The Datian Earthen Fortresses, featuring Anliang Fortress

Anliang Fortress is located in Datian County, Sanming City, Fujian Province. It was built in the 15th year of the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty (1810) and took 5 years to complete. The fortress spans 40 meters from north to south and 35 meters from east to west, covering an area of nearly 1500 square meters. The entire fortress is built along the mountain terrain, with a lower front and a higher back; it has 48 rooms built along its walls, and the height difference of up to 14 meters gives Anliang Fortress a staggered and increasingly imposing appearance. It is now the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units. Anliang Fortress is a typical defensive earthen fortress built against the mountain, in an irregular semicircular shape. On the left and right sides of the main gate, there are 15 wooden corridor houses with Xieshan-style roofs, which overlap like fish scales from top to bottom, used for storing grain in peacetime and as 'refuges' in wartime. The horse-walking corridor on the wall is one of the typical features of the earthen fortress, and almost all fortresses have such corridors (which are actually not wide, barely enough for walking, let alone running horses!), allowing free movement along the fortress walls. The structure of being lower in the front and higher in the back makes the fortress three-dimensional, facilitating observation and defense, with shooting holes arranged around the walls to fend off enemies from all sides without leaving any blind spots. The Datian Earthen Fortresses originated in the Song and Yuan dynasties and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Different from the earthen buildings in Western and Southern Fujian, the Weiwu in Southern Jiangxi, the Weilong houses and Diaolou in Guangdong, they are a type of rural architecture with a primary focus on military defense and a secondary focus on residential function. Less than a hundred of these fortresses remain today, among which the most representative ones include Anliang Fortress in Dongban Village, Taoyuan Town, Fanglian Fortress in Xusikeng Village, Junxi Town, Taian Fortress and Guangchongtang in Xiaohua Village, Taihua Town, and Pipa Fortress in Chengjiang, Jianguo Village, Jianshe Town. During the holiday, I spent two days visiting the above five fortresses. The distances between each fortress are not short, and they are located in the countryside, so it's more convenient to travel by car. As national key cultural relics protection units, they are indeed very representative, and each fortress has a unique architectural style! Personally, I think Anliang Fortress is the most beautiful one. Now inside the Dongban Ancient Village Scenic Area, the ticket price is 98 yuan, and there is a discount to 60 yuan in the off-season of winter , plus a shuttle bus for 15 yuan . After traveling so far, I gritted my teeth and decided to go in for a look, but to be honest, it's really not cost-effective... Nearby, there is also a thousand-year-old Taxus chinensis worth seeing (picture 20).

The Fortress Cluster in Datian, Fujian, represents an era

🔶 Fujian's earthen buildings and fortresses, as one of the regional representatives of traditional Chinese architecture in Fujian, possess unique architectural forms and artistic value. 🔶 Earthen buildings are probably familiar to many, especially the more developed Yongding earthen buildings and Nanjing earthen buildings (Yunshuiyao). However, as large defensive fortress buildings, earthen fortresses are less well-known due to their scattered distribution and their locations mostly in remote valleys. 1️⃣ Pipa Fortress: Named for its planar shape resembling a pipa (a Chinese lute). It is situated on a hillside, at a higher elevation, with roads encircling the building, complementing the architecture and the site. The building is not open to the public. 2️⃣ Anliang Fortress: Located within the She ethnic group scenic area, with a general level of development, and drivable with a fee during the off-season. The building backs onto a mountain and has strong defensive features. It is enclosed on all sides, with a typical layered sloping roof (similar to Anzhen Fortress) on the perimeter, and a hall with a gentler sloping roof in the middle. 3️⃣ Anzhen Fortress: Requires a ticket to enter the scenic area, with a relatively well-developed level of development. The building's footprint and volume are larger than Anliang Fortress. It has a rich interior functional space and a mature defense system. 4️⃣ Taian Fortress: A small earthen fortress with a square plan layout, with the rear two sides forming curved corners, aligning with the traditional cosmological view of 'round sky and square earth.' The building is not open to the public. 5️⃣ Guangchong Hall: Located near Taian Fortress, with a plan resembling a 🦀,

Anliangbao is a village-dominant building with unique defensive facilities and unique living style. It is located in Dongtun Village, Taoyuan, Sanming, Sanming, Fujian. It was built in the 15th year of Qing Jiaqing (1810) and was completed in 5 years. Its shape is irregular and semi-circular. There are 15 wooden porch houses with hanging mountain top structure on the left and right walls of the main entrance, which overlap like fish scales from top to bottom. Anliangbao is 40 meters from north to south and 35 meters from east to west. It covers an area of nearly 1,500 square meters and is built along the mountain. There are 48 rooms on the fence. The drop of 14 meters makes the patchwork and gradually The increasing number of halls is even more impressive. Although the wall has been peeled off most of the time, it is still possible to imagine the glory of the year. Walking along the old castle, it will still be awesome for this unique and defensive castle.