## Highlights ### id237870431 tulou were single-structure village forts > Fujian *Tulou* is a property of 46 buildings constructed between the 15th and 20th centuries over 120 km in south-west of Fujian province, inland from the Taiwan Strait. Set amongst rice, tea and tobacco fields the Tulou are earthen houses. Several storeys high, they are built along an inward-looking, circular or square floor plan as housing for up to 800 people each. They were built for defence purposes around a central open courtyard with only one entrance and windows to the outside only above the first floor. Housing a whole clan, the houses functioned as village units and were known as “a little kingdom for the family” or “bustling small city.” They feature tall fortified mud walls capped by tiled roofs with wide over-hanging eaves. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fhxtqd8hfepw2hp8r8njs3gm) ### id237870568 > The most elaborate structures date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. The buildings were divided vertically between families with each disposing of two or three rooms on each floor - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fhxtqt7j8vfkwc27kebgwjdc) ### id237870583 tulou were situated in fertile mountain valleys > The Fujian *Tulou* are the most representative and best preserved examples of the tulou of the mountainous regions of south-eastern China. The large, technically sophisticated and dramatic earthen defensive buildings, built between the 13th and 20th centuries, in their highly sensitive setting in fertile mountain valleys, are an extraordinary reflection of a communal response to settlement which has persisted over time. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fhxtrzj680wb6rqh3gvk49ds) ### id237870592 tolou were very compartmentalized > The elaborate compartmentalised interiors, some with highly decorated surfaces, met both their communities’ physical and spiritual needs and reflect in an extraordinary way the development of a sophisticated society in a remote and potentially hostile environment - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fhxtsb72mcbtt9xfk5jc0dvh)