The biggest feature of tulou-style houses is ().

The biggest feature of tulou houses is defense.

Tulou is a large-scale residential building distributed in Hakka areas such as Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangdong in the southeast of China, which uses raw soil as the main building material, combines raw soil with wood structure, and uses stone to varying degrees. Among them, Fujian Tulou has the widest distribution, the largest number, the richest types and the best preservation.

Tulou has a long history. The ancestors of Hakkas are Han people who migrated to the south from the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River more than 900 years ago. At that time, there were years of war in the north, drought and locust plague that never happened in a hundred years, and a large number of Central Plains residents moved south.

During the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, social unrest, many wars extended to Fujian, and coastal areas were often invaded by pirates. These functions in the form of fortresses and stockades with strong military defensive nature are gradually transplanted into residential buildings. There are rammed earth walls around and wooden buildings in the fence bear the same load, and a large number of earth buildings have gradually appeared.

In order to have living space and adapt to the new requirements of production, life and national defense, they need a kind of building that can adapt to the requirements of social living and strong defense, and also adapt to the local special geographical environment. This kind of building is easy to build and feasible in terms of economic cost and acquisition of building materials.

The art of earth building evolved from the form of earth castle and earth fence, and it is a practical closed adobe building with residential and defensive functions, which has gradually emerged and developed in this area.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the development of economy and the improvement of understanding of ecological environment, residents' demand for housing became more urgent and higher. On the other hand, due to the growth of population, dozens or hundreds of people from more clans live together in order to safeguard the common interests of the family and adapt to the prosperity of the family and the safety of living, and colorful earth buildings such as squares, enclosures and government buildings have emerged.