The Longyan Hakka Culture Museum is the best introduction to the history and culture of the Hakka people before heading out to the tulou villages. The displays cover the migrations that brought Hakka communities south from the Yellow River basin over many centuries, the distinctive dialect, the architecture, the food traditions, and the martial arts styles that developed in Hakka communities and later spread across southern China. There are photographs, models, and artefacts from the countryside around Longyan.
The museum is centrally located and can be combined with a walk along the Longyan city riverfront. Signage is primarily in Chinese, but the visual material is self-explanatory and the architectural models of the different tulou types are genuinely informative. If you are arriving in Longyan the evening before heading to Yongding, the museum makes a sensible first stop the following morning before catching the bus.