On board our bus to Yongding, we prepared ourselves for the six hour journey ahead of us - and were slightly thrown off (though quite happy) when we arrived after only three hours. Attempting to buy onward bus tickets to Guangzhou for tomorrow, we were shocked to find there was no bus - throwing out our belief that you can bus anywhere from anywhere in China! However, we were informed there was a train station across the road with trains to Guangzhou, so we made our way there only to find 'across the road' meant 'across town' - meaning we got a nice walk in the rain!
When we arrived at the train station we found the ticket booth unmanned, a first in China. After we deciphered the timetable, Adam went to find somewhere to buy tickets, eventually walking into the control station where he conversed with the guard using a mixture of sign language and his basic Chinese. Returning to Liv, Adam was extremely proud of his achievement, only to be told by Liv that she had simply read the Chinese sign that set out the ticketing hours, moments after Adam had set off! With a few hours to kill before the next ticket time - we did what any self-respecting traveller with time up their sleeves would do - we indulged in local cuisine - well sort of, we ate some more fried noodles! At least this time they cost us what we have become used to paying - just over a $1 for the both of us!
Braving the rain again we made our way to the train station, where we purchased our overnight train tickets with a breeze - Liv has the ticket ordering down to perfection!
Having our train tickets purchased meant we could finally make our way (how else, but by dodgy local bus?) to Hukeng - the sole reason we had come to Yongding for in the first place. Yongding is famous for its 20,000 Tulou (earth buidings) scattered around the region. Tulou are huge communal homes (capable of housing entire clans), usually round, but also sqaure, semi-circle or even shaped like Chinese characters - the rooms are positioned around the edges with an open roof above the courtyard in the centre. Made of rammed earth, rice and reinforced bamboo chips, the Hakka people initially built the Tulou to protect themselves from bandits and wild animals.
We had been expecting about a 20 minute bus ride, and after an hour and a half, we were dreading the point when we were to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere and be told: this is your stop - as has happened in the past!
At our stop, we were dropped off (as usual) at the busdriver's friend's place, who was in charge of organising for tourists to stay in a traditional Tulou. The Tulou we were shown to was absolutely amazing, and despite the basic conditions we jumped at the chance to sleep there along with the locals. Our Tulou was 4 stories high, with over 400 hundred rooms and was more than 500 years old.
The first floor of the Tulou is reserved for cooking, while the courtyard houses a well and animals. The second floor is for storage, and the third and fourth are the sleeping quarters. We were lucky to have penthouse accommodation on the top floor, though without a toilet in the Tulou, Adam got the experience of peeing into a big concrete pot during the night!After being shown around our Tulou, we were lukcy enough to view other varieties of Tulou scattered around this area of the village (tomorrow we will enter the 'tourist' village), by a wonderful English speaking local.
The Hakka people are renowned for their friendliness, which we certainly experienced as we wandered in and out of their incredible Tulou.
Of note was getting to see the oldest, and now crumbling and uninhabited, Tulou in the village - that our guide had lived in only ten years earlier. 
After our 'tour' we had a delicious feast for dinner, getting to try one of the local green veges! Venturing back in the dark to our room, we got semi-lost and found ourselves trying to break into one of the local's rooms, only to get smiles, laughs and points in the right direction by our lovely housemates! Making it back to our room, we settled into bed - after completely dousing ourselves in insect repellant!Adlibing the night in a Tulou.
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