Country Living

One of the great things about taking a trip to the countryside, besides relaxing in nature, is watching the way of life. For the Hakka people in Fujian, it's not much different from years past. Many in the tourist-friendly villages now have satellite dishes, TVs, and other modern amenities, but they still have a lot of traditional ways, especially when it comes to farming.


Many of the tulou in Fujian had older tools and machinery around--some of it was for the tourists' benefit, but others were still in use. Unfortunately, the ones I took pictures of were not being used at the time, so I'm not entirely sure what they're for. I would guess most of their tools would be used for rice, as it takes up more than half their farm land.
I thought this shot was interesting because of the generations all together preparing the tea leaves.

Since most of the Hakka diets consist of rice, vegetables, eggs, and chicken, there is little meat in their food. Only some villages have land that can support water buffalo or other anmials--many of the villages are on mountainsides. At the first village we entered, there was a man on a motorcycle delivering pork to the families. He cut the meat on a wood board on the back of the motorcycle and weighed it with a rather old measuring tool. With the customers surrounding him, this was the best picture I could get.