There are several types of ancient gatehouses:
Guangliang Gate Tower: As the name suggests, it should mean relatively spacious and bright. This is shorter than the small gatehouse next to it. For the door. Only high-ranking officials or warlords and merchants after the Republic of China could build it. There are horse-mounting stones, horse-tying posts or horse-tying stones outside the Guangliang gate.
Golden pillar gate tower: It is a gate with a door frame mounted on golden pillars. In terms of scale, Jinzhu Gate is obviously smaller than Guangliang Gate, and the doors are also narrow, with some having only half a bay. Other aspects such as the structure, roof, carvings, etc. of the gate are the same as those of Guangliang Gate. The door opening is only about one step deep, and there are some decorations on the eaves and pillars of the main doorway. Overall, it appears to be lighter than the Guangliang main door.
Manzi Gate Tower: The biggest feature is that it is pushed farther out than the Jinzhu Gate, almost at the position of the front eaves column. In other aspects, it is similar to Jinzhu Gate and Guangliang Gate. The appearance of the Manzi Gate was due to the fact that the homeowner's official status was not high, at least he could not build a Guangliang gate, so he simply pushed the front door of the courtyard under the eaves.
Ruyi gate tower: mostly used by ordinary people and not restricted by the feudal hierarchy. The biggest difference between Ruyi door and other house-style doors is that a wall is built between the front eaves and columns, and a door opening is left in the center of the wall to install the door leaf. A group of brick carvings in the shape of "Ruyi" are selected from the left and right upper corners of the doorway, commonly known as "Elephant Trunk Owls". Two door hairpins are installed above the lintel, often engraved with the word "Ruyi". In addition to this type of door hairpin with the word "Ruyi", there are also plain and carved types.
With-the-wall gatehouse: Also called wall-wall gatehouse, it is characterized by having no door opening, opening along the wall, occupying only half or most of the width of the room, and the courtyard door is relatively narrow. This kind of gatehouse looks the same as a house, but the style of stringing copper coins made of tiles makes it even more novel and unique.
Small gatehouse: It is the most common type of wall-mounted door. It still pursues the effect of a house in style. It has two very short gables, a roof with a ridge on the top, two raised ends, and the eaves are decorated with flower and grass tiles.
The fence gatehouse is also a kind of wall-mounted gate, commonly known as the water chestnut gate, which is generally used for the horse number of the gate of the mansion. Two wooden pillars support the crossbar, and a rhombus-shaped wooden component is used to protrude outward to support the roof. The door leaf is a straight-frame fence door.