Huaiyuanlou is probably the finest tulou. Huaiyuanlou is located in the town Nanjing, western Fujian. The village is named Kanxia. It was built by Cambodian Chinese during 1909-1911. Huaiyuanlou is well designed and fully preserved.
Huaiyuanlou Facade (Click for large image)
Huaiyuanlou includes a ring building and a central hall. The diameter is 38 meters, and the land area is approximately 1130 square meters. Huaiyuanlou faces south but slightly towards the east. As the Fengshui master believed that right facing due south would cause bad luck.
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also Huaiyuanlou plans
The ring building consists of four storeys, there are 34 bays. The wooden structure is the Chuandou type (a type of building, literally of post-and tie construction). The two rooms in the center axis are wider. There are four staircases symmetrically distributed on each side. The rooms on the ground floor are used as kitchens and dining rooms. The first floor consists of granaries. The bedrooms are located on the second and third floors. The shape of bedrooms is a section of a circle. The width along the corridor side is 2.6 meters and the width of the room on the outer wall is 3.1 meters. The depth of the room is 3.35 meters. As a result, the total area of the room is no more than 10 meters. All rooms are divided by earth walls on the sides. There are corridors called Zoumalang in the first to third storeys. These are 1.2 meters in width, and they are projecting wooden structures. On the inner side of the corridors in the second and third storeys are smaller eaves. The spaces under these eaves can be used as storage.
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also Huaiyuanlou interiors
The outer wall is made of rammed earth, and the height is 12.28 meters. It is actually different in width. The base is 1.3 meters wide. There are no windows on the outer wall on the ground floor. The upper levels only have small windows. There are four projecting watchtowers on the third floor, with gun holes on it for defence purposes. There is only one giant door on the south side of Huaiyuanlou. The walls around the door are painted white. There is a plaque above the door showing the name of the building.
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also Huaiyuanlou layout animation
The entrance to the ancestral hall faces this big door. The ancestral hall has an open courtyard, with a semi-closed corridor surrounding it. The interior of the hall was well designed. The sophisticated symmetry and the relatively high roof layout of the ancestral hall express the magnitude of the hall. It shows the superiority of the ancestor in Chinese philosophy.
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also Huaiyuanlou walk-thourgh animation
Haiyuanlou -- major wood structure(Click for large image)