It was said that years ago, the US satelites detected silo-like structures in Fujian Province and later demonstrated they were Tulou, a round-shaped, several-story housing complex for people of the same families. Tulou prevailed in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty for the Hakka people from the north who were evading tumult or war. Most of the Tulous are located in the area of Zhangzhou (漳洲).

The local tour guide led us to visit one of them, Eryi Tulou (二宜樓), located at Dadi Village, Huaan County, Zhangzhou. The big house was built in 1770 by a family named Jiang (蔣). Though the buliding has been enlisted as a heritage under national protection, the offspring of Jiang until now have the rights to live there; even most of them have moved out, and they are still allowed to do "small" businesses in there, like selling souvenirs, snacks, regional specialties, and so on. Our tour guide, also named Jiang, still has a unit of room there, though she does not live there.

Since the very origin of Tulou was those Hakka people trying to build a safer, more independent place for them in the time of unrest, the building, mainly made of clay and wood, must have provided better defense as well as a smarter hydraulic system. They did. How did they bear hardships and stand hard for their work? They were intelligent enough to be our national pride!