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Views of traditional round mud villages at about 100m altitude in the east of Guangdong Province, close to the Fujian Province border. The area is home to the Hakka people, who were driven south from the Yellow River plains by war during the late Tang and early Song dynasties. Known as "tolou", these communal Hakka dwellings house many families inside one-meter thick walls of rammed earth. Most have heavy doors and small outer windows on the upper stories, making them easy to defend.

As the village population grew more houses were built in rings around the original fortified settlement. In this area, most of the original round communal dwellings are in the process of being abandoned for more modern individual homes with electricity and plumbing. I was told that many of the round homes were damaged in the heavy rains of a typhoon in 2006 and no one has bothered to repair them.

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STNMTZ_20070220_12381.tif
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©2007 George Steinmetz
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China Air
Views of traditional round mud villages at about 100m altitude in the east of Guangdong Province, close to the Fujian Province border. The area is home to the Hakka people, who were driven south from the Yellow River plains by war during the late Tang and early Song dynasties. Known as "tolou", these communal Hakka dwellings house many families inside one-meter thick walls of rammed earth. Most have heavy doors and small outer windows on the upper stories, making them easy to defend. <br /> <br /> As the village population grew more houses were built in rings around the original fortified settlement. In this area, most of the original round communal dwellings are in the process of being abandoned for more modern individual homes with electricity and plumbing. I was told that many of the round homes were damaged in the heavy rains of a typhoon in 2006 and no one has bothered to repair them.

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