Xitang Architecture

 

 

Horse Head Wall originated from Anhui Province of eastern China. During the middle period of the Qing Dynasty, Anhui merchants went east to Zhejiang, they also brought their architectural culture here. Fireproof walls became popular in civilian buildings. Different from the straight and plain walls in Anhui, Zhejiang people added horse head like figures on the top. Xitang people attached importance to fire prevention, due to fires would often happen during dry weather in autumn and winter. Horse Head Walls could effectively avoid fire in neighbors to spread. 

Beauty Bench is said built by the emperor of the ancient Wu State to please the famous beauty Xi Shi over two thousand years ago. There had been a saying, "Woman leans against the bench is a beauty and woman doesn't lean is not a beauty." Beauty Benches by the side of a river are often seen in buildings and pavilions built along rivers in regions located in the lower reaches of Yangtze River. Today, everyone can lean the bench whenever you like! 

Flower-wall: Make of common tiles on the wall good for aesthetics and ventilation, often seen in parvis walls or the outer walls of a mansion.

You will hardly find "flying" eaves and "raised" horns in Xitang's architecture which is very mediocre and plebian-style. In the Qing Dynasty, people should pay tax to the government for a newly built house. The regulation was that the more columns you had, the more tax you needed to be paid. The smart Xitang people invented a method to build a big house and to use lesser number of columns. They used "Hard Hill Top" which is high rooftop with two slopes on both sides. Some walls of houses were built very high that they even higher than the rooftop, the tops of these walls were in arc patterns, looked like the coif on a Kwan-yin's head image. So this architectural style called Kwan-yin's Coif.