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Screen Wall

Foreign visitors may have noticed the isolated wall either outside or just inside the gate of a traditional Chinese house to shield the rooms from outsider's view.

Pavilions

A common sight in the country, the Chinese pavilion (ting, 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.

Roof Crown

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.

House of Retreat

Certain types of Chinese buildings or rooms that provide or promise a quiet retreat for specific purposes are usually called zhai.

Caisson Ceiling

Visitors to an ancient Chinese palace hall often have their attention drawn to the centre of the ceiling.

Studio

This is usually a simple but elegant structure built in parks or gardens to give an embellishing touch to the landscape.

Waterside Pavilion

One of the structures in traditional Chinese landscape gardening is the xie, a special form of pavilion.

Stone Baluster Head

Important halls, towers and pavilions in the old palaces of China normally stand on terraces.

Altar

The Chinese tan is an altar where ancient rulers used to offer sacrifices to Heaven or the gods, and architechurally it refers to a special type of terrace-like building.

Taihu Rockery

Grotesque rockeries are often seen in Chinese parks and gardens. They range from a little over a metre to 5 or 6 metres in height.

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