What are the names of Chinese houses and what are their characteristics?

All those who have visited China and participated in various excursions around this country, the simple question of how the Chinese houses are called, are unlikely to be able to give an unambiguous answer. The reason is that in the Celestial Empire, as in a multinational state, there are different types of structures. They are created in accordance with the building traditions of one or another people living in China. Each of these types is called in a special way. It basically depends on the material from which these dwellings are built, or on the terrain on which they are located. For example, some names of houses are translated as "clay", "wooden", "bamboo", "stone", "earthen", etc.

What are the names of Chinese houses?

1. "The Peking Court". This dwelling is the most popular kind of Chinese house. It consists of several unified buildings that form a rectangle. The facade of each of them looks inside the courtyard. The Peking Yard is designed to accommodate several generations of the same genus. Most often it consists of four buildings. This residential complex in Chinese is pronounced as "siheyuan", that is, the Chinese house. What is called each of the four rooms is unknown. In all sources, they are treated under the general name of "patio." In the big and main room the older generation lives. This building stands on the north side, and its facade looks to the south. In the side houses there are young people. According to the siheyuan system, manors were often built. A closed rectangular structure was located in the center, and around it there were economic and technical premises.

2. Fanza. This is how the name of a Chinese house with brick or adobe walls sounds in Chinese. This structure, as a rule, is one-story and has a two-pitched straw or reed roof. It has a rectangular shape and consists of two, a maximum of three rooms. Such dwellings were built in China around the 7th-10th centuries.

3. Tulow . As the Chinese houses of the serf-type are called from clay, everyone knows for sure. Tulow were common in Guangdong and Fujian. They have either a square or a circular shape. These closed structures look like
Fortress. They were built in such a way that they could be protected from external enemies. Round tulou had a diameter of 70 meters or more. The thickness of their smooth walls reached two meters. Instead of windows, small narrow loopholes were cut down.

4. Yaodong. So called farm caves, which are dug in small hills. They have walls, ceiling and floor made of rammed earth. That is, for the construction of these houses, the owners only had to fit the door and make small window openings. Such dugouts were convenient both in terms of economy and in terms of comfort temperature, because in summer these cave houses were cool, and in winter - warm. For their construction, a minimum of building materials was needed. The ceiling in this dwelling, naturally, was arc-shaped, because it was located under the very tip of the hill.

5. Pile structures on the water or on the slopes of the mountains will remember everyone at the mention of the Chinese village, but not everyone will be able to recall exactly how the Chinese houses of this type are called. Diao jiao-lo - that's what they have a hard-to-pronounce name. They were often built in the south of the country.

6. And ke Yin . Another kind of eastern house in the form of the Chinese press. They were mostly found in Yunnan Province.