 Now it's time for our regular feature show "On the Road." Today we will take a trip to the beautiful coastal city Yantai in east China's Shandong Province. In ancient times, the local people there lived in a kind of shelter which was quite unique and rarely seen in any other parts of the world. The shelters were made of seaweed. Now let's go there to take a look at the seaweed huts. Our guide today is Wu Jia.
Seaweed huts are mostly found in the fishing villages of the Rongcheng area on the eastern tip of Jiaodong Peninsula on China's east coast.
The walls of the huts are short and made of natural stones. Only the roofs are covered by a kind of seaweed that grows in shallow seawater. The seaweed is thick, and the roofs are very steep like the bottoms of ships that have been turned upside down.
Liu Zhigang is a teacher at Shandong Institute of Trade and Industry and a member of the China Photographers Society. He photographs the seaweed huts hoping that more people will pay attention to and take part in the preservation effort of the cultural relic.
Liu says he was very impressed with the strong structures when he first saw them.
"I was astonished by the steep pile-tipped roof made of seaweed, which is very rarely seen anywhere else in the world."
Liu says the roofs which slope at a 70-degree angle are so different from common ones which are triangle-shaped and have a 45-degree angle.
The huts are even more impressive when you view them from a distance.
The seaweed used to build the roofs comes from five-to-10-meter deep seawater. It is pale green when taken out of the water, but turns reddish-brown after it dries in the sun and becomes rot-proof. A good seaweed hut can remain intact for more than 100 years.
Liu has been studying seaweed huts for the past several years. He says other than architecture, his studies focus on the anthropology and folklore of the area.
"All the materials used to build the huts were easily collected in this area. For instance, the seaweed was grown in the sea and brought to the seashore by the tide, and then stayed on the beach when the tide ebbed."
Liu says all the materials used to build the huts are easily found natural materials. In the past, local people collected the seaweed and dried it before using it.
The doors, windows and beams of the huts are made of local wood. Stones which are almost regular in shape have been used to construct the walls.
Just like the cave-rooms on the loess plateau in northwest China, the seaweed huts are also a product of the specific geographical conditions and folk customs of their environment.
Liu says the seaweed huts are one of the great creations of the local people on the Jiaodong Peninsula. They depict a scene how human beings lived in harmony with nature.
The old seaweed huts in this area are not only attractive to look at, but according to local people, they are also very comfortable to live in. The huts are cool in summer and warm in winter. They are also fire-proof, corrosion-free and much stronger than ones made of mud-bricks.
But today few people still live in these shelters. The huts have been disappearing on the Jiaodong Peninsula over the past couple of decades and especially during the last few years. This is because locals remove the huts to make space for new residential houses.
The rapid development of fish-farming in shallow seawater areas has caused the seaweed used to make the roofs of the huts to almost vanish completely.
To save the traditional culture from extinction, local governments are trying to protect the remaining seaweed huts by developing tourism based on the huts as well as other local traditions.
Here's Liu Zhigang again.
"The protection and preservation of the seaweed huts are very significant because first, they are part of the tangible cultural heritage of the world. Meanwhile, they are also an intangible cultural heritage for the traditions and lifestyles of the ancient people who relied on them."
Liu says these folk traditions have highly significant architectural and geographical value. |
