The dougong is a system of brackets unique to traditional Chinese architecture. These brackets, arranged like baskets of flowers, are set under the overhanging eaves, adding to the sumptuous magnificence of the buildings.

Thanks to them the ancient Chinese edifices are so graceful with their upturned eaves and at the same time so well constructed and enduring.

The dougong bracket is a structural member found between the top of a column and a cross beam. Each is formed of a double bow-shaped arm (gong), which supports a block of wood (dou) on each side. Fixed layer upon layer, the arrangements bear the load of the root'. Owing to hierarchical restrictions in feudal society, the dougong structure can be found only in the most magnificent buildings such as palace and temple halls. The number of layers of these bracket structures also depended on the importance of the buildings.

The dougong is measured in "piles" which vary greatly in their complexity of structure, from those composed of 106 parts to the most simple made up of five. The number of "tiers" also vary in each "pile". To take the double-eaved Taihedian, the building of the highest grade in the country, as an example. Its lower eaves are supported by dougong brackets of 7 tiers, whereas the higher eaves, 9 tiers. The number of tiers, normally 9, 7, 5 or 3, also represents the extent to which the eaves protrude.

From the point of view of structural mechanics, the dougong structure is highly resistant to earthquakes. It could hold the wood structure together even though brick walls would collapse in the same earthquake. This helped so many ancient buildings to stand intact for hundreds of years.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– Dougong Brackets (Guilin Tours, Yangshuo Tours)

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Visitors to an ancient Chinese palace hall often have their attention drawn to the centre of the ceiling. The zaojing or caisson ceiling is a distinctive feature of classical Chinese architecture, if not unique to it. It is usually in the form of a sunken coffer bordered in a square, a polygon or a circle, decorated with elaborately carved or painted designs. This architectural decoration dates a long way back for it has been found in tombs of the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago.

One of the most magnificent zaojing is that of Taihedian (Hall of Supreme Harmony) in the old palace of Beijing. Carved and built with consummate skills, its splendour has remained undiminished by time. The caisson consists of three parts of different depths. The central or deepest part is the round "well (jing)", the middle part is the octagonal "well", and the outermost part, coming down to the same level as the rest of the ceiling, is a square. The whole design symbolizes the ancient Chinese belief that "Heaven is above and the Earth below" and that "Heaven is round and the Earth square." Dominating the centre of the caisson is a coiled dragon looking down into the hall and holding suspended in its mouth a huge silver-white pearl. It vies for glamour with the gilded dragons on the columns, giving the throne hall a colourful yet solemn nobility not to be found elsewhere.

The Chinese name for the caisson ceiling, zaojing, means "aquatic plants" (zao) and "well" (jing), both having to do with water. It was so named because there was constant worry about fire which might destroy the palace buildings. With water from the zaojing, so the ancients believed, the threat of fire would be averted.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– Caisson Ceiling (China Travel, China Tour Packages)

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Palace halls and courts have been paved with bricks for 2,000 years since the Spring and Autumn Period, and this has become a distinctive feature of classical architecture. Today one can see brick-paved floors and grounds in the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Ming Tombs and similar places elsewhere. The bricks so used are called jinzhuan ("gold bricks").

Naturally not made of real gold, they are so-called because, when knocked, they produce a metallic sound. Another explanation ion for the name is that they were officially called during the Ming and the Qing dynasties jingzhuan (capital bricks) because bricks of this quality were meant only for the imperial house in the capital, In time, jingzhuan came to be known as jinzhuan or gold bricks. Whatever the reason for the unusual name, they did involve great costs and difficult skills to make and in this sense, the name might not be a great exaggeration.

The area around Suzhou used to be the home of these "gold bricks". Lying close to the Grand Canal, it abounds in a kind of fine clay most suitable as the material for compact bricks. To make those meant for the palace buildings, a strict procedure of manufacture must be adhered to. It included selecting the caly, pugging, setting, moulding, drying in the shade and, finally, firing in the kiln. This last process was the most complicated one. According to The Illustrated Book on the Selection of Bricks, a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) work, (The unburnt bricks) after being put in the kiln, are smoked with smouldering husks for a month, burnt with fire-wood chips for another month, with twigs for a third month and with pine branches for yet another 40 days--totalling 130 days--before they are left to cool down and taken out of the kiln. The cost of a "gold brick" made this way was 0.96 taels of silver, enough to buy in those days one dan* of rice. Another source says that, during the reign of the Ming emperor Jiajing, three years were spent to produce 50,000 bricks of this quality, averaging only 5 bricks per day. All finished "gold bricks" were shipped to the capital by the Hangzhou-Beijing Grand Canal.

The laying of the bricks, like their manufacture, must follow strict prescriptions. A bricklayer assisted by two helpers could only lay five in a day. Every piece must be ground and polished on site in such a way that, when paved, they fitted perfectly with other pieces, leaving no crevices. The bricks must also be soaked with raw tung oil so that they became lustrously dark like black jade.

Worn by several hundred years of time and trodden during the last decades by millions upon millions of sighteers, these bricks have largely remained intact, thanks to their rock-like hardness. Now they are from time to time mopped with a kind of high-quality vegetable oil to get a new layer of protection.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– "Gold Bricks" (China Travel Agency, China Hotels)

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On a stroll through a Chinese garden or park, one often finds oneself walking on footpaths of coloured pebbles arranged in patterns--a feature of Chinese landscape gardening.

These patterned paths are not designed by architects, but made by artisans from beginning to end. The paving of pebbles is a complicated job calling for skill and experience. First, lime mortar is spread out as the foundation layer, then the designs are outlined by means of plain and roofing tiles set in the mortar. On this is spread a special putty made of lime, wheat flour and tung oil, on which again are fixed the pebbles of various natural colours--green ones for plant leaves, black ones for animals' eyes, and so on. And the designs include all the usual subjects of traditional Chinese painting: landscapes, figures, flowers, birds, historical and popular legends.                      

The best of patterned footpaths in China are found in the Imperial Garden in the rear of the Forbidden City. The coloured pebbles there make up pictures under such familiar titles as "Magpie Announcing the Spring", "Dragon and Phoenix", "Cranes in Clouds", "Guan Gong Felling an Enemy", "Two Greybeards Watching a Game of Chess" and so forth, which symbolize good luck, victory, longevity and the like.

On the whole, patterned paths are found more often in parks and private gardens in the southern provinces than in the north. Prominant in this respect are the gardens in Suzhou, where the designs on pebbled paths display a wide range of subjects. Some are just geometric patterns, for instance a square inside a circle like an ancient copper coin, signifying the old belief that "heaven is round and earth square". Others are in the forms of bats and cranes, Chinese symbols for good fortune and long life. Still others are patterned after the fishing net, expressing perhaps the general wish for affluent abundance.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– Patterned Footpaths (China Tours, Guilin Hotels)

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Chinese palaces, temples and mansions have on their roofs a special kind of ornaments called wenshou or zoo morphic ornaments, some on the main ridges and some on the sloping and branch ridges.

The monstrous thing at ether end of the main ridge, called chiwen, appears roughly like the tail of a fish. Fierce and formidable, it looks as if it were ready to devour the whole ridge; so it is also know as tunjishou or the ridge-devouring beast. It is, according to Chinese mythology, one of the sons of the Dragon King who rules the seas. It is said to be able to stir up waves and change them into rains. So ancient Chinese put a chiwen at either end of the main ridge for its magic powers to conjure up a downpour to put out any fire that might break out. But for fear that it might gobble up the ridge, they transfixed it on the roof with a sword.

At the end of the sloping and branch ridges there are often a string of smaller animals, their sizes and numbers being decided by the status of the owner of the building in the feudal hierarchy.

The largest number of zoomorphic ornaments is found on the Taihedian Throne Hall or the Hall of Supreme Harmony of the Forbidden City. Leading the flock is a god riding a phoenix, after whom come a dragon, a phoenix, a lion, a heavenly horse, a sea horse and five other mythological animals, all called by unusual names. Quanqinggong (the Palace of Heavenly Purity), which the emperor used as his living quarters and his office for handling daily affairs, being next in status to Taihedian, has a band of nine animal figures. Still next in importance is Kunninggong (the Palace of Female Tranquility), which served as the empress's apartments; it has a group of seven zoomorphic figures. This number is further reduced to five for the twelve halls in side courtyards, that used to house the imperial concubines of different grades. Some of the side halls have only one animal figure each on their roofs.

These small animals were also believed to be capable of putting out fires. While this can be easily dismissed as superstition, they do add to the grandeur and magnificence of the imperial buildings.

The earliest ridge animals so far discovered in the country came to light in 1960 in a suburban area of Shashi, Hubei Province. On the interior wall of a roll tile which served as the body of a ridge animal figure was engraved "first year of Yuanguang", which means the year 134 B.C. It can be seen that installing animal figures on roof-ridges has been an established practice for at least 2,100 years.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– Zoomorphic Ornaments (China Travel Agency, Yangshuo Tours)

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One of the structural members of traditional Chinese architecture, the baoding (literally, "treasure top") stands at the centre on top of certain types of pavilions, pagodas and towers which have no horizontal main ridges. Normally made of glazed tile, it may be in one of several forms (a gourd-shaped bottle, a vase, a pagoda, etc.), often surrounded by bas-relief carvings of dragons, phoenixes, peonies and the like.

The roof crown is not only an ornament at the top of a building but helps to reinforce the roof itself. Buildings on which baoding crowns are found are all constructed according to a traditional method by which the wooden parts of the roof structure go upward and gradually gather together at the top of a king post in the middle. The king post keeps the roof structure securely balanced rather like the stick of a parasol holding the ribs of its frame together. To give additional strength to the structure, ancient Chinese used glazed material for the crown to protect the king post from weathering and erosion. As the top of a building is most vulnerable to lightning, the king post was named in old times leigongzhu (post of the God of Thunder) in the hope that thunderbolts might keep away.

Many ancient buildings of this type thanks to the king posts and roof crowns, have stood innumerable tests including storms and earthquakes over the ages and remained intact down to this day. Zhonghedian (Hall of Complete Harmony) and Jiaotaidian (Hall of Union and Peace) in the Forbidden City (where the Ming and Qing emperors handled state affairs) have roof crowns completely gilded with gold, in harmony with the sumptuous surroundings and setting them  apart from the red-or green-glazed crowns of lesser buildings.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– Roof Crown (China Travel, Guilin Tours)  

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A common sight in the country, the Chinese pavilion (ring, which means also a kiosk) is built normally either of wood or stone or bamboo and may be in any of several plan figures--square, triangle, hexagon, octagon, a five-petal flower, a fan and what not. But all pavilions described as ting have this in common: they have columns to support the roof, but no walls. In parks or at scenic spots, pavilions are built on slopes to command the panorama or on lakeside to create intriguing images in the water. They are not only part of the landscape but also belvederes from which to enjoy it.

Pavilions also serve diverse purposes. The wayside pavilion is called liangting (cooling kiosk) to provide weary wayfarers with a place for a rest and a shelter in summer from the sun. The "stele pavilion" gives a roof to a stone tablet to protect the engraved record of an important event. Pavilions also stand on some bridges or over water-wells. In the latter case, dormer windows are built to allow the sun to cast its rays into the well, as it has been the belief that water untouched by the sun would cause diseases. Occasionally one finds two pavilions stand side by side like twins. In modem times, kiosks (also called ring in Chinese) have been erected in urban areas as postal stalls, newsstands or photographers' sheds for snapshot services.

Rare among pavilions are those built of bronze. The most celebrated of these is Baoyunge (Pavilion of Precious Clouds) in Beijing's Summer Palace. The entire structure including its roof and columns is cast in bronze. Metallic blue in colour, it is 7.5 metres tall and weighs 207 tons. Elegant and dignified, it is popularly known as the "Gold Pavilion".

The largest pavilion in China is also in the Summer Palace. The ancient building, named Kuoruting (the Pavilion of Expanse), has a floor space of 130 square metres. Its roof, converging in a crown on top and resting on three rings of columns (24 round ones and 16 square ones), is octagonal in form and has two eaves. With all its woodwork colourfully painted, the pavilion looks at once poised and majestic, well in harmony with the surrounding open landscape.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– Pavilions (China Tour, Guilin Hotels)  

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This is a pavilion which used to serve as a place of recreation for men of letters. In the stone floor is cut a winding ditch to which water from a spring is channelled. Participants to the "flowing-cup" game would in turn fill a cup with liquor and set it "sailing" down the mini-canal. The man whose cup reached the end of the ditch without spilling would be a winner. On the other hand, a loser would be made to drink or compose a poem as a forfeit.

The game, according to another source, could be played in a different way. Players took their respective positions along the ditch. He, in front of whom the cup stopped, would be made to drink or chant a poem of his composition.

Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), it is said, was a great enthusiast for this game. The "flowing-cup pavilion" built for the emperor still stands today in the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City. Another pavilion of this type in Beijing is found at Tanzhe Temple. Although a poem (praising the pleasures of the game, "especially on a rainy day when there is little else to entertain the visitors with") is still intact on its columns, yet, alas! There is now neither flowing water nor cup. If the pastime should be revived with some modem variations--beer, lemonade or tea instead of spirits, singing or telling a joke as the forfeit if the players are not poets—it would certainly arouse considerable interest.

Another famous "flowing-cup pavilion" is Lanting (Orchid Pavilion) in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, which was a favourite resort of the great 4th-century calligrapher Wang Xizhi (321-379) and his friends, who used to gather there for the game and poem recitals. The little stream which carried the sailing cup is still there to greet modem admirers.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– "Flowing-Cup Pavilion" (China Hotel Booking, Guilin Tours)  

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The tai was an ancient architectural structure, a very much elevated terrace with a fiat top. Generally built of earth and stone and surfaced with brick, it was used as a belvedere from which to look into the distance. In fact, however, many a well-known ancient tai as we know it today is not just a bare platform but has some palatial halls built on top.

A good example in hand is the Round City of the Beihai Park in Beijing. A terrace five metres high, it has, on its top space of 4,500 square metres, a main hall with side corridors.

The tai could be built to serve different practical purposes. It could be used as an observatory, as for instance the one near Jianguomen in Beijing which, with its brass astronomical instruments, dates to the Ming and Qing dynasties. It could also be used militarily, like the beacon towers along the Great Wall, to transmit urgent information with smoke by day and fire by night. Also on the Great Wall, there is a square tai at intervals of every 300 to 400 metres, from which the garrison troops kept watch. On the track of the ancient Silk Road can still be seen, here and there, ruins of the old defence fortifications in the form of earthen terraces.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– Terrace (Yangshuo Tours, Guilin Hotels)  

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When the Chinese speak of a lou, they refer to any building of two or more storeys with a horizontal main ridge.

The erection of such buildings began a long time ago in the Period of the Warring States (475-221 B.C.), when chonglou ("layered houses") was mentioned in historical records.

Ancient buildings with more than one storey were meant for a variety of uses. The smaller two-storeyed buildings of private homes generally has the owner's study or bedroom upstairs. The more magnificent ones built in parks or at scenic spots were belvederes from which to enjoy distant scenery. In this case it is sometimes translated as a "tower". A Tang Dynasty poet upon his visit to a famous riverside tower composed a poem, two lines of which are still very much quoted: "To look far into the distance, Go up yet one more storey".

Ancient cities had bell and drum towers (zhonglou and gulou), usually palatial buildings with four-sloped, double-eaved, glazed roofs, all-around verandas and coloured and carved dougong brackets supporting the overhanging eaves. They housed a big bell or drum which were used to announce time, and the local officials would open the city gates at the toll of the bell early in the morning and close them with the strike of the drum in the evening.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties (14th to 20th century), in front of each city gate of Beijing stood an archery tower, forming a barbican as a defence fortification. Two of them can still be seen today, at Qianmen and Deshengmen gates. Also in Beijing, a "corner tower" still remains relatively intact at the southeastern corner of the old Inner City; it is put under state portection as a cultural relic, being the only one left in the ancient capital.

The art of constructing tall buildings was highly developed in China already in ancient times. Many multiple-storeyed towers of complex structure had wholly wood frameworks fixed together with dougong brackets without the use of a single piece of metal. Yueyang Tower in Hunan and Huanghelou (Tower of the Yellow Crane) in Wuchang are masterpieces among anicent towers.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– Storeyed Building (Private China Tours, Guilin Hotels)

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The Chinese ge is similar to the lou in that both are of two or more storeys, but the ge has a door and windows only on the front side, with the other three sides all solid walls, and it is usually enclosed by wood balustrades or decorated boards all around.

Such storeyed pailions were used in ancient times for the storage of important articles and documents. Wenyuange, for instance, in the Forbidden City of Beijing was in effect the imperial library. Kuiwenge in the Confucius Temple of Qufu, Shandong Province was devoted to the safekeeping of the books and works of painting and calligraphy bestowed by the courts of various dynasties. Visitors to the city of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, can still see Tianyige, which houses the greatest private collection of books handed down from the past. Monasteries of a large size normally have their own libraries built in the style of a ge and called cangjingge to keep their collections of Buddhist scriptures. Some of the ge, notably those erected in parks, like other pavilions or towers (ting, tai and lou), were used for enjoying the sights.

The name ge is also used to describe the towers which shelter the colossal statues one finds in some great monasteries. A prominant example in the Guanyinge of Dulesi Temple in Jixian County, Hebei province. Twenty-three metres high and housing the huge idol of the Goddess of Mercy (Guanyin), it is the oldest exitsing multple-storeyed structure of its kind in China. Built in the Liao Dynasty (907-1125A.D.), it has withstood twenty-eight earthquakes including three of a devastating nature. When all the houses in the area collapsed, it was the only one tha survived the disaster. This goes to show how well its wood frame was structured. Other well-known religious buildings housing Buddhist statues, big or small, include Foxiangge in Beijing's Summer Palace, Dashengge in Chengde's Puningsi Temple and Zhenwuge in Ronxian, Guangdong Province. All of them, tall, graceful and dignified, can be listed as representative works of classical Chinese architecture.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour– Storeyed Pavilion (Discount China Hotels)

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One of the structures in traditional Chinese landscape gardening is the xie, a special form of pavilion. The earliest xie referred to the wood houses built on high terraces, but with the change of taste it became more and more the fashion in later epochs to build the single-storyed xie on the shore of lakes or ponds.

It is the special feature of the shuixie (waterside pavilion) to be rectangular or near square in plan figure, half erected on land and half over water supported by stone pillars driven into the lake bottom. This structure is walled not with bricks but with wood frames having fancy windows on all sides. The side on the water is bordered with railings and equipped with seats, fixed or movable, to provide visitors with a vantage point to feast their eyes on the scenes of the lake.

A typical example of this structure is the waterside pavilion in Xiequ Garden (Garden of Harmonious Interest) of the Summer Palace, from which Cixi, the all powerful Empress Dowager of the late Qing Dynasty, is said to have enjoyed herself at fishing.

Other well-known buildings of the same style include Furongxie in Zhuozheng Yuan (the Humble Administrator's Garden) of Suzhou, Shuixie in the Zhongshan Park of Beijing and Shuixinxie in the Mountain Resort of Chengde.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour–Waterside Pavilion (Hotels in China, Li River)

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Certain types of Chinese buildings or rooms that provide or promise a quiet retreat for specific purposes are usually called zhai. This is originally a word with religious implication, meaning "purification by ablution and abstinence." From this has been derived the name zhaigong (palace of purification), a special housing complex where the mind and body were "purified" in preparation for sacrifice or other solemn ceremonies.

Such a zhaigong still stands on the precincts of Beijing's Temple of Heaven, inside its western entrance on the right hand side. The emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, before they presented themselves at the annual rites of Heaven worship, used to stay there to bathe themselves and observe abstinence from pleasures. During this period of preparation, there would be no banqueting, no music, no drinking; no criminals would be tried or punishments meted out. This palace attached to the temple is of considerable size. In a compound of more than 40,000 square metres stand the main halls, living quarters for the emperor, a drum tower and a number of supporting buildings, totalling over 60 rooms. The magnificent structures, defended by two moats and bordered by a long corridor of 167 bays, make up the largest palace of its kind in the country.

In private houses, the rooms used as studies or for the keeping of books are called shuzhai or "book chambers". All zhai, whether devoted to religious architecture built as a rule in quiet, secluded spots, away from the sightseeing areas, sometimes with enclosure walls of their own. In Beijing's Beihai Park, for instance, there is a "garden within a garden" called Jingxinzhai or the Tranquil Heart Studio. Covering an area of 4,700 square metres, this peaceful place with houses of a distinctively graceful style used to be frequented by Emperor Qianlong when he wanted to do some serious reading or pursue quiet pleasures. Other examples par excellence among buildings described as zhai are Juanqinzhai (Studio of Relaxation) of the Qianlong Garden and Yangxinzhai (Studio of Metal Cultivation) of the Imperial Garden, both in the Forbidden City.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour–House of Retreat (China Hotel Booking) 

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This is usually a simple but elegant structure built in parks or gardens to give an embellishing touch to the landscape. It is called xuan after the name of a high-fronted, curtained carriage used in ancient times by people of rank probably because, like the carriage, it is also high in front and airy and spacious inside.

Architecturally, the xuan is rather similar to the ting (pavilion), and both are used to adorn the scenic views either standing on the side of a lake or nestling on the slope of a mountain. The difference between the two is that the xuan is larger in size, more closed and normally rectangular in plan, whereas the smaller ting has always a pointed round roof and no walls; the xuan is simply furnished with some tables and chairs so that people may sit down for a cup of tea, play a game of weiqi or appreciate works of art, whereas the ting is as a whole devoid of furniture.

The word xuan occasionally appears in the name of a teahouse or a restaurant. A well-known example is "Laijinyuxua (Come New Friends Studio) in Beijing's Zhongshan Park. Established in 1914, it operated at the beginning as a teahouse and snackbar. Lu Xun, the great writer used to frequent it to have tea, read newspapers and meet friends. The present Laijinyuxuan is a restaurant specializing in Sichuan and Jiangsu cuisine.

Among other structures repesentative of this style of architecture, imperial or private, one should count Xieqiuxuan (Paint Autumn Studio) in Beijing's Summer Palace and Zhuwaiyizhixuan (Lone Bamboo Outside the Grove) in Suzhou's Wangshiyuan (Master-of-nets Garden).

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour –Studio (Yangshuo Discount Hotels)

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Luxurious Guilin Hotels, Holiday Villages, folk travel will cater the foreigners many ideal accommodations. As well as Yangshuo China Travel Guide information: the world fairyland; Chinese culture, with a long history. Yangshuo Attraction, Guilin Attraction guide, China Attraction guide, Chinese history and culture exhibition, all beautiful China hills and water, and Yangshuo China Hotels.

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The covered corridor represents a typical architectural style in Chinese landscape gardening. A long, belt-like structure, it is a roofed walk with low railings or long side benches. Providing people with shade from the sun and protection from the rain, it not only adds beauty to the general scenery but plays a useful role as well.

Chinese covered corridors fall into many varieties, but roughly they may be divided into youlang which links two or more buildings, qulang (the zigzag corridor), huilang (the winding corridor), hualang which is used for the display of potted flowers, and shuilang which borders on lakes or goes over ponds.

It is the general consensus that at the top of all classical corridors must be listed by any standards the Long Corridor in Beijing's Summer Palace, a unique treasure in the art of gardening arrangement. An exquisite winding structure of 728 metres, it stretches its 273 bays* between the hill and the lake, broken at intervals by four double-eaved, octagonal pavilions, which represent the four seasons of the year. All its beams are painted with coloured pictures of landscapes, human figures, flowers, birds and scenes of historical and popular stories. These paintings total more than 40,000 in number, and the visitor would need eight hours just to linger two seconds before each picture.

The Long Corridor, it is said, was built by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty in order that his mother might safely enjoy the scenes of rain or snow over the lake. In effect it is a piece of ingenious engineering which at once divides and links up the hill and the lake of the Summer Palace. Whether one looks at the lake from the hill or at the hill from the lake, the Long Corridor is always there, not only a pretty frame border for a nice picture but a colourful belt to bind the two parts together.

Famous private Chinese gardens, located mostly in the southern provinces, likewise, are often ornamented with corridors. In Suzhou's Zhuozhengyuan (The Humble Adminitrator's Garden), part of the winding corridor is erected over a pond and has been described as a "rainbow over water". With its reflection in the water, sometimes ruffled by a breeze, it is a favourite spot for visitors to take snap-shots of themselves. In Liuyuan (Garden to Linger In), another well-known garden of Suzhou, the buildings--pavilion, terrace, hall, tower, etc.--break, and at the same time are linked by, a 600-metre-long corridor. Its walls have fancy cut-through windows which reveal scences on the other side, and they are also inset with 300 stone-engravings of calligraphical works and poems by famous masters; both the windows and the engravings are regarded as masterpieces of their respective kinds. Visitors come here either to feast their eyes on the natural views or on the works of art and poetry, all at their choice.

Source: China tour, yangshuo tour –Covered Corridor (Yangshuo Guilin Sights)

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