Zhusha Hakka Walled Village

Zhusha Hakka Walled Village

Zhusha Hakka Walled Village is located in Lingtang Village, Nanjiang Town, Yuzhou District. It is a castle-like, clan-based, defensive Hakka residential complex. The walled village has a history of over two hundred years. The Huang family, who are Hakka residents living in the village, relocated here from Meixian County, Guangdong Province during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty.

Zhusha Hakka Walled Village faces east and backs onto a hillside, built along the natural terrain. In front of the main gate lies a flat open area called a “heping” and a crescent-shaped pond. The heping is used for drying grain, relaxing, and other activities, while the pond serves multiple purposes such as water storage, fish farming, theft prevention, fire protection, and drought mitigation. The entire walled village covers an area of more than 15,000 square meters. Its layout is centered around an ancestral hall, with four rows of symmetrical buildings extending longitudinally on both sides. The surrounding wall of the village is six meters high and 0.7 meters thick, shaped like a horseshoe and encircling the entire settlement. The walls are dotted with gun loops, and the battlements are equipped with watchtowers that served for lookout and firing—making the defensive function self-evident. Walking into the walled village, one can read the historical scars preserved in the high, crumbling walls, telling the story of nearly a thousand years of Hakka history centered around clan-based living. Within a single large walled compound, hundreds or even thousands of blood-related descendants of the same lineage lived and thrived. The walled village is a symbol of the Hakka people—a fortress protecting the lives and property of the clan from outside threats. The overall design and layout of Zhusha Hakka Walled Village are rational and emphasize harmony between human culture and the surrounding landscape, exuding the spirit of Central Plains culture. It is the largest, most intact, and most typical surviving Hakka residence in Yulin and even in Guangxi, holding great value for the study of Hakka culture and the development of tourism in Yulin.