Traditional Chinese Houses essays

Traditional Chinese Houses essays Chinese architecture is most famous for the Great Wall of China. However, there are many other remarkable structures. Chinese houses reflect a tradition of craft and symbolism that echoes that of Chinas great monumental architecture. Besides showing the connection between architecture and daily life of Chinese people in the past, they also reveal Chinese cosmology and beliefs in concrete and practical terms. Housing is the first response of human. As human must regularly lie down to sleep, and most of us sleep deeply enough to become oblivious to our surroundings, a safe sleeping place is very important to us. Houses do not only provide the shelter, they also provide spaces for us to cook our food, store our properties, have some leisure and care children There are many types of Chinese houses. Some examples are northern houses, southern houses, subterranean or cave housing and courtyard houses. Most Chinese houses share some common features. The ridgepole of most houses is arranged in an east-west direction. The facade is then oriented so that the doors and windows face south. This is for maximum light and warmth. Besides, according to Confucian principles, parents, their unmarried children, their married sons with their families all live under the same roof. Therefore, in one house there might be four or five generations. Rich families have servants who live in the house, too. North China is a region of continental climate in which there is great disparity between summer and winter temperatures, with ranges usually exceed 30C. Rainfall is generally below 50 millimeters and is concentrated mostly in the summer. Dry winter winds together with spring dust storms pummel much of the region from the north and north-west for more than six months of each year. The typical north Chinese rural dwelling is a small one-story rectangle with a depth of only a single room that responds well to th...