2024 Self-driving in Shandong, Jiangsu, and Henan (17): Visit to the Shanxi Underground Courtyard.

Mostly, we detoured to Sanmenxia City from Luoyang for this Shanxi Underground Courtyard. Sanmenxia Shanxi Underground Courtyard, also known as the Tianjing Kiln Courtyard, originated from early human cave dwellings. According to expert verification, it has a history of more than 4,000 years and is one of the most characteristic earth pit buildings in Chinese residences. As an ancient and magical residential style, the earth pit courtyard contains rich culture. It is the only underground ancient residential building in the country and even the world, and it is one of the four unique ancient residential buildings in China. Known as the "ancient village under the horizon, living fossil in the history of residential buildings". This magical underground village - you can't see the house when you enter the village, you can't see the village when you see the tree, the car passes over the roof, you can't hear people, this is the Shanxi Underground Courtyard. Located in the Shanxi District of Sanmenxia City, it is known as the "Four Jue" together with the Beijing Quadrangle, Fujian Tulou, and Shaanbei Cave. The structure of the earth pit courtyard is actually to dig 6-7 meters deep on the flat ground, a rectangular or square earth pit 12-15 meters long as a courtyard, and then dig 10-14 caves in the four walls of the pit, with a project volume of about 2,000 cubic meters. The cave is about 3 meters high, 8-12 meters deep, and about 4 meters wide. The wall below two meters of the cave is vertical, and the top is round arch. One of the caves is cut into a slope to form a step-shaped passage leading to the ground. It is a passage for people to travel, called a cave, which is the entrance of the earth pit courtyard. The earth pit courtyard is located on the edge of the Loess Plateau, with thick and hard soil layers. The cave is also a natural temperature regulator, warm in winter and cool in summer, especially its simple and cheap construction. For the poor mountain people in the past, such a building is ideal. Shanxi is dry and rainy, frozen, and the hurricane is piercing, which is not suitable for human habitation. The emergence of the earth pit courtyard just solved these problems. Some people have studied the Fujian Hakka Tulou and found that the architectural style of the Tulou is in line with the Shanxi Underground Courtyard. The difference is that the earth building is built on the ground. This is because the south is humid and warm, and there is a lot of water underground, so it is impossible to dig the ground for pits and dig pits for houses like the Shanxi Underground Courtyard. In fact, the earth building has become a living fossil of the migration of northern ethnic groups to the south. Two types of residences, one concave and one convex, one yin and one yang, are of the same origin. I chatted with the aborigines, and they are basically relocated now. They don't miss the earth pit courtyard. No matter how they say it, the ground house is comfortable. The current earth pit courtyard has been built into a landscape, one is to protect the original appearance, and the other is to let more people see this unique residence. The original earth pit courtyards are not connected to each other, and a large family lives in a courtyard, which has now become various folk exhibition halls. There is no commanding height, and the whole picture cannot be seen, which is a bit regrettable... Shanxi Underground Courtyard