The State Bureau of Cultural Relics has spent 2 million yuan ($ 322,000) on the renovation of the Nanyang Tulou, which is located in Zhangzhou city, East China’s Fujian province, local news reported on Jan 7.

A tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth building, most commonly rectangular or circular in configuration, with very thick load-bearing rammed earth walls between three and five stories high and housing up to 80 families.

As one of the important parts of world cultural heritage – Dadi tulou cluster, the Nanyang earth building, was built in 1817. Some parts of the building had been damaged owing to nearly 200-years of exposure to the weather.

The renovation, which started in mid October last year, is based on the principle of preserving its original look, and is scheduled to take 5 months.

“I’m 80 years old and it’s my first time to see such large scale of renovations on the earth building,” said Jiang Yongchun, a local villager.