Chinese Ancient architecture is an independent artfeaturing wooden structures. It consists of various roof molding, upturnedeaves and wings, dougong with paintings, vermilion pillars , golden roofs,ornament gates and gardening. All of these embody the maturity and artisticappeal of Chinese architecture.

Dogong 斗拱 is a special component in the Chinese ancient building. The square board is called "Dou", the short bowed wood is called "arch"，the long inclined wood is called "Ang"，and "arch" is their general name. Usually it is placed among the pillar head ,pillar forehead and face of the house to prop up a beam and pick up eaves, and it also has a decorative function. It is made up of the square wood, the short bow wood and the long inclined wood, mixing in length and breadth layer upon layer and pursuing a layer to pick outwardly to form a pad base which is to descend.

Gable Wall 藻井 is the wall which is formed as the top of mountain at the up of both sides of the house. The familiar gable wall still has the wind-fire gable wall, which has the characteristics of two sides of gable wall being higher than house surface, presenting a stairs form with the slope surface of the roof.

History of  Chinese ancient architecture 
7000 years ago, mortise and tenon and tongue-and-groove were used in Hemudu. The buildings of Banpo village had the division of antechamber and back rooms. Great palaces were built in Shangyin period. bricks and tiles were used and the layout of Siheyuan emerged in the Western Zhou. There are even building drawings in Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods passed down.

In Qin and Han, wooden building tended to be mature gradually. Complex buildings, like E pang Palace, were constructed.Temples and pagodas developed rapidly in the period of Weijin and Southern and Northern dynasties. Glass tiles used in Sui and Tang made the building more glorious. The city construction in the period of Five dynasties and Song was booming. Luxury restaurants and shops with lofts and railings were very beautiful. Many palaces and private gardens built in Ming and Qing are reserved today, which are more magnificent and stately than that of the Song Dynasty.

Although the ancient Chinese neverconsidered architecture a fine art, in China, as in the West it has been the mother of the fine arts. It was through the medium of architectural decorationthat painting and sculpture matured and gained recognition as independent arts.

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