1. Fujian Earth Building:
Hakka Earth Building, also known as Fujian Round Building, is a pearl of Chinese civilization and a unique mythical mountain village residential building in the world. A wonder of ancient architecture, it stands out among the world's residential architectural arts with its long history, unique style, grand scale, and exquisite structure.
The characteristics of Tulou dwellings and their construction characteristics are closely related to the history of the Hakka people. Everywhere Hakka people go, their family members always gather together. In addition, most of the Hakka people lived in remote mountainous areas or in dense mountains. At that time, not only were there a shortage of building materials, but they were also noisy with wolves, tigers, leopards, and thieves. In addition, they were afraid of being harassed by local people, so the Hakka people built "defensive" castle-style buildings. Building residences.
This formed the unique architectural form of Hakka residences - earth buildings. Earth buildings are mainly distributed in Longyan, Zhangzhou and other areas of Fujian Province.
Fujian Earth Buildings originated in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. After development in the early and middle Ming Dynasties, they gradually matured in the late Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty, and the Republic of China, and have continued to this day.
Fujian Tulou is a unique large-scale rammed earth residential building in mountainous areas in the world, a creative masterpiece of earthen architectural art. Fujian earth buildings are built according to the mountains and have a reasonable layout. They absorb the "Feng Shui" concept of traditional Chinese architectural planning (see Dong Bin's "Modern Feng Shui Essence"), adapt to the requirements of life and defense where tribes live together, and cleverly make use of the mountains. The narrow flat land and local raw soil, wood, cobblestone and other building materials are a self-contained system that is economical, sturdy, defensive, and highly aesthetic.
2. Kaiping Diaolou:
The criss-crossing of Kaiping Diaolou in Guangdong forms a unique rural scenery in China. The watchtowers are a combination of Chinese and Western styles, integrating the essence of various architectural styles. At its peak, there were more than 3,000 watchtowers in Kaiping. Currently, there are more than 1,800 watchtowers in existence, distributed in 15 towns and offices in Kaiping. These watchtowers are the result of the initiative of overseas Chinese and villagers in Kaiping in the last century to combine foreign architectural culture with local architectural culture. With its large number, exquisite architecture and diverse styles, it can be called the largest "Diaolou Museum" in the world.
In terms of building materials, there are early mud-walled buildings (made of a mixture of gray sand, sugar, salt, clam shells, oyster shells, etc., hammered and rammed layer by layer), and mid-term blue brick buildings (made of ordinary blue bricks). Thickened and built), to the final reinforced concrete building (built with reinforced concrete according to modern building materials).
In terms of type, they can be roughly divided into three categories: First, watch towers or lantern towers. These buildings are usually built at the beginning or end of the village. Some are built on small hills for use by militias and watchmen. There are searchlights and alarms. Once the bandits are discovered, they will immediately call the police and let the villagers prepare.
The second is the public buildings, which are jointly built by more than a dozen or several families. This type of watchtower has 3 to 6 floors, with 2 to 4 rooms on each floor. If there are bandits or floods, each of them will Families can live in public buildings to avoid disasters.
The third is the residential building, which was built solely by overseas Chinese for long-term residence. Kaiping Diaolou combines Chinese and Western styles, with various shapes.
The biggest feature is that different foreign architectural styles are selected and integrated according to one's own wishes to form a self-contained whole, including ancient Greek and Roman styles, as well as Gothic, Islamic, Baroque and Rococo styles. It is difficult to specifically classify Kaiping Diaolou into a certain architectural style of a certain period abroad. These architectural elements of different styles and religions are harmoniously integrated in the Kaiping Diaolou, showing unique artistic charm.
Its architectural structure fully embodies the defense function. Its most common features are narrow doors and windows, steel windows and iron doors, thick walls, gun holes on all sides of the top floor, and gun holes on the roof. Observation towers, searchlights, sirens, etc. have historically made great contributions to protecting the lives and property of villagers.
3. Wang Family Courtyard:
Wang Family Courtyard is a masterpiece of residential architecture in the Qing Dynasty. It is descended from the Taiyuan Wang family, one of the four major families in Lingshi County in history—— Jingsheng Wangjia was built successively during the Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong and Jiaqing years of the Qing Dynasty. The building is large-scale, with "five lanes", "five forts" and "five ancestral halls".
Among them, the courtyard layout of five ancient castles is described as the five auspicious beast shapes of "dragon", "phoenix", "turtle", "lin" and "tiger" respectively, with a total area of ??250,000 square meters. meters and above.
The three major architectural complexes of Hongmen Fort (dragon), Gaojiaya (phoenix) and Chongning Fort (tiger) and the Wang family ancestral hall are now open as the "China Folk Residence Art Museum", "China Wang Family Museum" and "Liqun Art Museum" etc., there are 231 large and small courtyards, 2078 houses, and an area of ??80,000 square meters.
The Wang Ancestral Hall is divided into upper and lower courtyards, with complete functions and exquisite design. There is a finely carved "Xiaoyi Square" in front of the temple. The ancestral hall is the home where the souls of the ancestors of the Wang family reside. Since 1998, tens of thousands of overseas descendants of the Wang family have visited here to visit and pay homage to their ancestors.
4. Qiao Family Courtyard:
Qiao Family Courtyard is located in Qiaojiabao Village, Qi County, Shanxi Province, 54 kilometers away from Taiyuan in the north and only 2 kilometers away from Dongguan Town in the south. Also known as Zai Zhongtang, it is the residence of Qiao Zhiyong, a famous commercial and financial capitalist in China during the Qing Dynasty. It was first built during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Afterwards, it was renovated twice and expanded once. After several generations of continuous efforts, a magnificent architectural group was built in the early years of the Republic of China, which embodies the unique style of northern Chinese residences in the Qing Dynasty. .
The compound is a fully enclosed castle-style building complex, covering an area of ??10,642 square meters (about 16 acres) and a construction area of ??4,175 square meters. It is divided into 6 large courtyards, 20 small courtyards, and 313 rooms. houses. The compound faces the street on three sides and is not connected to the surrounding residential buildings. The outer perimeter is a closed brick wall, more than 10 meters high. The upper floor is a female wall-style crenelation, and there are watchtowers and gazebos dotted among them, making it appear majestic, majestic and tall.
The gate faces east from the west, with a tall attic above and a city gate-like doorway in the middle. Opposite the gate is a brick wall with a picture of a hundred years of life. Beyond the gate is a stone-paved corridor running east-west. There are protective walls and platforms on both sides of the corridor. At the end of the corridor is the ancestral hall, which is far away from the gate and has a temple-like structure. The three courtyards in the north all have verandahs, eaves gates, dark lattice and pillars, and three large bays, which are more than enough for cars and sedans to come in and out. There are horse bolts and horse mounting stones on the outside of the door. Counting from east to west, they are the old courtyard and the northwest courtyard. , Study Courtyard.
All the courtyards in Bubu have a front-side structure. The owner lives in the main courtyard, while the side courtyard houses guest rooms, servants’ quarters and kitchen. Architecturally, the side courtyard is relatively low, and the roof structure is also very different. The main courtyard is a tile-roofed house with eaves, while the side courtyard is a bungalow with a square brick roof, which not only expresses the order of ethical hierarchy, but also shows It creates a sense of hierarchy in the building. The courtyard has four main buildings, a gate tower, a watch tower and six gazebos. The roofs of each courtyard are connected by walkways, making it easier to patrol and protect the courtyard at night.
Taken together, the whole hospital has a rigorous layout and exquisite design. It looks like the Chinese character "Xi Xi" when viewed from above. The architecture is exquisite, the bricks and tiles are well-worn, the workmanship is meticulous, the brackets and cornices, colorful decorations and gold decorations, masonry and wood carvings, exquisite craftsmanship and full It shows the superb level of construction technology of the Chinese working people, and is praised by experts and scholars as: "a bright pearl in the history of northern residential architecture". Therefore, it is known as "the imperial family has the Forbidden City, and the private houses look like the Qiao Family", which is famous in the three Jin Dynasties. , well-known at home and abroad.
5. Imperial City Prime Minister’s Mansion:
Imperial City Prime Minister’s Mansion (national AAAA-level scenic spot), Imperial City Prime Minister’s Mansion (also known as Wutingshan Village) has a total area of ??36,000 square meters. It is the former residence of Chen Tingjing, a bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion in the Qing Dynasty, a third-level minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the chief reader of the Kangxi Dictionary, and a lecturer on the banquet of Emperor Kangxi in his 35th year.
The buildings are based on the mountain and change according to the shape. The official residences and civilian houses are lined up in rows. It is a unique group of castle-style official residences in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. "The green trees border the village and the green mountains slant outside." The Imperial City Prime Minister's Mansion is not only an ancient "natural landscape painting", but also an ancient oriental castle with a strong humanistic spirit.
Huangcheng Village is home to 234 households with more than 680 people, cultivating 480 acres of land, and the total area of ??the village is 1.7 square kilometers. There are rich and unique coal resources underground, and above ground there is the "Imperial City Prime Minister's Mansion", the hometown of Chen Tingjing, the teacher of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty and the general editor of "Kangxi Dictionary". Since the reform and opening up, coal mining, light industry, agricultural and sideline product processing, tourism services and other industries have been established. The Imperial City Prime Minister's Mansion was designated as one of the top ten new tourist attractions by the Shanxi Provincial Government in 2001. At present, the Prime Minister's Mansion in the Imperial City is crowded with tourists every day.
"The green trees border the village, and the green mountains slope outside." The majestic castle is lined with battlements; the ancient houses in the old courtyard are scattered and elegant. The beautiful natural scenery and the primitive cultural scenery complement each other, forming the unique charm of the imperial city.
6. Dayi Liu Manor Museum:
Built in October 1958, it was announced by the State Council as the ninth batch of national key cultural relics protection units in November 1966. It is one of the important historical sites and representative buildings in modern Chinese society. Over the past 40 years since its establishment, the museum has accumulated a rich collection with rich connotations.
Existing cultural relics, with a collection of more than 20,000 pieces, a large-scale and well-preserved manor building complex, as well as a large number of physical objects and documentary materials left in the manor, together with the unique manor display, constitute a The organic whole is an important place and physical site for understanding and studying China's semi-feudal and semi-colonial social economy, cultural architecture, and the history and folklore of Sichuan warlords in China. It is a microcosm of the old Chinese countryside and a section of the history of Chinese social development.
The Western Sichuan Folk Museum and the newly opened "Miss Building" in the museum are rich in content and have unique architectural styles. They are important places to understand the national conditions and folk customs of old China.
The museum has a collection of more than 2,700 cultural relics, including 15 first-class items, including a set of rosewood inlaid marble tables and chairs from the Qing Dynasty, of which 8 seats are 108 cm high, 99 cm wide, and 99 cm deep. 60 cm, inlaid with 27 orbs of various colors, surrounded by mother-of-pearl flower patterns.
The old manor is in the shape of an irregular polygon, surrounded by fire brick walls more than 6 meters high. There are 7 towering gates with gun holes on the walls on both sides of the gate; there are 27 patios and more than 180 houses inside. , 3 gardens. The old mansion was built in 1932 by Liu Wencai, who occupied the house foundations and fields of 23 farmers. Every time Liu Wencai drove away one or more households of farmers, he built a wall, opened a door, and built a house. The manor has multiple walls and alleys, thick doors with iron locks, and secret rooms with multiple paths. The layout is messy and eerie. The whole manor is like a dark maze building.
The old mansion is the main exhibition area. The basic display consists of four related parts: the preface hall, the labor courtyard, Liu Wencai's life scene, and the large clay sculpture "rent collection courtyard". The new mansion is decorated with displays of Western Sichuan folk customs.
7. Hongcun:
Hongcun’s site selection, layout, and beautiful scenery are all directly related to water. It is an ancient village that has been rigorously planned. The planning and design of the artificial water systems inside and outside the village are quite exquisite and ingenious. Experts commented that Hongcun is "a cultural landscape and a natural landscape that complement each other. It is one of the few villages in the world with detailed planning in ancient times." It is called "a pearl of Chinese tradition" and "a living textbook for studying the history of ancient Chinese water conservancy" by Chinese and foreign architectural experts.
Hongcun is known as "the countryside in Chinese paintings", and United Nations experts praised it as "unparalleled small town water street landscape". Because it is backed by the Yangzhan Ridge and Leigang Mountains in the Huangshan Mountains, the terrain is relatively high. Sometimes the clouds are steaming and the clouds are bright, like thick ink and heavy colors, and sometimes it is like freehand brushwork with splashed ink. The surrounding mountains and pink walls and green tiles are reflected in the lake, and people, ancient buildings and nature blend together. As one, it is like a slowly unfolding landscape painting.
Water played an important role in the site selection of Hongcun. According to legend, the ancestors of the Wang family in Hongcun lived in Tangmo in She County and Qishuhu Village in Yixian County, but both suffered fires. Later, the Wang family moved to the foot of Leigang Mountain and initially built a thirteen-story building, named Hongcun, which means Hongguang developed.
In the scientific layout of villages, water plays an important role. The entire village adopts a bionic "cow"-shaped layout, with Leigang Mountain as the cow's head, the two ancient trees at the entrance of the village as the cow's horns, the moon marsh as the cow's stomach, the South Lake as the cow's tripe, and the winding Shuizhen as the cow's intestines. The residential buildings It is a cow's body and the four ancient bridges are cow's feet. It is said that "the mountain is the cow-headed tree as the horns, and the bridge is the four-hoof house as the body." The shape is lifelike. The whole village is like a leisurely buffalo lying quietly in the green mountains and green waters.
8. Xidi Village:
Xidi Village mostly uses black marble for building houses, has two clear springs passing through the village, 99 high walls and deep alleys, and each has its own unique ancient houses. , making visitors feel like they are in a maze. At the head of the village is a three-bay, four-column, five-story bluestone archway built in the sixth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1578). It is majestic and has an exquisite structure. It is a symbol of the Hu family's prominent status.
There is a "Lufu Hall" built in the Kangxi period in the village. It is elegantly furnished and full of scholarly atmosphere. The hall is titled "Books, poems and articles about the world, filial piety is a newspaper", "Reading is good, business is good" The couplet "It's good if it's effective, it's difficult to start a business but it's difficult to succeed, you know it's not difficult" shows the penetration of Confucianism into architecture.
Another ancient house in the village is the "Da Fu Di", which was built in the 30th year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1691 AD).
"Dafudi" is a pavilion-style building facing the street. It was originally used for viewing. There are six big characters hanging on the forehead of the building: "People in the Peach Blossom Spring." Interestingly, in recent times, many people regard this building as a young lady in a costume drama choosing a husband. The location of "Hot Throwing Hydrangeas" has now become the place where Xidi Village holds this folk activity.
There is also an inscription "Take a step back and think" under the door of "Da Fu Di", which is a pun and intriguing. In addition, , each household in the village has gorgeous houses, exquisite gardens, door frames and leaky windows made of black marble, stone carvings of exotic flowers, birds and animals, brick-carved pavilions, characters and dramas, and exquisite wood carvings, gorgeous Paintings and murals all reflect the essence of ancient Chinese art.
Xidi is the most representative ancient residential tourist attraction in Huangshan City. It is located at the southern foot of Huangshan Mountain, 54 kilometers away from Tunxi and the scenery of Huangshan Mountain. The village is only 40 kilometers away from the county seat of Yi County. The village is 700 meters long from east to west and 300 meters wide from north to south. It has more than 300 households and a population of more than 1,000. Because there is water flowing to the west of the village, there was also a mail delivery facility in ancient times. The inn, hence the name "Xidi", is known as the "Peach Blossom Spring Home"
9. Jiang's Manor:
Jiang's Manor is located 16 kilometers southeast of Mizhi County. Qiaohecha Township was built during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty.
Jiang Yaozu, the richest man in the village, asked experts from Beijing to design and build it by recruiting skilled craftsmen in the county. The design of Jiang's Manor took 13 years. It is ingenious, meticulous in construction, compact in layout, and is integrated from top to bottom. It is strictly guarded from the outside and interconnected within the courtyard. It is a rare manor building in northern Shaanxi.
The main building of the manor covers an area of ??more than 40 acres. It is the highest-level "kiln with five open and dark four-six chambers" style cave courtyards in Shaanxi. The three courtyards of the manor are connected by secret passages and surrounded by towering walls. They are interconnected internally and strictly guarded against external hazards. The entire building has a wonderful design, exquisite craftsmanship and layout. Reasonable and integrated, it is the largest castle-style cave manor in the country and one of the treasures of Han nationality architecture.
The entire manor is divided into three parts from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain: the first floor is the lower courtyard, with a stone in front. A 9.5-meter-high wall is built, and a parapet is built on the upper part, just like a city wall. Along the southwest side of the first floor, the road passes through the gate to the second floor, which is the middle courtyard. In the southwest of the courtyard, there is a wall about 8 meters high and more than 10 meters long. The wall surrounds the manor, with a doorway leading to the back mountain, and a gatehouse built in the middle.
Walk along the stone steps to the upper courtyard on the third floor, which is the main house of the whole building. It faces northeast and southwest, with a front line. There are 5-hole stone kilns with symmetrical double courtyards on both sides. There are small arched door openings at the east and west ends, leading to the toilet in the west and the lower academy on the east side. There is a walled city behind the entire courtyard, with a walled gate in the middle that leads to the back mountain. /p>
10. Kangwanwan Manor:
Kangwanwanmanor is located in Kangdian Town, Gongyi City, 3 kilometers away from the urban area. It was built in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties because it is located in Mang. The mountain faces the Luoshui River, so it is known as the "golden turtle exploring the water".
It was designated as a provincial cultural relic protection unit in 1963 and a national cultural relic protection unit in 2001. It is one of the three largest manors in the country ( Liu Wencai and Mou Erhei), it is 19 times larger than the Qiao Family Courtyard in Shanxi. In 2005, it was awarded the national AAAA tourist attraction.
The so-called "Kang Million" came from the fact that Kang Yingkui, the owner of the manor at that time, twice hung up the golden signboard of "Thousands of hectares of fertile land", and the land shops were spread across eight counties in Shandong, Shaanxi and Henan provinces, so it was called "Hundred Millions". Millionaire".
Later, Empress Dowager Cixi fled Xi'an and passed by Kangdian when she returned to Beijing. The Kang family paid for the construction of Heishiguan, the county seat, the official palace and the "Dragon Kiln", spending more than 1 million taels of silver. , and donated 1 million taels of silver to Qingyan. Cixi said that she didn't know there was a Kang millionaire here. From then on, the imperial title "Kang Wanwan" spread widely.
Kangwanwan Manor has buildings facing the street, cave dwellings built on the cliffs, walls built around it, and docks set up near the river. It integrates the styles of farmers, officials, and merchants, with rigorous layout and large scale. The total construction area is 64,300 square meters, with 33 courtyards, 53 buildings, more than 1,300 rooms and 73 cave dwellings.
It is divided into more than ten parts such as the main residential area on the village, the residential area under the village, the south courtyard, the ancestral hall area, the workshop area, the vegetable garden, Longwo Valley, Jingu Village, gardens, and the hotel area. The courtyard buildings It is basically a typical two-entry courtyard in western Henan. It has some characteristics of gardens and government offices. Its various brick carvings, wood carvings, and stone carvings are gorgeous and elegant, and its shape is beautiful. It is a representative of the feudal fortress-style architecture of the Loess Plateau in North China.
Kangwanwan Manor provides us with historical data on the fortunes of the real estate class in poor feudal society, and also provides us with physical data on ancient architecture. Its brick carvings, wood carvings, and stone carvings are highly favored by friends from all walks of life. favor.