The Eighth Wonder of the World Hakka Earth Buildings
The traditional residential buildings in the western part of Fujian Province in south China- Hakka Earth Buildings are named by the UNESCO as the eighth world wonder.
The appearance of these earth buildings look as grandiose as the ancient Roman Coliseum. They are suspected to be the source of inspiration for the designs of many modern stadiums. Because of its unique design magnificent structure and its anti-humidity and anti-earthquake nature Hakka Earth Building is branded as the legendary residential building on earth.
Lin Wenlong is a Hakka lad who came all the way to Beijing from one of these earth buildings. He is now a media journalist. Talking about the earth buildings in his hometown he started by telling us the history of the Hakka people.
The Hakka people used to live in central China. They were forced to move down to Fujian Guangdong and Guangxi several hundred years ago because of e the Hakka people moved to Fujian from somewhere else they had different customs and culture from the local people as the result there were frictions between them. Therefore these circular earth buildings were built for self-protection are able to house as many as a thousand families. However after centuries of vicissitudes the original tensions between the early Hakka settlers and the local people in Fujian Guangdong and Guangxi are long gone. So the defence function was largely reduced.
According to Lin a typical earth building had three to five floors. The first floor was used as kitchen the second floor for storage and the third and the fourth floors as living quarters.
Lin Wenlong said that it is already quite rare now to see many people living in the same earth building. Nowadays as people are getting richer and the living standards getting improved many people have moved out of the earth buildings to live in their own houses. So the earth buildings are gradually becoming architecture of historical values something to see rather than to live in. Each family now enjoys much better privacy than before.
Though Hakka Earth Buildings represent only one architectural style the rich Hakka culture it contains has influenced generations of Hakka people around the world.
“世界第八大奇蹟”客家土樓
坐落在中國南方福建省西部的傳統民居建築——客家土樓，被聯合國教科文組織驚歎爲“世界第八大奇蹟”。
土樓的外觀既可以與古羅馬雄偉的競技場相媲美，又讓人懷疑許多現代體育館的設計是不是受了它的影響。由於土樓獨特的造型，龐大的氣勢及防潮抗震等優勢被譽爲世界上獨一無二的神話般的民居建築。
林文龍，是一位從土樓來到北京發展的客家小夥子，目前在一家媒體當記者。提到家鄉的土樓?薰他先介紹了客家人的一些歷史：
客家人原來居住在中原，幾百年前因爲戰亂才遷移到福建和廣東、廣西的。由於當時遷移到當地，客家人與當地人在文化習俗上有差異，所以會有摩擦，這樣就產生了以防禦爲主的土樓了，土樓最多的能住千戶人。但是幾百年風風雨雨過去了，最初客家人到達福建、兩廣跟當地人的矛盾，到目前來講已經不存在了，它那種防禦的功能可以說大大減弱了。
林文龍說土樓的格局一般都是三層到五層，第一層就相當於廚房，第二層相當於倉庫，三、四層是住人的地方。
林文龍說現在很多人住在一個大土樓裏的狀況，已經不是很普遍了，大家現在都有錢了，隨着生活水平的提高，很多人都從大樓裏面搬出去，自己去蓋房子。土樓已經慢慢地變成了一個遺址性、文物性、觀賞性的東西，真正在裏面住的是比較少了。作爲單家個人私祕性來講，的確比以前好多了。
土樓雖然僅僅是一種建築形式，但它所蘊含的客家文化卻影響了世世代代遍佈在全球的客家人。
牐犜諡泄人的眼中，客家人的特點是團結。特別是旅居海外的客家人更是團結一致，有福同享，有難同當。這種團結互助的精神和客家土樓居住文化有關係。
牐牰雜謖夥矯嬀客家青年林文龍解釋說，在個體的生存能力比較弱的時候，它就要求你必須互相幫助，互相團結，必須協作，然後才能做更多的事情。客家土樓的建築格式，就比較善於把比較小的力量用某種方式彙集起來變成一種比較大的力量。這樣不管是開拓事業、還是經營生活，都會有比較好的效果。
牐犕諒ピ經被用來維繫一個家族、一個村莊的羣體利益，但對於現在來講，這種壁壘森嚴的格局，已經不符合現代人的'需求了，大家紛紛的離開。“土樓畢竟是一個很遙遠的記憶，通過自己大腦不斷的過濾，留下的都是一些美好的回憶。”林文龍說道。
牐牽圖彝諒ゼ竊亓艘歡衛史，幾代人的生活軌跡都跟土樓有關係，以後，對於那些沒有住過土樓的客家後代來講，土樓可能只是自己村子裏好多外地人光顧的旅遊點，就是一個景觀。但是土樓代表的、蘊涵的傳統，會被客家人當作自己的一種家族文化、族羣文化留傳下去。
