Daily Life in China                  

Chinese Siheyuan:

Siheyuan is a four sided courtyard.  It's a standard house format in centeral north east of China.  Everyone says that's the house type in Beijing but I doubt if it originated around Beijing.  The house roof view shows a Qing or possibly Ming stye siheyuan with towers on each side of the front entrance.  This type of house style is common in northern Henan and Shanxi.

This picture is a side view looking into the courtyard (tianjing).

This shot is of a 10 building siheyuan style modern house in Henan.  There are two courtyards and two family enterances.  The first entrance is by the telephone pole.  The second is on the lower left through the tall read tiled doorway.  The building group is probably owned by the same family so the middle building will have doorway that opens into the second buildings tianjing (courtyard).