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Centuries-Old Civil Residence Under Protection
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Together with a dozen colleagues, Yang Yuzhu, senior engineer with the China Relics Research Institute, moved into what is locally called "Tu Lou," or earthwork building in English, to keep this centuries-old residence for local farmers from further dilapidating.
In about two years, Yang's group is expected to clean up the building, recover the wall paintings on it, repair the broken parts, harness the surrounding environment, and at the same time keep the residing population under strict control.
The Chinese government has allocated about 100 million yuan (US$12.05 million) to preserve this distinct style of building indigenous only to the hilly regions in south China's Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi province.
Most of the Tu Lou were built between 200 to 300 years ago and were named after the building material: earth.
Either in the shape of a square or a circle with three-to-five-story walls surrounding a large open-air ground in the center, all of the Tu Lou unanimously feature only one entrance, which local farmers said was effective in defending bandits which were rampant in the old days.
Until today, most of those buildings are still resided by local farmers who worship the same ancestor in the same temple inside the building and drink water from the same well.
However, more and more young people refuse to be confined to such buildings as the walls peel off and some even collapsed.
Local government decided to try to get the Tu Lou on the world cultural heritage list upon completion of the renovation.
(Xinhua 02/09/2001)
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