Tianluokeng Tulou Private Day Tour: UNESCO Hakka Houses

Climb to the tulou overlook, then walk through living Hakka villages inside ancient rammed-earth fortresses

A private nine-hour day tour from Xiamen to the Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster and Daping Lou, two UNESCO World Heritage sites built centuries ago as communal Hakka dwellings. Your guide picks you up from your hotel, drives roughly two hours to Tianluokeng, where you view the cluster from a mountain platform and explore the four round houses plus one rectangular structure known as "4 dishes and 1 soup." After a traditional Hakka lunch, you visit Daping Lou, a working village of over 200 people who maintain their original lifestyle inside the fortress. The route includes a 15-minute transfer through Xiaban Village and a stop at Taxia, a stream-side settlement with a national-level protected ancestral hall. Hotel drop-off concludes the day.

Step-by-step itinerary

Visit Tianluokeng and Daping Lou Tulou

• Pick up from Xiamen hotel
• Drive 2 hours to Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster
• View Tianluokeng from mountain platform
• Have traditional Hakka lunch
• Explore Tianluokeng Hakka cluster
• Coach transfer to Xiaban Village
• Visit Yuchanglou Hakka house
• Pass Taxia village along stream
• Stroll through water village
• Visit Zhang clan ancestral hall
• Tour Daping Lou Tulou
• Transfer back to Xiamen hotel

The experience

Nine hours sounds long, but the drive to Tianluokeng takes roughly two hours each way, leaving you a full afternoon to move through the sites without rushing. Your private guide meets you at your Xiamen hotel and handles all transport. You bring only comfortable shoes and a willingness to climb stairs and walk uneven ground inside the tulou. The cluster sits on a mountainside, so the first stop is a view platform at the top where you can see how the four round houses and one rectangular building fit together: the "4 dishes and 1 soup" arrangement that makes Tianluokeng one of the most photographed tulou complexes in Fujian. The earthen walls are thick enough to have housed entire clans for centuries, and the layout reveals how the Hakka people built these structures to be both communal living spaces and defensive fortresses.

After the overview, you descend into the cluster itself and eat a traditional Hakka lunch inside one of the tulou. This is not a restaurant meal served to tourists. It is what the people who live here cook and eat, and the guide can arrange vegetarian options if you request them when booking. The afternoon takes you 15 minutes by coach to Xiaban Village, where you'll see Yuchanglou, a leaning tulou that has settled unevenly over time but still stands. From there the route passes through Taxia, a village built along a stream where the Zhang clan ancestral hall, a national-level protected cultural site, sits among the houses. The final stop is Daping Lou, the most intact of the day's tulou: over 200 people live there year-round, raising children, cooking, farming and maintaining the building exactly as their ancestors did. You walk through the courtyards and rooms, see how families have divided the circular space into homes, and watch daily life unfold inside walls that have stood for centuries.

The tour ends with a drive back to your Xiamen hotel. Bottled water is provided throughout the day, and your guide speaks English, French, Korean, Mandarin Chinese or Japanese. Choose your language when you book. Wear comfortable walking shoes. The tulou interiors have uneven stone floors and narrow passages, and the mountain platform at Tianluokeng requires a short climb.

What’s included

• Private transportation from your Xiamen hotel and back.
• professional private guide service in your choice of five languages.
• entrance fees to both tulou clusters.
• traditional Hakka lunch inside Tianluokeng.
• bottled water throughout the day.

Options for this experience

4 options

Mandarin Chinese Guide08:00, 08:30, 09:00 and 09:30Pickup is included

Korean Guide7 departure times: the first at 07:00, the last at 21:00Pickup is included

Japanese Guide7 departure times: the first at 07:00, the last at 21:00Pickup is included

French Guide6 departure times: the first at 07:00, the last at 21:00Pickup is included

You'll see the exact price of each option when you check availability.See dates and prices

Before you book

Days and timesEvery day7 departure times: the first at 07:00, the last at 21:00

Book up toStart time

AgesAdult (3 and older) · Infant (under 3): free

GroupPrivate

Live guideEnglish, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean

Meeting point and pickupHotel pickup included.You can choose from 20 pickup points.

Cancellation and refundsFree cancellation up to 24 h before the start. After that, no refund.

Prices and times updated 5 days ago

Good to know

Low physical effortStroller-friendlyInfant seats availablePublic transport nearby

Operated by China Memory Trip

Is this one for you?Book this tour if you want to spend a full day inside working Hakka villages rather than viewing them from a distance. The private guide and hotel pickup mean you avoid arranging your own transport to a remote site, and the nine-hour commitment gives you time to move slowly through both clusters and eat where residents eat, not in a tour-group restaurant.

Top questions

What languages is the tour guided in?

In Chinese, at 08:00, 08:30, 09:00 and 09:30. In Korean and Japanese, with 7 departure times. In French, with 6 departure times.

Can children come?

Yes. Ticket types: Infant (under 3): free.

What exactly is a tulou, and why are these ones in Fujian so famous?

Tulou are large, round or rectangular rammed-earth buildings that the Hakka people built centuries ago as communal homes and defensive structures. The Fujian tulou sites, including Tianluokeng and Daping Lou, were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2008 because they are exceptional examples of a building tradition that reflects a particular type of communal living and defensive organization, and they sit in harmony with their environment. Some tulou house entire clans (Daping Lou has over 200 residents), and families still live in them today, maintaining their original lifestyle inside the fortress walls.

How much of the day is spent driving versus walking around the tulou?

The drive from Xiamen to Tianluokeng takes roughly two hours each way, leaving about five hours for the sites themselves. At Tianluokeng, you start at the mountain view platform, then walk through the cluster and have lunch inside one of the tulou. A 15-minute coach transfer takes you to Xiaban Village and Taxia, and then you spend time exploring Daping Lou and its courtyards. The walking is moderate but involves uneven stone floors, narrow passages and some stairs, so comfortable shoes are essential.

Will I see people actually living in these tulou, or are they museums?

Daping Lou is a working village where over 200 people live year-round and maintain their original lifestyle. You walk through the courtyards and rooms where families cook, raise children and go about daily life. Tianluokeng is also an active community, though it is more visited by tourists. You will see residents and get a sense of how the cluster functions as a living space, not a preserved ruin.

Is lunch included, and can the guide arrange vegetarian meals?

A traditional Hakka lunch is included and served inside one of the tulou at Tianluokeng. If you require a vegetarian meal, advise the operator at the time of booking and they will arrange it for you.