Characteristics of local houses

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.