Ever since his existence on earth, man has concentrated his efforts on the provision of food, clothing, shelter and transportation. Stable dwellings, a prerequisite of the above, eventually developed into vernacular residential buildings. Various types of dwelling came into existence as a result of the ethnic variety and widely differing geographical conditions in a country as vast as China, and the building cultures represented by round storeyed buildings, cave houses, Siheyuan and other dwellings can be regarded as unique. The photographs in this volume illustrate, province by province, the vernacular dwelling types characteristic of different areas in North, Central, South and West China, such as Siheyuan, cave houses, Zhejiang and Anhui dwellings, red brick, pile supported and semi pile supported buildings and slabstone houses. Starting with the door gods, these photographs not only show beauty created jointly by Chinese artists and domestic architects, but also manifest the spirit behind these Chinese vernacular dwellings.