Wuyun Lou
The Tulou is located on the eastern end of this Tulou cluster and was built during the reign of
Emperor Longqing in Ming Dynasty (1567-1572). Facing the south, this rectangle building covers
an area of 3,600 square meters without stone-made wall foundation. With four storeys, it is 25.8
meters in width (equal to 9 bays) and 24.3 meters in depth (equal to 11 bays). The base outer wall
is 1.3 meters thick and there are 40 bays on each storey. The whole Tulou has one gate and four
stairways. Outside the gate, a patio is enclosed by the lower wall. The main gate outside faces the
gate of this building. It has corridors connecting the rooms on each floor with the gable and hip roof
in the front and back and the overhanging gable roof at both sides.
Along the central axis there are, in turns, outer gate, gateway, door, front hall, courtyard, middle
hall, courtyard and back hall from the south to the north. The middle hall takes the shape of Chinese
character 口(Kou) and is of single storey. At its center is the courtyard. A door is opened on both
the south and the north sides. And a side door is opened on both the east and the west sides. Each of
the four doors leads to a laneway between brick walls, which separates the inner building into four
smaller courtyards. There is a well on the east and the west sides, respectively.
This Tulou had three storeys originally. In the 17th century (in the early Qing Dynsty), it was
bought by Jiang Jicheng, the builder of Chengqi Lou, and enlarged into a four-storey buidling.
| |