Hakka Walled House

Hakka Walled House

The Guangbu Village Hakka Walled House is located in Aotou Gangpu Village, Fuhe Town, and was built in the 22nd year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty.

The walled house has a semi-circular layout, with an overall width of 38.8 meters, a depth of 36.2 meters, and a total area of 1,454.56 square meters. It is built on a platform that is 0.40 to 0.80 meters high, and the surrounding outer walls have 1.5-meter-high timber-clad walls, atop which are approximately 30-meter-high earthen brick walls. The central part of the entire walled house is a two-courtyard-deep ancestral hall, measuring 17.60 meters in width and 18.70 meters in depth. The front gate is three bays wide and three bays deep, with side chambers that separate the space into a central bay, side bays, end bays, and corner bays. It features a flush gable roof, tiled roofing, a boat-shaped main ridge, and a gable-and-hip fireproof wall, with two pillars under the eaves. On both sides of the courtyard are side rooms divided into four smaller chambers, with the outer side room roofs higher and blending naturally with the roofs of the two front courtyards, creating a butterfly-like appearance, with only the lower eave section forming a corridor. The second courtyard is similar in structure to the first, but the central bay is divided into front and rear sections: the front is used for ancestral worship, while the rear serves as a hall, with side doors opening to the front and rear, and also leading out through the back door to a crescent-shaped pebble-paved open space outside the ancestral hall. Surrounding the ancestral hall are over 23 fan-shaped wing rooms. The wing rooms are highest at the center rear section, where the roof features a dragon boat ridge extending to the slightly lower sides. There are no ridge decorations on either side of the wing rooms until they loop around to the front of the ancestral hall, forming a large flat surface that transitions into gable-and-ear fireproof walls as side walls, standing proudly. Between the gable walls and the front courtyard of the ancestral hall, the roof extends across to connect them seamlessly, with side doors below.

On the flat ground outside the walled house, there is a pair of flagpole stands on each side, and in front of the flat ground there was originally a crescent-shaped pond the same size as the walled house. According to village records, the family was led by Chen Rulan from Xingmei Jiaoling to settle here, building houses and residing for over 320 years. This is the only small walled house of its kind in Zengcheng.

Guangzhou, Guangdong