Tianluokeng tulou cluster (田螺坑土楼群) is one of the better known Fujian Tulou cluster. It is located in Fujian province, Zhangzhou City, Nanjing County, Shuyang Township, Tian Luo Keng Village (literally "Snail Pit" Village) in southern China. The cluster consists of a square earth building at the center of a quincunx, surrounded by four round earth buildings (or more exactly, 3 round earth buildings and one oval shape earth building), figuratively nicknamed "四菜一汤, Si cai yi tang" (four dishes with a soup).

In July 7 2008 UNESCO 32nd session held in Quebec city Canada, Tianluokeng tulou cluster was inscribed as one of 46 Fujian Tulou World Heritage Sites. The five earth buildings at the Snail Pit village are:

  • The square earth building named Buyun building(Reaching the Cloud building) at the center of the quincunx. It was the first earth building at this site, built in 1796. It is three storeys high, each storey has 26 rooms, four sets of stairs, and a circular corridor in front of the rooms. The Buyun building was burnt down by bandits in 1936, and rebuilt in 1953 according to the original shape. 
  • The Hechang building, a three storey high round earth building, 
  • Zhenchang building, three storey, round shape, 26 rooms per storey, built in 1930 
  • Ruiyun building, built in 1936, 
  • The last Wenchang building of 1966, 3 storeys, 32 rooms per storey.

The cluster is located about four hours drive by motor coach or taxi from Xiamen, through winding and bumpy narrow mountain roads.

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Fujian Tulou

Tianluokeng tulou cluster 05