The main body of Longwei is the hall. The so-called hall, that is, the central axis building is a square hall, with at least two halls, usually three. The hall is separated by the patio, with the upper open hall as the ancestral hall and the middle hall as the parliamentary hall. The lower open hall is a rectangular hall with a small depth. There are lining halls on both sides of the main hall, which are generally divided into bright rooms, two rooms, tip rooms and end rooms by lanes. There are horizontal houses on both sides of the main hall, and a half-moon enclosure is built behind it to connect the horizontal houses, and there are flower heads in the half-moon. There are two horizontal dragons around a dragon, four horizontal dragons around two dragons, and the biggest one is ten horizontal dragons around five dragons. Longwei houses are mostly built on the mountain, with the front low and the back high, highlighting the central axis of the hall, which is spectacular. In front of the door is Heping, a low-illuminated wall and a half-moon pool. The dragon circle is round as a whole, just like the Tai Chi diagram of Yin and Yang, which means round place.
Some Longwei houses are built in front of and behind the outer horizontal houses for defense, and the towers are often one floor higher than the main houses, so they are also called "four-corner buildings" or four-tower Longwei houses. The number of dragon houses depends on factors such as the development of families and the location of terrain. Generally, there is only one enclosure when it is first built, and it will continue to increase in the future. Located in the northeast of Guangdong, Sijiaolou is inextricably linked with the earth buildings in the west of Fujian and the earth paddock in the south of Jiangxi, which highlights its defensive function.
The main feature of quadrangle architecture is that watchtowers are added to the four corners of the square (more accurately, rectangular) wall. The shape and internal structure of quadrangle buildings are changeable, and both eastern Guangdong and northern Guangdong have their own characteristics.
The central axis of the four-corner building in eastern Guangdong is generally a hall, with three halls in the majority. The left and right horizontal houses are connected with the outer wall of the upper hall to form a circle. The four corners are one to two stories higher than the horizontal houses and halls, that is, the watchtowers on the second and third floors protrude more than one meter from the eaves. There are three doors in the front, the middle (hall) is the gate (main entrance), and the left and right horizontal houses are the small doors (side doors). The layout of the main entrance is the same as that of the dragon enclosure. As usual, there are lying flat, front retaining wall and half moon pool. Peace has "turnstiles" at both ends. Some four-corner buildings have no hall in the middle, forming a large space surrounded by bars and houses. This layout is conducive to defense. For example, the back of Xingning Gangbei in Meizhou is "seclusion". According to local legend, whenever there is war or banditry, residents of nearby villages will move into this building to avoid sticking to it.
The quadrangular pagodas in northern Guangdong and Heyuan are even more varied. In addition to the decorative shape of the tower, there are two towers, four towers, six towers or eight towers and a watchtower. The basic structure of hall-horizontal enclosure is two halls (halls) or three halls on the central axis, with up to five halls and horizontal houses on both sides. This traditional house style is called "luxury house style" by Hakkas in Meizhou, eastern Guangdong, and "Wufenglou" in Fujian. This kind of folk house has strong adaptability to the terrain and is more suitable for the customs and lifestyles of people living in groups and under the same roof for generations, so it is widely distributed and has a large number. The main difference between it and Longwei is that there is no flower head and Longwei behind it, which highlights the plane structure and characteristics of Hakka dwellings: it maintains the combined characteristics of quadrangles and halls in the Central Plains, that is, the hall, patio, Tianjie, peace and pond are integrated, which is both complete and practical.
The modeling feature of hall-horizontal enclosure is that the open hall, veranda and patio on the central axis form a trinity of hall and well space, with balanced and symmetrical wings on the left and right sides. Whether it is the central axis or the horizontal house, the basic composition is "four frames and three rooms", and the horizontal house is even and symmetrical. The whole building is low in front and high in back, highlighting the central axis, and the hall is high and the house is low. Because the overall structure is high and low, the roof tiles are scattered layer by layer, and the roof tiles are stacked, generally five stories. The eaves of roof tiles are like the wings of five phoenixes, so some people call them "Five Phoenix Pagoda". Strip enclosure is a relatively simple type of Hakka residence. Because of its longitudinal arrangement, the mountain flowers face forward, so it is called strip enclosure. It is also named like this because rows of houses are like bars on both sides of a sedan chair. The rod-type housing has at least two rods and at most eight rods. In the bar enclosure, the hall is sandwiched between bars, which obviously exaggerates the bar, narrows the hall and raises the height of the bar. But in the plane layout, the hall still has the function of determining the orientation, and it must be facing the gate.
The construction principle of bar fence and dragon fence is somewhat different. The dragon enclosure is to build the hall first, then the horizontal house and the dragon enclosure, and it continues to expand outward with the prosperity of the family. The principle of bar construction is to build the simplest and most practical bar according to the economic conditions, and then build the ancestral hall after the economic conditions permit. Another factor is influenced and restricted by geomantic geography. Feng Shui master builds houses according to the calculation of Yin-Yang and Five Elements. For example, the "Niu Jiao House" in Baijia, Xiyang Town, Meijiang District, Meizhou City turned out to be a house with six bars. According to the mountain shape, a dragon was built at the end of the side fence house. The dragon is only half surrounded, not surrounded. There are circular wells dug on both sides of the back eaves of the hall, symbolizing the bull's-eye, which became the "Niu Jiao House". Strip-shaped enclosure buildings are widely distributed in Meixian District, Meijiang District and dapu county, Meizhou City, eastern Guangdong Province, with sporadic distribution in other areas. Most of the bar-style enclosed buildings in Hong Kong are small and exquisite. Castle-style enclosed houses, the external walls of which are made of "concrete" rammed or blue bricks, are a major feature of Hakka dwellings in Dongjiang River basin and Shenzhen-Hong Kong area. It is a combination of hall enclosure, dragon enclosure and quadrangle architecture, which absorbs the advantages of Guangfu folk houses and develops. In the plane layout, the main structures of Xingmei Hakka residence, such as hall, horizontal house, Heping, yuechi county and Zhuandou Gate, are preserved, and are enclosed by two-story enclosed buildings. On the basis of retaining the four-corner watchtower, some enclosed buildings add a "watchtower" in the center of the back wall, which is the highest point of the whole building. A corridor "Zoumalou" was built around the top floor of the enclosure building.
The exterior decoration of the paddock has two characteristics: one is to build a parapet on the surrounding eaves, and the eaves are made of blue bricks into several layers of water chestnut teeth; Second, the top surfaces of watchtowers and watchtowers (mountain flowers) are mostly made into "pot ears" decorated with human heads. Great changes have taken place in the architectural form of internal structure. The enclosed building (called inverted seat in the front row) is surrounded by two-story or three-story unit houses, which are low inside and high outside, generally one hall, two rooms, one patio and two corridors. The main room and the horizontal room are mostly two-story units. The main entrance building occupies a unit, and the entrance through the hall is Tianjie, which separates the enclosed building from the main hall and the horizontal house. Some gates have imitation archway buildings with gray plastic patterns and stone carvings. To enclose a village is to enclose it with buildings or walls, so some people call it a "village". The village is deep and high, and it is impregnable, obviously because of the need of defense. The distribution of Hakka villages is mainly at the critical point or mixed place between Hakka people and Chaoshan people or Guangfu people. There are many examples in northern Guangdong, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
The Hakka villages in Shenzhen are not only influenced by Guangfu village, but also retain the tradition of Hakka folk houses. The main feature is that rows and rows of houses are surrounded by closed buildings or walls, with a square plane and watchtowers at the four corners. Most of the houses in the enclosure are unit houses, with corridors or "big heads" (one hall and one room). The village with single surname has an ancestral temple on the central axis, and the village with multiple surnames has its own ancestral temple. There are wo ping and ponds at the gate, which is one of the main differences from Guangfu Weicun.
Some Hakka villages are square and some are irregular circles. Some houses in the paddock are arranged in an orderly way, while others are messy. In addition, there are single rooms, row houses and unit houses in the walled village. A room with a partition wall in the middle has become various suites or "back-to-back" front and back doors. Jianqiaowei Village, Fengshun County, Meizhou, eastern Guangdong Province, is surrounded by water and independent houses. The main forms of Hakka enclosed houses in Hong Kong are hall horizontal houses, bar houses, concave row houses, castle enclosed houses and Chinese and western enclosed houses.
In New Territories North, Daqiling, Baxiang and Baxiang in Yuen Long where Hakkas live in concentrated communities, bars and concave row houses are the most common. There are only two kinds of horizontal bars: horizontal bar and parallel bars. Horizontal bar type, a fence with the same height as the front cornice wall is built several meters away from the front cornice wall, forming a front yard and opening a side door to enter and exit. Concave row houses are most widely distributed in the northern New Territories. The so-called "concave row house" is formed by connecting "locked houses" of multiple units.
Chongzheng New Village is the most concentrated place of Chinese and Western architecture.
There is only one castle-like paddock in Xiashanwei, Sha Tin.
Wu Luo, Chai Wan, is a typical house with an earlier age (Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty) that absorbed the living culture of Guangfu.
Yinhuaju, Lingmeizhuang and Yang Jiacun in Yuen Long, built in the late Qing Dynasty, are typical Cantonese-style houses.
The three houses built by the Chen family in Tsuen Wan during the reign of Qing Emperor Qianlong have a special shape, and their plane layout is a form between the hall horizontal house and the castle enclosure.