Living Heritage: Timber-framed structures

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(China Daily)

Wood, artisans – and exquisite craftsmanship passed down for thousands of years. These constitute the key elements of Chinese traditional timber-framed structures, such as those that form magnificent royal palaces like the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Usually, a traditional Chinese wooden building uses large components, such as columns, beams, purlins and dougong (interlocking brackets), to frame the structure, and sunmao (mortise and tenon joinery) structures to join the components together tightly.

Watch this video to find out more about the Chinese traditional architectural craftsmanship that was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Unesco in 2009.