Huiyang Huishui Lou

Two streams converge before a massive rammed earth wall, giving Huishui Lou its name: the Converging Waters Building. Built in 1825 by Ye Chengfa, this 2,100-square-meter Hakka fortress housed over two hundred clan members at its peak. The architecture speaks of defense and devotion. Past the semi-circular Moon Pond and the wide threshing floor, the central gate bears the estate’s name. Inside, three successive halls rise through open courtyards. Chisel marks remain visible on the middle hall's wooden beam frames, while the upper hall’s shrine, inscribed with 'Nan Yang Tang,' holds the prayers of generations seeking 'a hundred sons and a thousand grandsons.'

The walls absorbed the quiet murmurs of history. A young Ye Ting spent fifteen years running across these stone floors before standing under the 600-year-old camphor tree on the back hill in 1919 to bid his family farewell. By the summer of 1928, the estate became a shadow headquarters. Under the cover of a night school, the Zhoutian Communist Youth League gathered in these rooms. Young revolutionaries planned sabotage, cutting telegraph wires and distributing flyers, their urgency echoing through the courtyards.

Time and social shifts eventually emptied the rooms, leaving the rooflines to sag. Recent restorations brought the estate back from the brink of ruin. Today, the right horizontal house welcomes travelers as a boutique homestay. Guests sleep beneath restored Hakka skylights, the scent of the ancient camphor tree drifting through Western-style gray molded windows. The 1825 fortress continues to shelter new generations, its rammed earth still holding the warmth of the southern sun.