Most beautiful villages

Yongding Hakka village

The Hakka are a subgroup of the Han Chinese people who live predominantly in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian. From China’s Fujian coast, it’s a grinding drive up narrow roads through villages built around exhausted coal mines to reach the remote mountains of Yongding. Morning mist clings to the slopes of dense trees and brush. Below, in a valley, rests an eerie collection of beige cylindrical structures, one as enormous as a football field. The Hakka communal homes-cum-fortresses have lured foreign architects and anthropologists for the last 20 years and, more recently, a trickle of tourists seeking obscure corners of China and overseas Hakka seeking their roots. Noting this interest, China, more often known for demolishing historic structures than protecting them, has begun restoring the earthen houses and last year nominated them for World Heritage Site status.

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