Which Fujian Tulou to Visit? Yongding or Nanjing

If you're taking a day trip from Xiamen to tulou, start by deciding which area offers the experience you're looking for.

• Choose Nanjing if you want the iconic views like the "Four Dishes and One Soup" layout, idyllic village vibe, authentic living tulou life, and rural Hakka experiences.
• Choose Yongding if you want to see unusual tulou scales and designs, such as the largest tulou king, and tulou with European-style interiors.

Whatever you pick, visit one or two tulou clusters in a day. Trying to cover too much can make your day rushed. And plan your transport carefully, as Tulou are scattered across mountains and villages. So you won't waste half a day on the road.

Lyris Lu

Content Specialist For Fujian

In June 2026, I visited Nanjing Tulou, building on our team's earlier research in Yongding. This guide brings together our first-hand observations to help you plan a tolou trip. You can also read our "Tulou is someone's home" to discover how we followed local residents and tulou craftsmen to get closer to their tulou life for generations.

Transport Can Affect Your Tulou Choice

For first-timers, I'd recommend taking a private car. It takes around 2h to both Yongding and Nanjing. You can arrive directly at the tulou from your hotel in Xiamen.

By public transport, you could spend 5-6 h round trip, leaving just 2-3 h for visiting. The long journeys or multiple transfers can tire you out before your tulou visit. 

If You Want to Walk Less, Choose Nanjing

During our visits, we traveled to both Nanjing and Yongding by private car. But we noticed a key difference once we arrived at tulou scenic areas:

• In Nanjing, a private car can take us right to the tulou or viewpoints.
• In Yongding, tulou buildings are still 800 m-1 km from the scenic area entrance. We still needed to walk an extra 10-15 minutes or take the shuttle ride.

In such cases, Nanjing is more convenient, especially if you're traveling with kids and older family members who may not want extra walking. 

If You're Taking Public Transport, Yongding Takes 1h Longer

• To Nanjing: Bullet train to Nanjing Station (30-60min) → Take a coach at Nanjing Bus Station (1-1.5 h) → Yunshuiyao or Tianluokeng Tourist Center
• To Yongding: Bullet train to Longyan Station (1-1.5h) → Take a coach at Longyan Bus Station (2-2.5 h) → Gaobei, Hongkeng or Chuxi Tulou Cluster

You can also take a direct coach from Wucun Bus Station in Xiamen, but departures are limited. You'll need to plan around the schedule.

One Area, Two Clusters Max — Anything More Can Make Your Day Rushed

Three clusters mean three transfers. You'll spend more time in transit. And maybe by the third one, they start to look alike: "round and square, all the same in the end".

So, just choose one or two clusters and take your time to explore at a slow pace.

Nanjing: Authentic Tulou Life and Idyllic Villages

In Nanjing, many tulou are still home to local families. You can see residents cooking, chatting, and hanging clothes out, and even try traditional activities with them.

• Classic Day Trip in Tianluokeng: Wugengliao→Up and Down Viewing Platform for "Four Dishes and One Soup" Tulou Layout→Taxia Village→Yuchanglou
• In-depth Tulou visit in Tianzhongfu and Hekeng: Tea picking and making at Tianzhongfu, rammed-earth technique for tulou walls, and home visit at Hekeng

Tianluokeng: What to See and What to Skip

For a day trip, Tianluokeng offers a good mix of sights, making your visit feel less repetitive.

But to be honest, popular spots here can feel a bit commercialized. You can arrange your day like this:

Save popular spots briefly for photos (20-30 minutes each)

• "Four Dishes and One Soup": Photograph it from the upper and lower platforms. You don't need to go inside the tulou buildings, as they are filled with souvenir stalls.
• Yuchang Lou: After visiting the leaning pillars inside, you can also go outside and stand on the water channel. It's a quiet angle to photograph yourself with the tulou in the background.

Spend more of your time in quieter spots to feel tulou life

• Taxia Village: You can slow down by a leisurely walk along the river, enjoying a coffee at a riverside café, and visiting Deyuan Hall to learn about Hakka clan history.
• Wugengliao: Leave your tulou interior visit here. You'll rarely encounter other tourists; mostly local residents. You can capture a more authentic everyday tulou life here.

Yunshuiyao is Picturesque for Village Views, but Not Tulou

You may be drawn to Yunshuiyao's idyllic film scenery, but crowds of photo-taking tourists here can make it hard to enjoy its peaceful charm.

You may expect authentic tulou life inside, but actually see mostly souvenir and local-product stalls on ground floor with tourist noise. When you want to go upstairs for photos, they charge an extra 5-10 CNY. 

So we generally don't recommend you go to Yunshuiyao. But if you love Yunshuiyao's cinematic scenery, you can still include it in your day trip. 

We suggest this route: Yunshuiyao (explore the village exterior views) → Hekeng (authentic views of tulou life)

Yongding: More Unique Tulou Scales and Designs

One-Day Route: Gaobei (Chengqi Lou and Qiaofu Lou) → Hongkeng (Zhencheng Lou, Fuyu Lou and Rusheng Lou)

If you're more interested in tulou's architecture, these five tulou stand out from largest to smallest scales, or unique mansion-shaped and Chinese-Western decorations. As for the others, you can skip or take a quick look, as many look quite similar.

Although Yongding has fewer visitors than Nanjing, Hongkeng and Gaobei are still the busiest tulou clusters here. You'll also inevitably find souvenir stalls inside the tulou.

Chuxi is quieter and has a stronger everyday life atmosphere. But it's most worth visiting during the autumn harvest displays. The rest of the year, it feels quite similar to some tulou villages in Nanjing. You don't need to drive an extra half hour to get here.

And we also found that Chuxi has many steps between tulou, making it less convenient if you're traveling with someone with limited mobility.

Beyond Looking at Walls: Experiences Most Visitors May Miss

If you want more than simply visiting the tulou, taking photos, then moving on to the next stops, these activities are worth adding to your visit.

1. Meet a Tulou Craftsman: Try Rammed Earth and Make Your Own Mini Tulou

This is my favorite experience, as you can get to learn directly from a master craftsman who has spent over 60 years building tulou. Then, you'll become a "tulou builder".

He'll walk you through the traditional building process before you pick up the tools yourself and try compacting earth into a wall, just as tulou builders have done for generations.

Next, "build" your own miniature tulou using clay, brushes, and paints. Add your own details and take home a one-of-a-kind creation. It makes a much more personal souvenir than a ready-made model from a street stall.

If you're not keen on crafts, you can also visit a tulou designed and built by the master craftsman himself, then head to his home for tea.

Hear firsthand stories of daily life in the tulou, family histories, and the little village anecdotes you're unlikely to find in a guidebook.

2. Step into the Fields: Plant, Pick and Cook by Yourself

At Tianluokeng Tulou, you can join local villagers in the fields and try your hand at easy-to-follow farming tasks, digging the soil, making planting rows, sowing seeds, and watering vegetables.

The experience doesn't end in the field. You can harvest seasonal vegetables and take them to the communal kitchen in tulou to cook over a traditional wood-fired stove.

For those two hours, you'll feel less like a tourist to visit tulou, but immersing yourself in rural Hakka life from farm to table, just like a true local farmer.

3. Become a Hakka Tea Farmer to Pick and Stir-Dry Tea

Put on a blue floral apron and a woven bamboo hat, pick up a small bamboo tea basket, and head into the tea fields to try your hand at tea picking.

As you gather fresh leaves, you can take in views of the tulou in the distance and listen to the gentle flow of nearby streams.

Back in the village, local villagers will teach you how to roast the tea leaves by hand. You get to brew and taste the tea you've made yourself, while listening to them share how tea is cherished in Hakka life.

4. Enjoy a Candlelit Dinner Inside a Boutique Tulou Inn

As night falls, share a Hakka-style dinner with your partner by candlelight, with the warm glow flickering across the tulou's old brick walls and wooden beams.

It's a lovely setting for an anniversary or a romantic evening together, where you can enjoy the dreamy tulou night view that many day trip visitors never get to see.

We can arrange dinner in a private room or set a table beside the courtyard pool, where you can enjoy the evening breeze and starlit sky.

Taste Hakka Mountain Cuisine: A Different Flavor From Coastal Fujian

Unlike Xiamen's light, seafood-focused cuisine, in tulou regions you'll taste more mountain and wild delicacies like bamboo shoots, beef, freshwater fish and shrimps, free-range chicken, preserved vegetables, stuffed tofu with meat, grinding tea and taro buns.

You'll find plenty of Hakka restaurants around tulou villages. Actually, their menus and flavors are quite similar.

Just choose one with a setting you enjoy, like in a traditional tulou or a wooden riverside eatery, enjoying your meal amid the sights and sounds of Hakka village life.

If you prefer a farmhouse meal, we can also arrange a home-cooked Hakka meal with a local family. Your host prepares vegetables grown in their own garden and chicken or ducks they raise themselves, giving you a taste of everyday Hakka cooking.

Do I Need to Stay Overnight? Not Necessarily

You can visit the tulou villages on a day trip from Xiamen. If you're not looking for a deeper experience or planning to cover both Nanjing and Yongding, there's no need to stay overnight.

You can find more accommodation concentrated around Taxia and Yunshuiyao in Nanjing, and Gaobei and Hongkeng in Yongding. But:

• Most are local guesthouses, with a few chain hotels.
• Some are converted tulou buildings. Wooden structures mean poor soundproofing.

In Yongding, you could consider these more modern hotels: Yongding Tianzi Hot Spring Holiday Resort (Longbowan Hotel) and Hakka Tulou Prince Hotel Longyan.

In Nanjing, there are also several tulou-style accommodations with better facilities and service, such as Tsingpu Tulou Retreat and Huazhu Tingquan B&B (Nanjing Tulou).

Seasonal Views Add More Feel to Your Tulou Visit

You can visit tulou year-round for the same architecture. And outside holidays, the villages are generally not crowded.

But if your trip happens to coincide with certain periods, you can enjoy more pleasant scenery or local activities.