Mural guide
Carpenters assemble a timber hall with layered brackets and sweeping eaves beside a garden of rocks and a curved stone bridge.
Eave tiles, carved bricks, pottery towers and brackets: the art of building kept in objects
Physical mortise-and-tenon joints, eaves soaring atop precipices: observing how ancestors constructed architectural and spatial engineering marvels across cliffs and wilderness.
Architecture
Physical mortise-and-tenon joints, eaves soaring atop precipices: observing how ancestors constructed architectural and spatial engineering marvels across cliffs and wilderness.
Loess Cave DwellingsNeolithic to presentHomes dug into loess, held up by undisturbed earth that also steadies the temperature indoors, still lived in by tens of millions.
Zhaozhou Arch BridgeSui dynasty to presentA single-span stone arch bridge by Li Chun, small spandrel arches passing floodwater, the arch laid in parallel courses.
Twin Timber LandmarksTang dynasty to presentThe low, broad Tang East Hall of Foguang Temple and the Liao Yingxian Pagoda of five visible storeys, both of mortise and tenon.
Cliffside ArchitectureNorthern and Southern dynasties to presentThe Hanging Temple of Mount Heng holds its halls on beams half-set into the rock face, with timber props against the cliff.
Crypt ArchitectureQin to Qing dynastyDeep stone-vaulted chambers and drainage beneath imperial tombs, embodying imperial ritual and rule.
Forbidden City AxisMing dynasty to presentThe Ming and Qing palace laid out on a north-south axis, outer court in front and inner court behind, built under Yongle.
Hall of Prayer for Good HarvestsMing dynasty to presentA round timber hall without main beams or iron nails, its columns matching the seasons and hours, used for harvest prayers.
Jiangnan GardensSong dynasty to presentShifting views, piled rock and shaped water, and borrowed scenery, making a small landscape within a limited house plot.
White Walls & Horse-head GablesMing dynasty to presentStepped gable walls rising above Huizhou roofs, serving as windbreak and firebreak and giving Hui-style buildings their look.
Courtyard CompoundsWestern Zhou to presentEnclosed courtyard houses on a strict central axis, main and side rooms set by age and rank, inner and outer kept apart.