The Hakka Earth Towers

Built to protect the inhabitants from attacks from wild beasts, the Earth towers of the Hakkas are circular in shape with a courtyard at their centre. Many families would traditionally live together in the many bedrooms of the earth towers, however today only one family lives in each. Now widely open to tourism, the Earth Towers have many stalls inside at which you can taste tea, buy food or even souvenirs. One of the towers that we visited even housed a small Buddhist temple where local people and tourists alike could go to worship. The Earth Towers, against the breath-taking backdrop of mountains and trees, are a thing of beauty and feature in many paintings and wood carvings that can be found in the streets around them.

Arguably, this trip came with some of the most beautiful areas we saw in our time in China. The trip to visit the towers includes a scenic route through mountain roads, surrounded by beautiful dense forests and farmland. Due to it being one of the most rural locations we visited, it breaks many stereotypes about China. Wide open spaces with clear blue skies and vast greenery are a far cry from the pollution and high density of people to be expected in the bigger cities such as Beijing or Hong Kong. Although it may sound rather cliché, the peace and beauty that can be found in this area makes it well worth the visit and this was perhaps one of my favourite days of the entire trip.