulou cluster. It is
located in Hongkeng village, Hukeng township of Yongding County. Inscribed as
UNESCO World Heritage 1113-002 It was built in 1912 by the descendents of a
rich tobacco merchant. Zhenchenglou is a double ring tulou, its outer ring is
four storeys high, total 184 rooms, the inner ring is two storeys with 32
rooms. The outer ring was partitioned into four segments according to 'Bagua' concept of Chinese Fengshui.
Western influence is evident in the Greek style columns of
the ancestral hall, and in the wrought iron railing of the second level
corridor.
The fortified outer structures are formed by compacting
earth, mixed with stone, bamboo, wood and other readily available materials, to
form walls up to 6 feet (1.8 m) thick. Branches, strips of wood and bamboo
chips are often laid in the wall as additional reinforcement. The end result is
a well-lit, well-ventilated, windproof and earthquake-proof building that is
warm in winter and cool in summer. Tulous usually have only one main gate,
guarded by 4–5-inch-thick (100–130 mm) wooden doors reinforced with an outer
shell of iron plate. The top level of these earth buildings has gun holes for
defensive purposes.
A total of 46 Fujian Tulou sites, including Chuxi tulou
cluster, Tianluokeng tulou cluster, Hekeng tulou cluster, Gaobei tulou cluster,
Dadi tulou cluster, Hongkeng tulou cluster, Yangxian lou, Huiyuan lou, Zhengfu
lou and Hegui lou, have been inscribed in 2008 by UNESCO as World Heritage
Site, as "exceptional examples of a building tradition and function
exemplifying a particular type of communal living and defensive organization
[in a] harmonious relationship with their environment".
From the 12th century to 19th century, armed bandits plagued
southern China. The people of southern Fujian first built strongholds on top of
mountains as a defence. These early strongholds later evolved into Fujian
Tulou.
The thick (two metres at bottom, tapered to one metre on
top) outer walls of tulous were immune to arrows and gunfire. The lower one- to
two-metre section of the outer wall was sometimes built with granite blocks or
large river cobbles. This granite or cobble section was immune to digging,
since the outer layer of cobbles was purposely laid with the smaller ends
pointing outwards—it would be futile for any attacker to dig out such cobbles.
Digging a tunnel under the wall was not possible either, because the cobble
section wall was extended deep down more than one metre.
The earth wall section was built with rammed earth together
with lime-sand-clay mixture and reinforced with horizontal bamboo strips for
lateral binding. It was solid as a castle, immune even to cannon fire. In 1934,
a group of uprising peasants of Yongding County occupied a tulou to resist the
assault of the army, which fired 19 cannon shots at that tulou, but made only a
small dent on the outside wall.
The weak link in a walled system was usually the gate. But the
gate of Fujian tulou was specially designed for defence. The door frame was
built from a large solid block of granite; the double doors were built with
fire-resistant solid wood boards up to 13 cm thick, reinforced with thick iron
armour plates. The main gate door was barred with several horizontal and
vertical strong wood posts inserted into holes in the granite. To guard against
an enemy destroying the front doors with fire, some doors were equipped with
water tanks on top to quench fires set by the enemy.
Text from Wikipedia!
