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Fujian's hilly southwestern border with Guangdong is central to the Hakka , a Han sub-group known to locals as Kejia (Outsiders) and to nineteenth-century Europeans as "China's Gypsies". Originating in the Yangzi basin during the third century and dislodged ever southward by war and revolution, today the Hakka form large communities both here and in Hong Kong and Hainan Island. They managed to retain their original languages and customs by remaining aloof from their neighbours in the lands which they colonized, a habit that caused resentment and led to their settlements being well defended. While towns up this way are mostly unattractive, the countryside is pretty in spring, and villages and hamlets around the focal city of Yongding sport fortress-like Hakka mansions built of stone and adobe, the largest of which are three storeys high, circular and house entire clans. From coastal Fujian, head first for LONGYAN , a small city 170km northwest of Xiamen on a good road and the (as yet incomplete) Fujian-Guangdong rail line. From the train station on the eastern edge of town, catch bus #14 over three bridges to Longzhou Xi Lu and the long-distance bus station , 2km away just south of Longyan's centre. Here you'll be mobbed by minibus drivers for the final sixty-kilometre, hour-long run southwest to Yongding (Y10), through several Hakka towns marked by large, mud-brick mansions. You can also get to Yongding from Meizhou or Dapu in Guangdong.
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