Zaitian Lou

Zaitian Lou

Located 55 kilometers north of NanZhao Town in the county, it belongs to Dabian Village, Guanbi Town, and is a county-level cultural heritage site. Built during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, it faces southwest and is situated to the northeast. Up close, it appears as a circular fortified building, but from a higher vantage point, it reveals an eight-diagram (Bagua) structural layout. The building has three stories, standing about 11 meters tall. The walls of the ground floor are nearly two meters thick, with a stone foundation and earthen superstructure, while the third floor is made of wood. The fortress features three concentric layers of housing: the inner layer consists of three ancestral hall rooms; the middle and outer layers have two and three stories respectively, with a total of 320 rooms between them. There are two gateways. The main gate is 2.51 meters high and 1.55 meters wide, featuring a double-door frame — the inner frame is 25 cm wide, the outer frame 50 cm, and the wall around the gate is 2.4 meters thick. The gate bears an inscribed plaque reading “Zaitian Lou.” The eaves of the building extend one meter outward. Below the outer eaves, there is a 1-meter-wide corridor, beyond which lies a moat encircling the entire fortress. The other gateway is a side entrance. The entire fortress has a diameter of 94.5 meters. Behind it lies a triangular pond called “Sanyuan Pond,” with crystal-clear water. Currently, 63 households comprising over 300 people reside within the fortress.

Zhang Yuanjin, a writer from Zhao County, wrote in his article “The Unique Charm of Guanbi Tulou”: Centered around Zaitian Lou, there are 12 other tulou nearby — namely Shuimei Lou, Shimǎ Lou, Yutian Lou, Yufeng Lou, Anbian Lou, Tianxia Lou, Xincheng Lou, Longtou Lou, Fengshan Lou, Yan Yi Lou, Fengming Lou, and Guangyu Lou. If Zaitian Lou is likened to the flower’s core, the other 12 tulou resemble its petals, together forming a unique, unparalleled large blossom in the world. And if each tulou is seen as a flower, then the crisscrossing pathways become the flower stems, the streams the ribbons, all binding these 13 vibrant blooms into the world’s largest bouquet.