Fujian Tulou

A tulou turns a whole village inward: circular or square earthen walls several storeys high, a single gate, windows only on the upper floors, and galleries of family rooms enclosing a communal courtyard that could serve as many as 800 people. Between the 15th and 20th centuries, clans in south-west Fujian raised these fortress-homes among rice, tea and tobacco fields; 46 of them make up the property UNESCO inscribed in 2008 as a singular monument to communal living.