Li Dan

AS Hakka people once made up 60 percent of Shenzhen’s total population and Longgang was their major settlement, it is no wonder that more than 100 Hakka residences still dot the district today.

Of these, Hehu New Residence in Luoruihe Village is one of the biggest and best preserved.

About 28 kilometers from downtown Shenzhen, the residence occupying about 25,000 square meters was first built by Luo Ruifeng, a Hakka from Xingning, Meizhou in eastern Guangdong Province during the regime of Qing Emperor Hongli (1736-1796). The building took the efforts of three generations before it was completed in 1817.

Surrounded by colorful modern buildings, the Hakka residence had the dignity of a weathered general standing in the silence of dusk when I visited.

The facade of the building, protected by thick walls as long as 165.9 meters, resembles a real castle at first sight.

Typical of Hakka residences in the East River ranges of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the outside walls of Hehu New Residence are built of a mixture of mud, sand and lime, with black gun holes for snipers to fire through during battles.

There are two sets of walls in the residence. The first generation of the Luos in Longgang built the inner walls, four guard towers and a watchtower on a patch of square land. Later generations built the outer walls, another four guard towers and a watchtower on a trapezoid shaped land. There are passages between the towers to allow guards to patrol.

The half moon-shaped pond in front of the building, according to Chen Wenming, a tour guide, can be used for firefighting besides establishing good fortune according to fengshui.

“Hakka people migrated from North China to the south. They built their homes as strongholds to keep back locals and robbers who coveted their properties,” he said.

It is true. In Guangdong, the prosperous Pearl River Delta has long been inhabited by the Cantonese, the Chaoshan Plain has been the home of Chaozhou and Shantou people, while Hakka people had to settle down in mountainous areas in northern and eastern Guangdong. The majority of the Hakka people in Longgang migrated from Meizhou 250 kilometers away.

As the imperial court of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) only allowed exploration of new land along the coast in 1684, it was then that Hakka people migrated from Meizhou to today’s Shenzhen and Hong Kong. As a result, most of the Hakka residences in Longgang were built in the middle and late Qing Dynasty similar to those in Meizhou.

Whilst the walls are as strong as they used to be, the floors on top of them can no longer stand people’s weight.

On the gate of the inner walls are inscribed four Chinese characters “ju zu yu si,” which means, “Congregate our folks here.”

“So the space here right inside the walls was where the Luos had meetings and their children recited from books on a fine day. It was also used to dry grain in the sun,” the tour guide said.

The Luos’ family temple is positioned at the center of the residence, reminding people of the Hakka tradition of honoring their ancestors and worshiping Confucius.

A wooden board inscribed with “daifudi” (“mansion of a senior official”) is still hung on the family temple to remind people of the family’s past glory. Luo Zhaoneng, who held a position equivalent to today’s governor, received the board from Emperor Minning in 1834.

The residence, with 179 “apartments” each consisting of one to three rooms, housed some 1,000 clan members at its peak.

Each family owned their land and farming tools, but they also borrowed buffalos and more expensive tools from others. A barn, two wells and mills to produce oil and sugar helped residents to sustain themselves for months inside the residence during wartime. A big stone sugar mill, said to be the only one left in China, still exists in the backyard.

There is also a taller tower in the backyard, which was used as a conference room and school for children, the tour guide said. Another tall building outside the inner walls was burnt down by Japanese invaders in 1943.

Luo Ruifeng, founding father of the residence, migrated to Longgang in 1768. He started his business by selling trinkets on the streets and soon made a fortune by investing in an oil mill. Luo’s ancestors had lived in Fujian and Jiangxi before moving to Xingning, Meizhou in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Today, many of the Luo descendants have migrated overseas.

A Hakka folk museum since 1996, the place is listed as a protected historical relic in Guangdong Province, and costs 10 yuan (US$1.25) to visit.