Daily Life in China                  

Chinese Ci Tang, inside:

   Citang are the central feature in a small Chinese village.

Below a nice village gate (paifang).   In back of the trees is the citang entrance in the key spot at the center of the village commons.    

The walkway leading up to the citang.  The walkway is under three buildings.  There is a water well and sky well at each level.

The altar.  The tablets (paiwei) have the names of past members of the family.

Looking back from the alter to the main gate.

A highly decorated citang from a prosperous village citang.

A citang rebuild in the center of the village.  The old building complex wings to the right and left are in place but are probably old rebuilds with the original complex brick. To the right is last remains of the old complex.  This citang is very beautiful.   

The interior is all level cement and very nice.  To the left and right are money lists of contributors for the citang rebuild, 

The citang goes back through 4 levels.

The very nice altar.

Below: Another citang entrance way.

Looking back from the citang entrance gate.  Note the drying crops on the upper level.  There's a person carrying crops on their sholder to the right. 

This citang was redone about 5 years ago.

Paiwei with family member names.

List of contributors to the citang rebuild with ammounts.

Looking back to the main entrance.  On the upper story is a coffin and part of a tread wheel for pumping field water from paddy to paddy.

A decorative citang rebuild with dragons (long).

The origina complex was decimated by the cut for the new roadway.  The original complex destroyed destroyed.  The last remaining row of houses were rebuilt in the old style with the original brick.

View of citang from the altar.  A grandmother was taking a rest from the sun with her grandson.

Not all citang are very fancy.  The majority are simple like this.  The original tablets are water warn from years of roof leaks.  It's a very common condition for older tablets.

Not all citang are in good condition.  Most are about like this.  

Simple altar with paiwei.

Looking back through the citang to a fancy motoche parked out front.

Decayed and neglected citang but still in use.  A fancy coffin was made and about to go into service the week the picture was taken.  Most of this family has broken up so there's only a few members left to care for the citang.

Link to a visual site for Chinese Civilization:  http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/contents.htm