The charm of Rongcheng's ancient seaweed houses

I have been to Rongcheng, a coastal city in Shandong province famous for its amazing seaweed houses, many times. These fascinating houses have a history stretching back several centuries.

Each year during the Spring Festival, I will bring a camera to visit Yandunjiao village of Li Island town of Rongcheng City, to see the seaweed houses and swans on their migratory route from Siberia. This village has 540 households, and there is a hill called Gushan to the southeast of it. More than 1,300 well-preserved seaweed houses stand in the village, and the villagers largely depend on fishing to make a living.

Migratory swans at a harbor near Yandunjiao village of Li Island town of Rongcheng, a coastal city in Shandong province.

Wang Yong, director of the village committee, told me, "This kind of house is handed down from generation to generation, and it is warm in winter and cool in summer. It is very comfortable!"

The small fishing village is surrounded by a harbor and a hill. Every winter, thousands of swans will come here from Siberia. Seaweed houses and swans are the major draw for the increasing number of photographers and tourists who come to see them from home and abroad.

A landscape of seaweed houses in Rongcheng, a coastal city in Shandong province.

In winter, nearly 100 professional photographers from China and beyond come here every day. In order to take good pictures, some people will live in the "Seaweed House Hotel" for a week. The pictures of swans and seaweed houses are frequently published on websites and pictorial photography magazines in China, South Korea and Japan.

Rongcheng seaweed houses, called "fairytale-like" by poets for many centuries, have also been studied by experts of ancient architecture. Made with irregular local stones, dried seaweed which forms a layer of thatch at a 50 degree angle on the roof in a herringbone pattern, the thickness of the seagrass ranges between 1 to 4 meters. The towering seagrass roofs look like big hats.

A landscape of seaweed houses in Rongcheng, a coastal city in Shandong province.

"The swans come here to eat seaweed. On windy days waves will bring seaweed to the shore. They can be used to build a house when they die in the sun. But these days, there is less and less seaweed," village director Wang Yong said.

There are different styles of seaweed houses, with some including courtyards. Each household has a quaint courtyard gate, with the ends of their door canopies sticking out to the sky, looking like a wooden fishing boat.

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