Rooms within Rooms

Rooms within Rooms, an Image taken in Ping Yao Acient City, Shanxi Province, China…If you look carefully there is one courtyard followed by a room, followed by a courtyard followed by a room etc etc. Right in the middle at the far end is a small looking door leading into the sixth inner courtyard set of rooms, this layaout is typical for wealthy Chinese homes and dates back to the Yuan Dynasty.

The sizes of courtyard houses vary greatly depending on the wealth, size, and the taste of the family, but generally the compounds had an inner courtyard (or a series of inner courtyards) and were built on a north-south axis. Main entrance doors to most buildings / courtyards faced south, a practice still seen today.

10 thoughts on “Rooms within Rooms”

balistylelife on April 23, 2012 at 10:00 pm said:

Beautiful !

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- throughenglisheyesmark on April 24, 2012 at 11:30 am said:
  
  🙂
  
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clairelwebster on April 24, 2012 at 1:20 am said:

This is just glorious! Wonderful texture.

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- throughenglisheyesmark on April 24, 2012 at 11:30 am said:
  
  Thanks Claire
  
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onelifethislife on April 24, 2012 at 10:30 am said:

Fantastic! I love the layers of the doors and the details captured.

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- throughenglisheyesmark on April 24, 2012 at 11:29 am said:
  
  Thanks 🙂
  
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John Smith on April 25, 2012 at 6:58 am said:

This is without any doubt the best photograph I have seen on a blog for a long time. It draws you into a world that is tantalisingly rich and beautiful. It leaves me aching to be there. Your presentation of the photo adds to the wonderful experience. It would make a great cover picture for the book that you should write about China. Thanks so much.

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- throughenglisheyesmark on April 25, 2012 at 9:58 am said:
  
  Hi John,
  
  Thanks so much for these kind words, they are appreciated…I would like to produce a book of images on China, maybe this image will be on the front cover 🙂
  
  Thanks again
  
  Mark
  
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themofman on April 29, 2012 at 12:33 am said:

I really do love the detail captured here.

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- throughenglisheyesmark on April 29, 2012 at 11:22 am said:
  
  Thanks the mofman 🙂
  
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Images of China through English Eyes