Cave Dwellings
Living conditions in rural China vary greatly. Here, we describe some typical living quarters in Yellow River's middle basin, called the Loess Plateau, where the soil is very porous and can form nearly vertical cliffs without sliding. Villagers make use of this soil property to build cave dwellings, which is formed by digging into a vertical earth cliff and hallowing out the interior to form a cave-like room. Pictures above show the exterior of a set of such cave dwellings (left), and the occupants (right). In this case the entire courtyard is dug out from a small hilltop. Imaging how much labor it would involve in removing all that dirt? It must be the work of many generations of descendents in order to accomplish such a project. The exterior wall is formed by the origin loess soil, which is so smoothly cut that it looks like it is built out of concrete. The surface must be smooth so that it will not gather water and be eroded by falling rain drops. Also, no grass should grow on the wall, as grass will weaken the surface. The picture (below, left) shows a dwelling which is not well maintained. Its surface is over-grown with grass. Its owner has many family members to support, and works part-time in local industry, in addition to working on the farm. The dwelling shown on the right has a stone-lined exterior, but is also poorly maintained. The young man supports his mother (in the same picture), and works part-time in the mines. The interior of the dwelling is shown (below, left), which uses the front portion of the room for living and the rear for storage. See another article for a better decorated interior. See also other village scenes. A rather pleasant courtyard is shown (below, right).
See more about Yellow River
 |
For
payment, trip cancellation, please refer to the Terms &
Conditions |
| For more information, please
feel free to contact us at 1-800-865-6221 or email to
us at info@chinacustomtours.com
|
| 
China Tours 
Yellow River 
About Yellow River