The Jiang Clan Hakka Round House is considered as the "Forbidden City" in the south of the Yangtze River. Built in the late 18th century over an area of 35 mu (2.3 hectares) with a building area of 12,880 sq m, it is a typical Hakka architectural success. (File Photo)

Currently the Jiang Clan Hakka Round House is the largest intact Hakka architecture in Guangdong and Guangxi. This ancient building has attracted more and more tourists from home and abroad these years.

The Jiang Clan Hakka Round House is considered as the "Forbidden City" in the south of the Yangtze River. Built in the late 18th century over an area of 35 mu (2.3 hectares) with a building area of 12,880 sq m, it is a typical Hakka architectural success. Kong Ping, director of Hezhou Travel Administrative Bureau, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said many tourists from other Southeastern Asian countries and from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan had visited the house. The local government pins high hopes for boosting it to boost traditional cultural tourism.

Hezhou is located at the Hunan-Guangdong-Guangxi border, and it was considered to be a thoroughfare for the three provinces in ancient times. It is also an important transfer station for tourists to visit Guilin, a world-famous scenic spot. Some 2.7 million tourists visited Hezhou in 2005, including 100 thousand foreigners.

The Hakka is a unique Han-Chinese group. The ancestor of the Hakka in the south were immigrants who migrated to the south since the Tang Dynasty (618-907) because of frequent natural disasters and the flames of wars. They finally settled down in the mountainous regions in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces. Currently, there are millions of Hakka immigrants abroad.

Editor: Donald