In the green hills of south-western Fujian, in a corner of China that few foreign riders ever see, the Hakka people built round and square fortress houses of rammed earth, called tulou, and the cluster at Gaobei is the one usually shown first. The Hakka were migrants from the north who arrived in waves over centuries, and they were often unwelcome in settled areas, so they built for defence and for family unity, with each clan living inside a single enormous building. The outer walls, made of clay, sand and lime tamped hard between wooden boards, are often more than a metre thick, with few windows on the lower floors, and they keep the interior cool in summer and warm in winter.
The most famous building at Gaobei is Chengqi Lou, sometimes called the king of tulou, begun in the seventeenth century and completed in the early eighteenth. Its four concentric rings of rooms, with the outer one four storeys high, once held hundreds of people around a central ancestral hall, and the whole structure has the geometry of a mandala. The ground floors held kitchens and wells, the next stores of grain, and the upper floors bedrooms, with a wooden gallery running round each level so that neighbours could talk across the courtyard. Inside, carved beams and couplets hang above the doors, and drying corn and chillies are strung from the galleries.
The surrounding hills are covered in bamboo, tea and fruit trees, and the roads here are narrow county roads that wind along valleys between rice terraces, with sharp bends, damp patches and sudden mist. Surfaces are mostly sealed, though broken in places, and tour buses are common near the main sites. Rain is frequent, particularly in spring and early summer, and typhoon season from July to October can bring landslides. Spring and autumn offer the most comfortable weather.
Foreign visitors should know that riding a motorcycle freely in China normally requires a Chinese licence and local registration, so most visitors reach these areas by car with a driver or by public transport, and plans should be checked with official sources. There is no town listed close by, so supplies are in small county towns, and it is wise to carry water and snacks. Local hosts often serve tea and a simple meal in the old buildings.