Award: Second Prize

Walled houses were originally appeared in central China . The Hakkas who have moved to the south several times in history strengthen the defensive castle-type residential architecture to guard their own and their families, thus forming their characters of living together. Such houses represent the Hakkas cultural accumulation with thousands of years instead of only an architectural form.

The south of Jiangxi Province is the concentrating location and the base camp on the way of the Hakkas migration. At present, over 600 walled houses remain in desolated villages in Longnan, Dingnan, Quannan and Anyuan. Walled houses were named with the high gun turrets surrounding its main house. The interior houses integrate home, ancestral temple and fortress, whose precise symmetry layout inherit the traditional cultural thought of unification and whose defensive function of tall and thick walls are embodiment of pragmatism of taking advantage of an opportunity. The houses are diversified in sculpts and large in number, square (taking the largest proportion), round, semi sphere, high and low walls. Guanxi Walls in Longnan County and the Yanyi Walls in Yang Village are the most typical representatives.