Modern architecture in China refers to1China architecture since the middle of the 9th century.
From the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840 to the establishment of New China in 1949, the architecture in China presents the characteristics of the intersection of Chinese and Western styles. During this period, the traditional old building system in China still occupied a quantitative advantage, but entertainment service buildings such as theaters, restaurants, inns, and commercial buildings such as department stores and vegetable markets generally broke through the traditional architectural pattern, expanded the space for interpersonal activities, and set up foreign-style storefronts combining Chinese and Western styles; Western architectural styles are also presented in China's architectural activities. In Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Harbin and other concession cities, foreign consulates, foreign firms, banks, restaurants, clubs and other foreign buildings have appeared. Modern national architecture also appeared in this period, realizing the unification of new functions, new technologies, new shapes and national styles.
1949 after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), China's architecture entered a new historical period, and large-scale and planned national economic construction promoted the vigorous development of the construction industry. Modern architecture in China has broken through the limitations of modern times in terms of quantity, scale, type, geographical distribution and modernization level, and presented a brand-new posture. During this period, China architecture experienced a retro style characterized by local application of large roofs, a new style of socialist architecture represented by the 10 National Day Project, and a Guangzhou style period that integrated modern design techniques and national implications. Since 1980s, China's architecture has gradually become open and compatible, and China's modern architecture has begun to diversify.
Ancient Chinese architecture
Qing dynasty architecture
The Qing Dynasty (A.D.1616-1911) was the last feudal dynasty in China. The architecture of this period generally followed the tradition of the Ming Dynasty, but it also developed and innovated, and the architecture was more exquisite.
Beijing, the capital of the Qing Dynasty, remained basically the same in the Ming Dynasty. There are 20 tall and majestic gates in the city, and the most magnificent is the Zhengyang Gate in the inner city. Following the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty built a large-scale royal garden, which is the essence of Qing architecture, including the magnificent Yuanmingyuan and the Summer Palace.
In the examples of architecture in Qing Dynasty, the level of group arrangement and decoration design has reached maturity. Landscape architecture, in particular, has a high level of modeling and change in combination with terrain or space.
During this period, building technology is still innovating, mainly in the introduction and use of glass and the progress of masonry. During this period, the residential buildings in China were rich and colorful, and there were many flexible freestyle buildings.
Tibetan Buddhist architecture with unique style flourished during this period. These Buddhist temples have various shapes, breaking the traditional single style of the original temple buildings and creating colorful architectural forms, represented by a number of Tibetan Buddhist temples built in Yonghe Palace and Chengde in Beijing.
In the late Qing Dynasty, some new architectural images combining Chinese and Western styles appeared in China.
Yuan dynasty architecture
In the Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 1206- 1368), China was a huge military empire established by Mongolian rulers. However, during this period, the economic and cultural development of China was slow, and the development of architecture was basically in decline. Most buildings are simple and crude.
The capital of the Yuan Dynasty (now northern Beijing) was large in scale and its shape continued. The scale of the imperial city in Ming and Qing Dynasties-Beijing was born in this period. Long live the Great Grandfather Chishan (now Qiongdao, Beihai, Beijing) in the Yuan Dynasty, which has survived to this day and is also the grand scene of the Yuan Dynasty.
Because the rulers of Yuan Dynasty believed in religion, especially Tibetan Buddhism, religious architecture flourished in this period. The White Pagoda of Miaoying Temple in Beijing is a Lama Pagoda designed and built by Nepalese craftsmen.
Tang dynasty architecture
The Tang Dynasty (AD 6 18-907) was the climax of the economic and cultural development of China feudal society, and the architectural technology and art also made great progress. The architectural style of the Tang Dynasty is characterized by grandeur, neatness and liveliness.
The scale of architecture in Tang Dynasty was huge, and the planning was rigorous. During this period, the overall planning of architecture in China became more and more mature. Both Chang 'an (now Xi) in Tang Dou and Luoyang in the east have built huge palaces, courtyards and yamen, and the architectural layout is more standardized and reasonable. Chang 'an was the most magnificent city in the world at that time, and its planning was also the most rigorous among the ancient capitals of China. Daming Palace, the Forbidden City in Chang 'an, is extremely magnificent. Its ruins are more than three times the total area of Qingming Palace and Forbidden City.
In the Tang Dynasty, the wooden structure architecture realized the unity of artistic processing and structural modeling, and the building components, including bucket arches, columns and beams, all reflected the perfect combination of strength and beauty. The buildings in the Tang Dynasty are simple, solemn and generous, with simple and bright colors. The Beige Temple in Wutai Mountain is a typical building in the Tang Dynasty, which embodies the above characteristics.
In addition, the masonry buildings in the Tang Dynasty have been further developed, and most pagodas are built of masonry. The existing Tang pagodas in China, including the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi and Chihiro Pagoda in Dali, are all brick pagodas.
Gardening
China's garden architecture has a long history and enjoys a high reputation in the world garden history. In the Zhou Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, China had the earliest palace gardens. Since then, all the capital cities and local famous cities in China have built gardens, and the urban gardens in China are rich and colorful, occupying a glorious position among the three major garden systems in the world.
China gardens, which are dominated by mountains and rivers, have unique style and flexible layout, and combine artificial beauty with natural beauty to form wonderful effects. These garden buildings originated from nature and are higher than nature, hidden in mountains and rivers, and promoted the beauty of nature to a higher level.
China's garden architecture includes magnificent royal gardens and exquisite private gardens. These buildings are exquisitely decorated with landscapes, flowers, trees, courtyards, covered bridges and couplets, which make the mountains and rivers full of emotions and endless artistic conception. The realm of China gardens can be divided into three categories: the realm of governing the world, the realm of immortals and the realm of nature.
China's thought is pragmatic, has a high sense of social responsibility, attaches great importance to moral and ethical values and political significance, and is reflected in landscape design, which is the realm of managing the world. This realm is common in royal gardens, and about half of the scenic spots in Yuanmingyuan, a famous royal garden, reflect this realm.
Immortal realm refers to taking romanticism as the aesthetic standard when gardening, and paying attention to the content of China's Taoist thought that emphasizes natural tranquility and self-cultivation. This realm is reflected in both royal gardens and temple gardens, such as Pengdao Yaotai in Yuanmingyuan, the ancient road view of Qingcheng Mountain in Sichuan, and Nanyan Palace in Wudang Mountain in Hubei.
The natural realm is mainly freehand brushwork, focusing on expressing the feelings of the garden owner. This realm is mostly reflected in literati gardens, such as Canglang Pavilion in Su Shunqin in the Song Dynasty and Du Yuefu by Sima Guang.
The differences between Chinese and western gardens are as follows: western gardens emphasize geometric and mathematical principles and focus on architecture; China gardens pay attention to the natural landscape and the beautiful feelings of tourists, and pay more attention to the harmony between man and nature.
The Classical Gardens of Suzhou
Suzhou classical gardens were listed in the World Heritage List from 65438 to 0997, which reflected the artistic features of China garden architecture. Suzhou gardens have a history of more than two thousand years, and there are more than ten famous gardens. Most of Suzhou gardens cover a small area and adopt endless and eclectic artistic techniques. With the interest of China landscape flowers and birds and the artistic conception of Tang poetry and Song poetry, rockery trees are decorated and pavilions and ponds are arranged in a limited space to create an artistic effect of seeing the big from the small. Among them, the famous garden buildings are Canglang Pavilion, Lion Forest, Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden.
Old Summer Palace
The most famous imperial garden in China, the Yuanmingyuan Garden, is known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", which combines different styles of garden art from all over China and draws lessons from some western architectural styles. The buildings in the park are exquisite, although they are different in shape and interesting. The magnificent Yuanmingyuan was burned by the British and French allied forces invading China in 1860. Now, people can only imagine the magnificence of this famous garden on the ruins.
Yuanmingyuan is located in the northwest suburb of Beijing. Generally speaking, Yuanmingyuan also includes its two affiliated gardens, Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden (Wanchun Garden), so it is also called "Yuanming Three Gardens". It is the largest of the five detached palaces in the northwest suburb of Beijing in Qing Dynasty, namely "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" (Fragrant Hills Jingyi Garden, Yuquan Mountain Jingming Garden, Wanshou Mountain Qingyi Garden, Yuanmingyuan Garden and Changchun Garden), with an area of 347 hectares.
Yuanmingyuan was not only the most outstanding palace garden in China at that time, but also famous in Europe through the introduction of missionaries' letters and reports, which had a certain influence on the development of European natural landscape gardens in the18th century.
Palace architecture
Palace building, also known as palace building, is a huge and magnificent building built by the emperor to consolidate his rule, show the majesty of imperial power and satisfy the enjoyment of spiritual and material life. Most of these buildings are magnificent.
Since the Qin dynasty, the "palace" has become the place where the emperor and the royal family lived, and the palace has also become the place where the emperor handled state affairs. In the next few years, the scale of China Palace building has been expanding. Its typical features are huge arches, covered with golden glazed tiles, colorful paintings, finely carved ceiling caissons, white marble abutments, railings, beams and columns, and sketches of surrounding buildings. The Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City in Beijing is a typical palace building.
In order to reflect the supremacy of imperial power and the hierarchical concept with imperial power as the core, the ancient palace buildings in China adopted a strict symmetrical layout of the central axis: the buildings on the central axis are tall and gorgeous, and the buildings on both sides of the central axis are relatively low, small and simple. Because China's etiquette thought contains the contents of offering sacrifices to ancestors, advocating filial piety, attaching importance to food and offering sacrifices to land gods, China Palace usually has an ancestral temple (also called ancestral temple) in the left front for the emperor to offer sacrifices to ancestors, and a national altar in the right front for the emperor to offer sacrifices to land gods and grain gods (the country is the land and millet is the food). This mode is called "left group and right house". The ancient palace building itself is also divided into two parts, that is, "the former is the place where the emperor ruled the government and held ceremonies, and the latter is the place where the emperor and his concubines lived and lived."
China Palace is represented by the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Forbidden City, also known as the Forbidden City, was the court of emperors in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and 24 emperors lived here successively. The Forbidden City covers an area of 720,000 square meters and has more than 9,000 houses. Surrounded by a red wall several meters high, with a circumference of more than 3,400 meters, there is a moat outside the wall. The scale, unique style, gorgeous furnishings and splendid architecture of the Forbidden City are extremely rare among palace buildings in the world.
The Forbidden City is divided into two parts. The former part is the place where the emperor held important ceremonies and issued orders. The main buildings are Taihe Hall, Zhonghe Hall and Baohe Hall. These buildings are all built on 8-meter-high platforms made of white marble, which look like the Fairy Que in Gong Qiong from a distance. The architectural image is serious, solemn, grand and majestic, and the interior of the three halls is magnificent. The second half of the Forbidden City, the "Inner Palace", is the place where the emperor handles government affairs and concubines live. Gan Qing Palace, Kunning Palace, Royal Garden and other major buildings are full of rich flavor of life. Most buildings include gardens, study rooms, pavilions and rocks, all of which form their own courtyards.
Due to the alternation of dynasties and wars, there were not many ancient palace buildings in China. In addition to the Forbidden City in Beijing, there is also the Forbidden City in Shenyang. In addition, there are several sites of Han and Tang palaces in Xi 'an.
tomb construction
Mausoleum architecture is an important part of ancient architecture in China. Based on the idea that the soul can't die, ancient people in China generally attached importance to funeral. Therefore, no matter what class, they carefully build graves. In the long historical process, China's mausoleum architecture has made great progress, resulting in rare and huge tombs of ancient emperors and empresses; And in the process of historical evolution, mausoleum architecture gradually merged with painting, calligraphy, sculpture and other artistic schools, and became a comprehensive body reflecting various artistic achievements.
Mausoleum building is one of the most magnificent and huge ancient buildings in China. These mausoleum buildings are generally built by using natural terrain and relying on mountains; Some of them are built on the plains. The layout of China cemetery is mostly surrounded by walls, with doors open on all sides and turrets built at four corners. There is a tunnel in front of the mausoleum, and there are statues of man and beast on both sides of the tunnel. The pine and cypress trees in the cemetery are lush and dense, giving people a solemn and quiet feeling.
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
Located at the northern foot of Mount Li in Xi, Shaanxi Province, the Mausoleum of the First Qin Dynasty is the most famous mausoleum in China, which was built more than 2,000 years ago. Known as the "eighth wonder of the world", the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang are the "troops" guarding this mausoleum. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the First Qin Dynasty were listed on the World Heritage List in 1987 for their majestic momentum, superb carving and craftsmanship. The World Heritage Committee once commented that the famous Terracotta Warriors and Horses around the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, together with their horses, chariots and weapons, are perfect masterpieces of realism, while retaining high historical value.
Terracotta Army
There are many tombs of Emperor China near Xi, Shaanxi Province. In addition to the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, there are the Western Han Dynasty 1 1 Imperial Mausoleum and the Tang Dynasty 18 Imperial Mausoleum. Liu Che Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is the largest mausoleum in the Western Han Dynasty, and it also contains the most treasures. Zhaoling is the mausoleum of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin. The cemetery has a huge area, and there are 17 tombs of heroes and nobles buried in the park. Zhaoling is a precious cultural relic on the ground and underground, the most famous of which is the exquisite sculpture of Six Horses in the Tang Dynasty.
Ming and Qing tombs
The Ming and Qing emperors' tombs are the best preserved in China.
The Ming Emperor's Mausoleum is mainly located in Changping, Beijing, that is, the Ming Tombs. It is the mausoleum of 13 emperors whose capital was Beijing in the Ming Dynasty. They are located in a small basin under Tianshou Mountain in the north of Changping County, Beijing, surrounded by mountains on three sides and open to the south. The tombs of these emperors are scattered on the hillside in a small basin, covering an area of 40 square kilometers. There are 13 emperors, 23 queens and many concubines, princes, princesses and buried ladies in the mausoleum.
The Ming Tombs are magnificent in scale, beautiful in scenery and magnificent in momentum. They are the most concentrated and complete cemetery buildings in China. Among them, Changling (Judy of Ming Dynasty) and Dingling (Zhu Yijun of Ming Shenzong) are the most spectacular. After excavation, it was found that the stone arch structure of Dingling underground palace was solid, the surrounding drainage facilities were good, there was little water accumulation, and no stone arch collapsed, which fully demonstrated the superb technology of ancient Chinese people in building underground buildings.
Among the existing mausoleum buildings in China, the Qing Dongling Mausoleum, the largest royal mausoleum with the most complete architectural system, covers an area of 78 square kilometers, including five emperors of the Qing Dynasty, 14 empresses and 100 concubines. The main tombs in the Qing tombs are beautifully built.
Song dynasty architecture
The Song Dynasty (AD 960- 1279) was a relatively declining dynasty in ancient China, but it developed in economy, handicrafts and commerce, and made great progress in science and technology, which made the architectural level of the Song Dynasty reach a new height. The architecture of this period changed the vigorous characteristics of the Tang Dynasty, became slim and beautiful, and paid attention to decoration.
In the Song Dynasty, the city formed the layout of opening shops along the street and forming streets by lines, and the buildings such as urban fire protection, transportation, shops and bridges all had new development. Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan Province), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, completely presents the face of a commercial city. During this period, large-scale buildings were no longer built in all parts of China, and only the spatial level of deepening direction was strengthened in building combination to set off the main building and vigorously develop architectural decoration and color. The main hall and fish pond flying beam in Jinci, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province are typical buildings in the Song Dynasty.
The level of masonry buildings in Song Dynasty was constantly improved. At this time, the masonry buildings were mainly pagodas and bridges. Lingyin Temple Tower in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Fanta in Kaifeng, Henan Province, and Yongtong Bridge in Zhao County, Hebei Province are all examples of masonry buildings in the Song Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, China's economy and society developed to a certain extent, and artistic gardens began to rise during this period. China classical gardens are based on freehand brushwork, integrating natural beauty with artificial beauty, and expressing a certain artistic realm with architecture and artificial home landscapes, rocks, flowers and trees. The representative gardens in Song Dynasty include Canglang Pavilion in Su Shunqin and Sima Guang's paradise.
In Song Dynasty, the specification book "Building French Style" about architectural design and construction came out, which is a perfect monograph on architectural technology. The publication of this book reflects that the architecture in China reached a new level in engineering technology and construction management during this period.
Ming dynasty architecture
From the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368- 1644), China entered the late feudal society. Most of the architectural styles in this period were inherited from the Song Dynasty, and there was no obvious change, but the architectural design and planning were characterized by large scale and magnificent weather.
The urban planning and palace architecture in this period were used by later generations: Beijing, the capital, and Nanjing, the largest existing ancient city in China, benefited from the planning and management of the Ming Dynasty, and the palaces of the Qing emperors were constantly expanded and improved on the basis of the palaces of the Ming Dynasty. Beijing, the capital of this period, was rebuilt on the original basis and divided into three parts: outer city, inner city and imperial city.
In the Ming Dynasty, we continued to vigorously build a magnificent defensive building-the Great Wall. The walls of many important sections of the Great Wall and Chengguan Fortress are made of bricks, and the building level has reached the highest level. The Ming Great Wall starts from Yalu River in the east and ends at Jiayuguan in Gansu in the west, with a total length of 5,660 kilometers. Shanhaiguan, Jiayuguan and other famous Guancheng are masterpieces with unique style in China's architectural art; Beijing Badaling Great Wall and Simatai Great Wall are of high artistic value.
the Great Wall
During this period, the art and technology of wood structure have been further developed in architecture, the image of official architecture has become more rigorous and stable, and its decoration, color painting and decoration have become increasingly stereotyped. There are many works made of different materials, such as masonry, glass, hardwood and so on. And bricks have been widely used in the walls of residential buildings.
By the Ming Dynasty, the architectural layout of China was more mature. Nanjing Ming Tombs and Beijing Ming Tombs are outstanding examples of being good at using topography and environment to form solemn atmosphere of tombs.
In addition, at this time, the private garden construction of bureaucratic landlords in Jiangnan was very developed, and Ming-style furniture was also famous all over the world.
It is worth mentioning that Feng Shui reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty, which is a unique ancient cultural phenomenon in the architectural history of China, and its influence continued until modern times.
temple
Temple is one of the Buddhist buildings in China. Temple architecture originated in India and flourished in China since the Northern Wei Dynasty. These buildings have recorded the development of feudal society and culture and the rise and fall of religion in China, and are of great historical and artistic value.
The ancient people in China had a profound view on the world of Yin and Yang, and had an aesthetic psychology of advocating symmetry, order and stability. Therefore, China Buddhist Temple, which combines China's unique function of offering sacrifices to ancestors and heaven and earth, is still a square building complex with a stable, symmetrical, rigorous and orderly layout of the north-south central axis. In addition, Buddhist temples with garden-like architecture are also common in China. These two artistic modes make China Temple not only have elegant and solemn temple atmosphere, but also full of natural interest and profound artistic conception.
The layout of ancient temples in China is mostly that the front middle road is a mountain gate, and the bell tower and drum tower are on the left and right sides of the mountain gate respectively. In front is the Heavenly King Hall, which contains four statues of donkey kong, followed by the Hall of the Great Hero and the Hall of Scripture, with the monk's room and the Zhai Hall on the left and right sides of the middle road respectively. Daxiong Hall is the most important and huge building in Buddhist temples, and "Daxiong" is Buddha Sakyamuni. Before Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhist temples usually built towers in front of temples or in the center of houses. After Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhist temples generally replaced pagodas, and most temples built pagodas.
Luoyang Baima Temple
The White Horse Temple in Luoyang, Henan Province was founded in the Han Dynasty, which is the earliest Buddhist temple officially built in China. The temple is rectangular and covers an area of about 40,000 square meters. The construction of White Horse Temple has effectively promoted the development of Buddhism in China, East Asia and Southeast Asia. Therefore, the White Horse Temple is still a holy place for Buddhists in many countries to worship.
Buddhist architecture in Wutai Mountain
Wutai Mountain is a famous Buddhist shrine in China. There are as many as 58 ancient Buddhist buildings preserved on the mountain, among which the famous temple buildings are nanzenji and Beiju, which were built in the Tang Dynasty. Nanzenji is the earliest existing wooden temple building in China. North Temple is a collection of architectural forms in different periods in China. The buildings, statues, murals and ink paintings in the temple are called "four wonders".
Hengshan Kong Xuan Temple
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the Hanging Temple of Hengshan Mountain in Beiyue, Shanxi Province is a temple erected in the air, with a unique shape, with dangerous rocks above and deep valleys below. This is an extremely rare building. Hangkong Temple is located on the mountainside of the cliff on the west side of Jinlong Canyon, 3.5 kilometers south of Hunyuan. It is the only existing wooden structure building built on a cliff in China. Founded in the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was renovated in the Tang, Jin, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The whole building faces Hengshan Mountain, with a green screen on the back, stepless wall rocks and towering tall buildings, which is the first wonder of Hengshan Mountain in Beiyue.
the Potala Palace
Lamaism is a school of Buddhism in China. Temple buildings in Lamaism are characterized by giant Buddhist temples, high halls and buildings built on mountains. Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet is a typical Buddhist temple building. The Potala Palace, built in the Tang Dynasty, has undergone continuous renovation and expansion, forming a huge building complex. The whole palace building is stacked on the mountain, magnificent, with a construction area of more than 20 thousand square meters and more than 20 halls. The main hall is dedicated to the precious 12-year-old gilded bronze statue of Sakyamuni. Potala Palace has a typical architectural style of the Tang Dynasty, and it also absorbs the architectural artistic features of Nepal and India.
In addition, the "Waiba Temple" in Chengde and the Lama Temple in Beijing are also famous buildings of Lamaism.
China dwellings
Residential buildings in various parts of China, also known as residential buildings. Residential building is the most basic type of building, with the earliest appearance, the widest distribution and the largest number. Due to the different natural environment and cultural conditions in different regions of China, the local houses also present diversified characteristics.
The mainstream of traditional folk houses in China Han nationality area is regular folk houses, with Beijing quadrangle as a typical representative and symmetrical layout. Beijing quadrangles are divided into front and rear rooms, and the main house system in the middle is the most respected. It is a place to hold family etiquette and receive distinguished guests. Each house faces the courtyard and is connected by a balcony. Although Beijing Siheyuan is a concrete embodiment of patriarchal clan system in feudal society of China, it is an ideal outdoor living space with wide courtyard, appropriate scale, quiet and friendly, and orderly flowers and trees. Most houses in northeast China are such spacious quadrangles.
Tang Wu and Tulou
Houses in the south of China are compact in structure, mostly multi-storey, and their typical houses are halls with rectangular patios as the center. This kind of folk house is square, simple in structure and widely distributed in southern provinces.
Hakka people in southern Fujian, northern Guangdong and northern Guangxi often live in large-scale group houses, which are round and square in plan and consist of a single-storey building in the center and four or five-storey buildings around. This kind of building is very defensive, represented by Hakka tulou in Yongding County, Fujian Province. Among the traditional houses in China, the Hakka earth building in Yongding is unique. There are more than 8,000 earth buildings such as square, round, octagonal and oval, which are large in scale, beautiful in shape, scientific and practical, and have their own characteristics, forming a wonderful living world.
Fujian Tulou uses local raw soil, gravel and sawdust to build single houses, and then connect them into big houses, and then build thick and closed "defensive" castle-style building houses-Tulou. Tulou has firmness, safety, closeness and strong clan characteristics. There are wells and granaries in the building. In case of war and bandits, once the city gate is closed, it will die. If besieged, food and water will last for months. Coupled with the characteristics of warm winter and cool summer, earthquake-resistant and wind-resistant, Tulou has become the residence of Hakka people for generations.
Minority residential buildings
There are many kinds of residential buildings in ethnic minority areas in China, such as Xinjiang Uygur residential buildings in northwest China, which are mostly flat-topped, with earth walls and one to three floors, surrounded by courtyards; The exterior wall of the typical Tibetan residence "Diaofang" is made of stone, and the interior is flat-topped wood structure; Mongolians usually live in movable yurts; However, ethnic minorities in southwest China often build wooden frame dry fence buildings with people living in the open air downstairs and upstairs, among which the bamboo building of the Dai nationality in Yunnan is the most distinctive. Miao and Tujia Diaojiaolou are the most distinctive folk houses in southwest China. Diaojiaolou is usually built on a slope and has no foundation. It is supported by pillars. This building is divided into two or three floors. The top floor is very short, only food can't live in people, and there are sundries or livestock piled downstairs.
Northern caves and ancient city dwellings
China has a vast territory and many nationalities, and the forms, structures, decorative arts and colors of local houses have their own characteristics. This paper mainly introduces the distinctive caves in the north and the folk houses in the ancient city.
There are many caves in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River in northern China. In Shaanxi, Gansu, Henan, Shanxi and other loess areas, local residents dig horizontal holes in natural earth walls, often connecting several holes, adding bricks and stones in the holes to build caves. Cave dwellings are fire-proof, noise-proof, warm in winter and cool in summer, land-saving, economical and labor-saving, and organically combine nature and life scenes. It is a perfect architectural form adapted to local conditions, which permeates people's love and attachment to the yellow land.
In addition, there are well-preserved ancient cities in China, where there are a large number of ancient houses. Among them, Pingyao Ancient City in Shanxi and Old Town of Lijiang in Yunnan were both listed on the World Heritage List at 1998.
Pingyao Ancient City is the most complete existing ancient county town in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it is a typical representative of the ancient county town of Han nationality in Central Plains of China. So far, the city walls, streets, houses, shops, temples and other buildings are still basically intact, and its architectural pattern and characteristics remain basically unchanged. Pingyao is a living specimen of China's political, economic, cultural, military, architectural and artistic development.
Old Town of Lijiang, which was founded in the Southern Song Dynasty, is the only town that combines Naxi traditional architecture with foreign architectural features. Old Town of Lijiang is not affected by the architectural etiquette of the Central Plains, and the road network in the city is irregular and there is no strict wall. Black Dragon Pool is the main water source of the ancient city. The pool water flows into the walls and around the residents, forming a water network. Rivers, canals and weeping willows can be seen everywhere in the ancient city.