Fujian sits between the mountains and the sea, and both have shaped it. The interior produced the tulou — Hakka communal earthen houses that hold entire clans inside a single circular wall. The coast produced Quanzhou, which the Mongol-era court called the largest port in the world, and the Minnan diaspora that carried Fujianese culture to Taiwan, the Philippines, and Singapore. Few provinces have exported more, in both directions.
We work in Fujian because the province's two histories — the deep inland clan villages and the outward-facing port cities — are unusual in their density. Tea, architecture, and seafaring have all been refined here over centuries, and the people who hold those traditions are often still in the family houses where they were taught.