Fujian Province and the Hakka People

This weekend we took a tour of a minority group in the province north of us. Fujian Province is one of the homelands of the Hakka people. The Hakka are scattered in southern Asia & famous for their three to four story round houses. We took a nice night train to Yongding & arrived at 4:40am, whoa. Well, we are awaken every day at 4am to the sounds of fishing boats leaving Shekou for the ocean. Chug, chug, chug every 4am. We also visited a small city called Xiamen. The Hakka at Yongding built these round houses for protection & also it prevents wives from "cornering" their husbands. They still live in them & they are built from mud, gluten, straw, etc. & rammed into shape. The people are very hospitable. The first floor and court yard is for cooking, eating, storage, threshing, socializing. The younger folks live on the third & fourth floors. The area is mountainous & gorgeous! Sure beats Shenzhen. Xiamen is on the coast & directly across from Taiwan. There are several small islands around it & the tiny relaxing island of Gulangyu. It was a world wind trip but nice.