Lin’s house has 208 rooms and he can’t stop talking about it
Print Edition
Lin Rigeng brims with pride every time he tells visitors about his house. “I never get tired of it,” he said.
The four-story clay building Lin, 66, shares with 77 others covers an area of 5,000 square meters, or nearly three quarters of a football field. It was built a century ago by his grandfather’s brothers.
Such buildings are known as tulou, which means “building made of earth” in Chinese. In July 2008, tulou were inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List as the unique residential architecture of east China’s Fujian Province.
Lin’s house in Hongkeng Village was among 46 representative tulou presented to the World Heritage Committee.
“My house belongs to the world. I want everyone to learn about it,” said Lin.
The buildings can take many forms, including rings, triangles, squares, rectangles, and pentagons. Lin’s home is one of the most common ring-shaped tulou.
It is believed the first tulou were built in the 11th century by people who escaped the wars in central China. This is one explanation for their extremely thick outer walls. The wall around Lin’s home is 1.3 meters thick.
They functioned as a fortress to protect residents from invaders and wild animals.
There are more than 20,000 tulou in Yongding County, about two and a half hours drive from Xiamen, which recently hosted the ninth BRICS summit.
The oldest existing tulou in the county was built 600 years ago. The largest has 384 rooms and can accommodate at least 800 people.
Lin’s house was named Zhencheng Lou by his grandfather. It has 208 rooms arranged according to the bagua, an eight-point diagram that determines the auspicious locations for various functions to balance the energy within the house.
Fifteen families live in the building, and all are involved in tourist-related businesses, from running homestays to making souvenirs.
“We are richer. Our life is better, so is our living environment,” said Lin, when talking about changes that the growing number of tourists have brought for his family.
According to county records, a model of Zhencheng Lou was on display at an international architectural model expo in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
Locals say tulou, especially the ring-shaped ones, were spotted by US satellites and mistaken for missile silos or nuclear devices during the Cold War.
“That tale originally helped attract international attention to tulou,” Lin said.
Lin, the son of a farmer, was born in Zhencheng Lou, and could not be a more hospitable host. Back in the 1980s, when few people knew about the buildings, he began voluntarily guiding visitors, treating them to home-grown tea, food and wine, and telling them the history of the buildings.
“The moment they entered Zhencheng Lou, they were simultaneously shocked and excited. They could not imagine how people could build such a large house to accommodate a whole clan,” Lin said, “Only then did I realize my house was such a treasure.”
In 1991, Lin became the first tulou tour guide hired by the county.
He said he learned more about his home from early visitors, many of whom were architects or fans of historical buildings.
Lin has written a book on tulou and guides around 300 groups of visitors each year. He also runs a souvenir shop and a homestay with 10 beds.
Four years ago, his eldest son Lin Shangkang, 43, quit his job as a biology teacher at a local high school to help the family business.
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