Symmetrical buildings in ancient China

The most typical representative of ancient symmetrical architecture in China belongs to the Beijing Palace in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Taking the Imperial City as the center, along a 7.8-kilometer-long central axis, starting from Yongdingmen at the southern end and ending at the bell and drum tower at the northern end of Di 'anmen, various buildings such as city que and memorial archway are arranged in the middle, supplemented by temples on both sides, ancestral temple in the east and altar in the west. There are four altars of heaven, earth, sun and moon all around the city, which are organically formed, and together form an overlapping spatial sequence.

Another example is the Wangjia Courtyard in Shanxi, where the main building stands in the center, and the secondary houses are placed on both sides. Then a number of courtyards, roads and squares are arranged in the depth direction, which are connected by corridors and fences to form a square, and each step is balanced. On the whole, the symmetrical layout of the courtyards has gained a formal beauty of being straight and regular.