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Chinese architecture
Features
Model of a Chinese Siheyuan in Beijing, which shows off the symmetry, enclose heavy platform and a large roof that floats over this base, with the vertical walls not as well emphasized.
Architectural Bilateral symmetry
An important feature in Chinese architecture is its emphasis on articulation and bilateral symmetry, which signifies balance. Bilateral symmetry and the articulation of buildings are found everywhere in Chinese architecture, from palace complexes to humble farmhouses. When possible, plans for renovation and extension of a house will often try to maintain this symmetry provided that there is enough capital to do so. Secondary elements are positioned either side of main structures as two wings to maintain overall bilateral symmetry.
In contrast to the buildings, Chinese gardens are a notable exception which tends to be asymmetrical. The principle underlying the garden's composition is to create enduring flow.
Enclosure
Que towers along the walls of Tang-era Chang'an, as depicted in this 8th-century mural from Prince Li Chongrun's tomb at the Qianling Mausoleum in Shaanxi
Contemporary Western architectural practices typically involve surrounding a building by an open yard on the property. This contrasts with much of traditional Chinese architecture, which involves constructing buildings or building complexes that take up an entire property but encloses open spaces within itself. These enclosed spaces come in two forms: the open courtyard () and the "sky well" ().
The use of open courtyards is a common feature in many types of Chinese architectures. This is best exemplified in the Siheyuan, which consists of an empty space surrounded by buildings connected with one another either directly or through verandas.
Although large open courtyards are less commonly found in southern Chinese architecture, the concept of a "open space" surrounded by buildings, which is seen in northern courtyard complexes, can be seen in the southern building structure known as the "sky well". This structure is essentially a relatively enclosed courtyard formed from the intersections of closely spaced buildings and offer small opening to the sky through the roof space from the floor up.
These enclosures serve in temperature regulation and in venting the building complexes. Northern courtyards are typically open and facing the south to allow the maximum exposure of the building windows and walls to the sun while keeping the cold northern winds out. Southern sky wells are relatively small and serves to collect rain water from the roof tops while restricting the amount of sunlight that enters the building. Sky wells also serve as vents for rising hot air, which draws cool air from the lowers stories of the house and allows for exchange of cool air with the outside.
Hierarchical
A stone-carved pillar-gate, or que (), 6 m (20 ft) in total height, located at the tomb of Gao Yi in Ya'an, Sichuan province, Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD); notice the stone-carved decorations of roof tile eaves, despite the fact that Han Dynasty stone que (part of the walled structures around tomb entrances) lacked wooden or ceramic components (but often imitated wooden buildings with ceramic roof tiles).
The projected hierarchy and importance and uses of buildings in traditional Chinese architecture are based on the strict placement of buildings in a property/complex. Buildings with doors facing the front of the property are considered more important than those facing the sides. Building facing away from the front of the property are the least important.
As well, building in the rear and more private parts of the property are held in higher esteem and reserve for elder members of the family or ancestral plaques than buildings near the front, which are typically for servants and hired help. Front facing buildings in the back of properties are used particularly for rooms of celebratory rites and for the placement of ancestral halls and plaques. In multiple courtyard complexes, Central courtyard and their buildings are considered more important than peripheral ones, the latter which are typically used as storage or servant's rooms or kitchens.
Horizontal emphasis
Classical Chinese buildings, especially those of the wealthy are built with an emphasis on breadth and less on height, with close heavy platform and a large roof that floats over this base, with the vertical walls not well emphasized. This contrasts Western architecture, which tends to grow in height and depth. Chinese architecture stresses the visual impact of the width of the buildings.
The halls and palaces in the Forbidden City, for example, have rather low ceilings when compared to equivalent stately buildings in the West, but their external appearances suggest the all-embracing nature of imperial China. These ideas have found their way into modern Western architecture, for example through the work of Jrn Utzon. This of course does not apply to pagodas, which are and limited to religious building complexes.
Cosmological concepts
Chinese architecture from early times used concepts from Chinese cosmology such as feng shui (geomancy) and daoism to organize construction and layout from common residences to imperial and religious structures. This includes the use of:
Screen walls to face the main entrance of the house, which stems from the belief that evil things travel on straight lines.
Talismans and imagery of good fortune:
Door gods displayed on doorways to ward evil and encourage the flow of good fortune
Three anthropomorphic figures representing Fu Lu Shou () stars are prominently displayed, sometimes with the proclamation "the threes star are present"()
Animals and fruits that symbolize good fortune and prosperity, such as bats and pomegranates, respectively. The association is often done through rebuses.
Orienting the structure with its back to elevated landscape and ensuring that there is water in the front. Considerations are also made such that the generally windowless back of the structure faces the north, where the wind is coldest in the winter
Ponds, pools, wells, and other water sources are usually built into the structure
The use of certain colors, numbers and the cardinal directions in traditional Chinese architecture reflected the belief in a type of immanence, where the nature of a thing could be wholly contained in its own form. Although the Western tradition gradually developed a body of architectural literature, little was written on the subject in China, and the earliest text, the Kaogongji, was never disputed. However, ideas about cosmic harmony and the order of the city were usually interpreted at their most basic level, so a reproduction of the "ideal" city never existed. Beijing as reconstructed throughout the 15th and 16th century remains one of the best examples of traditional Chinese town planning.
Construction
Structure
Main article: Ancient Chinese wooden architecture
Tenon and mortice work of tie beams and cross beams, from Li Jie's building manual Yingzao Fashi, printed in 1103.
Diagram of corbel wood bracket supports ("Dougong") holding up a multi-inclined roof, from the architectural treatise Yingzao Fashi (1103 AD)
Use of large structural timbers for primary support of the roof of a building. Wooden timber, usually large trimmed logs, are used as load-bearing columns and lateral beams for framing buildings and supporting the roofs. These structural timbers are prominently displayed in finished structures. However, it is not known how the ancient builders raised the huge wooden load bearing columns into position.
Although, structural walls are also commonly found in Chinese architecture, most timber framed architecture are preferred when economically feasible.
Timber frames are typically constructed with jointnary and doweling alone, seldom with the use of glue or nails. Structural stability is further ensured through the use of heavy beams and roofs, which weighs the structure down.
Using even numbers of columns in a building structure to produce odd numbers of bays (). With the inclusion of a main door to a building in the centre bay, symmetry is maintained
The common use of curtain walls or door panels to delineate rooms or enclose a building, with the general deemphasis of load-bearing walls in most higher class construction
Flat roofs are uncommon while gabled roofs almost omnipresent in traditional Chinese architecture. Three main types of roofs are found
Straight inclined: Roofs with a single incline. These are the most economical type of roofing and are most prevalent in commoner architectures
Multi-inclined: Roofs with 2 or more sections of incline. These roofs are used in higher class constructions, from the dwellings of wealthy commoners to palaces
Sweeping: Roofs with a sweeping curvature that rises at the corners of the roof. The types of roof construction are usually reserved for temples and palaces although it may also be found in the homes of the wealthy. In the former cases, the ridges of the roof are usually highly decorated with ceramic figurines.
The roof apex of a large hall is usually topped with a ridge of tiles for both decorative purposes but also to weight down the layers of roofing tiles for stability. These ridges are often well decorated, especially for religious or palatial structures. In some regions of China, the ridges are sometimes extended or incorporated from the walls of the building to form matouqiang (horse-head walls), which serve as a fire deterrent from drifting embers.
Materials and history
Models of watchtowers and other buildings made during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25220 AD); while these models were made of ceramics, the real versions were made of easily perishable wood and have not survived.
Unlike other building construction materials, old wooden structures often do not survive because they are more vulnerable to weathering and fires and are naturally subjected to rotting over time. Although now nonexistent wooden residential towers, watchtowers, and pagodas predated it by centuries, the Songyue Pagoda built in 523 is the oldest extant pagoda in China; its use of brick instead of wood had much to do with its endurance throughout the centuries. From the Tang Dynasty (618907) onwards, brick and stone architecture gradually became more common and replaced wooden edifices. The earliest of this transition can be seen in building projects such as the Zhaozhou Bridge completed in 605 or the Xumi Pagoda built in 636, yet stone and brick architecture is known to have been used in subterranean tomb architecture of earlier dynasties.
In the early 20th century, there were no known fully wood-constructed Tang Dynasty buildings that still existed; the oldest so far discovered was the 1931 find of Guanyin Pavilion at Dule Monastery, dated 984 during the Song. This was until the architectural historians Liang Sicheng (19011972), Lin Huiyin (19041955), Mo Zongjiang (19161999), and Ji Yutang (1902. 1960s) discovered that the East Hall of Foguang Temple on Mount Wutai in Shanxi was reliably dated to the year 857 in June 1937. The groundfloor dimensions for this monastic hall measures 34 by 17.66 m (111 ft by 57 ft). A year after the discovery at Foguang, the much smaller main hall of nearby Nanchan Temple on Mount Wutai was reliably dated to the year 782, while a total of six Tang era wooden buildings have been found by the 21st century. The oldest existent multistory wooden pagoda that has survived intact is the Pagoda of Fogong Temple of the Liao Dynasty, located in Ying County of Shanxi. While the East Hall of Foguang Temple features only seven types of bracket arms in its construction, the 11th century Pagoda of Fogong Temple features a total of fifty-four.
The earliest walls and platforms in China were of rammed earth construction, and over time, brick and stone became more frequently used. This can be seen in ancient sections of the Great Wall of China, while the brick and stone Great Wall seen today is a renovation of the Ming Dynasty (13681644).
Classification by structure
A pavilion inside the Zhuozheng Garden in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, one of the finest gardens in China
The Zhaozhou Bridge, built from 595605 during the Sui Dynasty. It is the oldest fully-stone open-spandrel segmental arch bridge in the world.
Chinese classifications for architecture include:
(simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Tng) ting (Chinese pavilions)
(simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Ta) tai (terraces)
(simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Lu) lou (Multistory buildings)
(simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: G) ge (Two-story pavilions)
() xuan (Verandas with windows)
ta (Chinese pagodas)
xie (Pavilions or houses on terraces)
wu (Rooms along roofed corridors)
(simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Dugng) dougong interlocking wooden brackets, often used in clusters to support roofs and add ornamentation.
Caisson domed or coffered ceiling
Architectural types
Commoner
As for the commoners, be they bureaucrats, merchants or farmers, their houses tended to follow a set pattern: the center of the building would be a shrine for the deities and the ancestors, which would also be used during festivities. On its two sides were bedrooms for the elders; the two wings of the building (known as "guardian dragons" by the Chinese) were for the junior members of the family, as well as the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen, although sometimes the living room could be very close to the center.
Sometimes the extended families became so large that one or even two extra pairs of "wings" had to be built. This resulted in a U-shaped building, with a courtyard suitable for farm work; merchants and bureaucrats, however, preferred to close off the front with an imposing front gate. All buildings were legally regulated, and the law held that the number of storeys, the length of the building and the colours used depended on the owner's class. Some commoners living in areas plagued by bandits built communal fortresses called Tulou for protection.
Imperial
There were certain architectural features that were reserved solely for buildings built for the Emperor of China. One example is the use of yellow roof tiles; yellow having been the Imperial color, yellow roof tiles still adorn most of the buildings within the Forbidden City. The Temple of Heaven, however, uses blue roof tiles to symbolize the sky. The roofs are almost invariably supported by brackets ("dougong"), a feature shared only with the largest of religious buildings. The wooden columns of the buildings, as well as the surface of the walls, tend to be red in color. Black is also a famous color often used in pagodas. They believe the gods are inspired by the black color to descend on to the earth.
The Chinese five-clawed dragon, adopted by the first Ming emperor for his personal use, was used as decoration on the beams, pillars, and on the doors on Imperial architecture. Curiously, the dragon was never used on roofs of imperial buildings.
Only the buildings used by the imperial family were allowed to have nine jian (, space between two columns); only the gates used by the Emperor could have five arches, with the centre one, of course, being reserved for the Emperor himself. The ancient Chinese favored the color red. The buildings faced south because the north had a cold wind.
A vaulted tomb chamber in Luoyang, built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25220 AD)
A tomb chamber of Luoyang, built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25220 AD) with incised wall decorations
The Great Red Gate at the Ming Tombs near Beijing, built in the 15th century
The yellow roof tiles and red walls in the Forbidden City (Palace Museum) grounds in Beijing, built during the Yongle era (14021424) of the Ming Dynasty
Beijing became the capital of China after the Mongol invasion of the 13th century, completing the easterly migration of the Chinese capital begun since the Jin dynasty, the Ming uprising in 1368 reasserted Chinese authority and fixed Beijing as the seat of imperial power for the next five centuries. The Emperor and the Empress lived in palaces on the central axis of the Forbidden City, the Crown Prince at the eastern side, and the concubines at the back (therefore the numerous imperial concubines were often referred to as "The Back Palace Three Thousand"). However, during the mid-Qing Dynasty, the Emperor's residence was moved to the western side of the complex. It is misleading to speak of an axis in the Western sense of a visual perspective ordering facades, rather the Chinese axis is a line of privilege, usually built upon, regulating access - there are no vistas, but a series of gates and pavilions.
Numerology heavily influenced Imperial Architecture, hence the use of nine in much of construction (nine being the greatest single digit number) and reason why The Forbidden City in Beijing is said to have 9,999.9 rooms - just short of the mythical 10,000 rooms in heaven. The importance of the East (the direction of the rising sun) in orienting and siting Imperial buildings is a form of solar worship found in many ancient cultures, where the notion of Ruler is affiliated with the Sun.
The tombs and mausoleums of imperial family members, such as the 8th century Tang Dynasty tombs at the Qianling Mausoleum, can also be counted as part of the imperial tradition in architecture. These above-ground earthen mounds and pyramids had subterranean shaft-and-vault structures that were lined with brick walls since at least the Warring States (481221 BCE).
Religious
See also: Temple (Chinese)
Generally speaking, Buddhist architecture follow the imperial style. A large Buddhist monastery normally has a front hall, housing the statue of a Bodhisattva, followed by a great hall, housing the statues of the Buddhas. Accommodations for the monks and the nuns are located at the two sides. Some of the greatest examples of this come from the 18th century temples of the Puning Temple and the Putuo Zongcheng Temple. Buddhist monasteries sometimes also have pagodas, which may house the relics of the Gautama Buddha; older pagodas tend to be four-sided, while later pagodas usually have eight-sides.
Daoist architecture, on the other hand, usually follow the commoners' style. The main entrance is, however, usually at the side, out of superstition about demons which might try to enter the premise. (See feng shui.) In contrast to the Buddhists, in a Daoist temple the main deity is located at the main hall at the front, the lesser deities at the back hall and at the sides.
A group of temples at the top of Mount Taishan, where structures have been built at the site since the 3rd century BC during the Han Dynasty
The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an, built in 652 during the Tang Dynasty
The Nine Pinnacle Pagoda, built in the 8th century during the Tang Dynasty
A timber hall built in 857 during the Tang Dynasty, located at the Buddhist Foguang Temple in Mount Wutai, Shanxi
The Three Pagodas of Chong Sheng Temple, Dali City, Yunnan, built in the 9th and 10th century
The Fogong Temple Pagoda, located in Ying county, Shanxi province, built in 1056 during the Liao Dynasty, is the oldest existent fully-wooden pagoda in China
The Liuhe Pagoda of Hangzhou, China, built in 1165 AD during the Song Dynasty
The Temple of Heaven in Beijing, built in the 15th century during the Ming Dynasty
The Putuo Zongcheng Temple, built from 1767 to 1771 during the reign of Qianlong, represents a fusion of Chinese and Tibetan architectural style
Hua Si Gongbei (the mausoleum of Ma Laichi) in Linxia City, Gansu
The tallest pre-modern building in China was built for both religious and martial purposes. The Liaodi Pagoda of 1055 AD stands at a height of 84 m (275 ft), and although it served as the crowning pagoda of the Kaiyuan monastery in old Dingzhou, Hebei, it was also used as a military watchtower for Song Dynasty soldiers to observe potential Liao Dynasty enemy movements.
The architecture of the mosques and gongbei tomb shrines of China's Muslims often combines traditional Chinese styles with Middle Eastern influences.
Urban planning
Main article: Ancient Chinese urban planning
Chinese urban planning is based on fengshui geomancy and the field-well system of land division both used since the Neolithic age. The basic field-well diagram is overlaid with the luoshu, a magic square divided into 9 sub-squares, and linked with Chinese numerology.
Miniature models
Main article: Science and technology of the Han Dynasty#Structural engineering
Although mostly only ruins of brick and rammed earth walls and towers from ancient China (i.e. before the 6th century AD) have survived, information on ancient Chinese architecture (especially wooden architecture) can be discerned from more or less realistic clay models of buildings created by the ancient Chinese as funerary items. This is similar to the paper joss houses burned in some modern Chinese funerals. The following models were made during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE 220 CE):
A pottery palace from the Han Dynasty (202 BC 220 AD)
Two residential towers joined by a bridge, pottery miniature, Han Dynasty (202 BC 220 AD)
A pottery tower from the Han Dynasty (202 BC 220 AD)
A ceramic model of a house with a courtyard, from the Han Dynasty (202 BC 220 AD)
A pottery gristmill from the Han Dynasty (202 BC 220 AD)
A pottery tower from the Han Dynasty (202 BC 220 AD)
A pottery model of a well from the Han Dynasty (202 BC 220 AD)
A pottery tower from the Han Dynasty (202 BC 220 AD)
During the Jin Dynasty (265420) and the Six Dynasties, miniature models of buildings or entire architectural ensembles were often made to decorate the tops of the so-called "soul vases" (hunping), found in many tombs of that period.
See also
Architecture of the Song Dynasty
Architecture of Hong Kong
Architecture of Penang
Caisson (Asian architecture)
Chinese art
Chinese pagodas
Architectural history
Feng Shui
Ancient Chinese wooden architecture
Hakka architecture
Hutong
Imperial roof decoration
Imperial guardian lions
Lingnan architecture
Pagoda
Shanghai - for a gallery of modern buildings
Shikumen
Siheyuan
Walled villages of Hong Kong
Yu Hao
Beijing city wall
Precious Belt Bridge
Note
^ Liang, Ssu-ch'eng, 1984, A pictorial history of Chinese architecture : a study of the development of its structural system and the evolution of its types, ed. by Wilma Fairbank, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press.
^ a b c d Knapp, Ronald G.; Spence, Jonathan; Ong, A. Chester (2006), Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage of a Nation, Tuttle Publishing, ISBN 978-0804835374
^ Liu, Xujie (2002). "The Qin and Han Dynasties" in Chinese Architecture, 3360. Edited by Nancy S. Steinhardt. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300095597. Page 55.
^ Steinhardt, Nancy N. (2005). "Pleasure tower model," in Recarving China's Past: Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the 'Wu Family Shrines', 275281. Edited by Naomi Noble Richard. New Haven and London: Yale University Press and Princeton University Art Museum. ISBN 0300107978. Pages 279280.
^ Weston, Richard (2002), Utzon, Edition Blondal, pp. 221, ISBN 978-8788978988
^ a b Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. "The Tang Architectural Icon and the Politics of Chinese Architectural History," The Art Bulletin (Volume 86, Number 2, 2004): 228254. Page 228.
^ Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. "The Tang Architectural Icon and the Politics of Chinese Architectural History," The Art Bulletin (Volume 86, Number 2, 2004): 228254. Page 233.
^ Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. "The Tang Architectural Icon and the Politics of Chinese Architectural History," The Art Bulletin (Volume 86, Number 2, 2004): 228254. Page 228229.
^ Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. "The Tang Architectural Icon and the Politics of Chinese Architectural History," The Art Bulletin (Volume 86, Number 2, 2004): 228254. Page 238.
^ Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. "Liao: An Architectural Tradition in the Making," Artibus Asiae (Volume 54, Number 1/2, 1994): 539. Page 13.
^ Guo, Qinghua. "Tomb Architecture of Dynastic China: Old and New Questions," Architectural History (Volume 47, 2004): 124. Page 12.
^ Steinhardt (2004), 228229.
^ Schinz, 1996
^ Dien, Albert E. (2007), Six dynasties civilization, Early Chinese civilization series, Yale University Press, pp. 214-215, ISBN 0300074042, http://books.google.com.au/books?id=0zp6iMZoqt0C&pg=PA214
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Architecture of China
Liang, Ssu-ch'eng 1984, A pictorial history of Chinese architecture : a study of the development of its structural system and the evolution of its types, ed. by Wilma Fairbanks, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press
Schinz, Alfred (1996). The magic square: cities in ancient China. Edition Axel Menges. pp. 428. ISBN 3930698021. http://books.google.com/books?id=qhcRYkz-I3YC&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. "Liao: An Architectural Tradition in the Making," Artibus Asiae (Volume 54, Number 1/2, 1994): 539.
Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. "The Tang Architectural Icon and the Politics of Chinese Architectural History," The Art Bulletin (Volume 86, Number 2, 2004): 228254.
Weston, Richard. 2002. Utzon : inspiration, vision, architecture. Hellerup: Blondal.
Further reading
Fletcher, Banister; Cruickshank, Dan, Sir Banister Fletcher's a History of Architecture, Architectural Press, 20th edition, 1996 (first published 1896). ISBN 0750622679. Cf. Part Four, Chapter 24.
Sickman L and Soper A. The Art and Architecture of China (Penguin Books, 1956).
External links
Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home To explore an in depth look into the ancient architecture of the Huang family domestic life in China, the Yin Yu Tang house offers an interactive view of the typical domestic architecture of the Qing dynasty.
Herbert Offen Research Collection An excellent bibliography of publicly accessible books and manuscripts on Chinese architecture.
Traditional Architecture of China The Architectural Style from the Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty
Islamic Architecture in China Introduction to the Chinese Mosques in South, West, and North respectively
Chinese Vernacular Architecture & General Chinese Architecture--Web Links Chinese Vernacular Architecture & General Chinese Architectureeb Links
Chinese Residential Houses Ten types of Chinese residential houses
Asian Historical Architecture
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1 Sometimes included in Europe, depending on the border definitions. 2 Officially known as Myanmar. 3 Sometimes included in Oceania, and also known as Timor-Leste. 4 Transcontinental country. 5 Commonly known as Taiwan.
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A Tourist's Guide to Western North Carolina
1. Asheville
Western North Carolina is topographically the most diverse part of the state and therefore offers one of the richest travel experiences. Asheville, some 125 miles from Charlotte, is the area’s gateway.
Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa Rivers, it had been settled in 1794 by John Barton, who had originally named it “Morristown” after Robert Morris, a financier of the American Revolution, but it had been later changed to honor Governor Samuel Ashe. With the 1880 arrival of the Western North Carolina Railroad, it had developed as a livestock and tobacco market, and is today the economic and recreational center for western North Carolina and a tourism base for the area’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee Indian culture.
Second only to Miami in art deco architecture, Asheville offers several interesting sights.
The Basilica of St. Lawrence, for example—jointly developed by Spanish architect Rafael Gustavia and Richard Sharp Smith—is a Spanish Renaissance design in brick and tile with a self-supporting dome and Catalan-style vaulting. It had been completed in 1908.
The early life of Thomas Wolfe, Asheville’s famous novelist, can be gleaned from a tour of the 29-room Queen Anne-style house in which he had grown up. It is now a designated state historic site.
Nucleus of the arts, Asheville is the cultivation point of painters, sculptures, and potters, who perfect their crafts in the Riverside Arts District.
Asheville’s—and all of North Carolina’s—most famous and most visited sight, however, is Biltmore Estate. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt and landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted (of New York’s Central Park fame), the 255-room, French Renaissance chateau, having required a five-year construction period during the height of the Gilded Age and some 1,000 workers, had been the result of George Washington Vanderbilt’s trips to the area in the early-1880s and his decision to have a summer residence, reminiscent of the chateaux’s lining France’s Loire Valley, built there. It is today the US’s largest private residence and is still partly used for that purpose by Vanderbilt descendants.
The Vanderbilts, one of the country’s wealthiest and most prominent families headed by Cornelius Vanderbilt, had amassed their wealth through railroads, corporations, and philanthropic activities. Passing the torch to the second generation, headed by William Henry Vanderbilt, he had been able to perpetuate his success, while William Henry himself had fathered the third generation, having four sons. George Washington Vanderbilt, one of them, had been the least active in developing the family’s business.
Opening Biltmore House on Christmas Eve in 1895, he had engaged in scientific farming, stock breeding, and forestry, and brought his bride, Edith Stuyvessant Dresser, there, three years later. His only daughter, Cornelia, had been born in the house in 1900, and thirty years later, it had been opened to the public.
The massive house, accessible by both escorted and unescorted tours, offers a glimpse into this century-old, opulent lifestyle. The entrance hall, portal to this era, had been the same access point used by the Vanderbilts and their guests and leads round the glass-roofed winter garden. Perhaps the most grandiose room on the ground floor is the banquet hall. Stretching seven stories to the wooden ceiling, it features huge tables, three massive fireplaces, Flemish tapestries from the 1500s, and a 1916 Skinner pipe organ mounted on its own loft. It had been the location of the estate’s parties, galas, and affairs.
The private sitting and bedrooms of George and Edith Vanderbilt are located on the second floor, although, of particular note, is the Louis XV bedroom, location of Cornelia’s birth and the subsequent birth of her own two sons.
Most of the servants’ bedrooms are located on the fourth floor.
The house’s basement, location of additional servant bedrooms, features several kitchens and pantries and the recreational facilities, inclusive of a gymnasium, a 70,000-gallon indoor swimming pool, and one of the country’s first private residence bowling alleys.
Sitting on 8,000 acres of land, Biltmore Estate features several other facilities of interest.
Fronted by a grass esplanade inspired by the gardens of the 17th-century Chateau de Vaux-le-Viconte in Melun, France, it features Italian, shrub, walled, spring, and azalea gardens, and a full conservatory.
Self-guided tours of the Biltmore Winery can be made, followed by a visit to the extensive wine and delicacy gift shop, while the nearby River Bend Farm, once the center of the estate’s farming community, is comprised of a barn, a farmyard, and the Kitchen Garden, where its “field-to-table” program items are grown, before being used in the dishes served in all of its restaurants. Aside from this produce and its wines, the dairy division of Biltmore produces its own ice cream.
Adjacent to the Biltmore Estate entrance is historic Biltmore Village. Also co-designed by building architect Richard M. Hunt and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and constructed between 1897 and 1905, it had been intended as a picturesque residential prelude to Biltmore Estate itself with a fan-shaped layout leading to the church, the railroad depot, and the estate’s entrance, its focal points. Its cottages had first been occupied in 1900.
Today, it offers the quaint atmosphere of an English country village with tree-lined streets, brick sidewalks, period architecture, some ten restaurants and tearooms, and 30 shops and galleries. In 1989, it had been declared an historic area and local historical district.
Aside from Biltmore Estate, the Grove Park Inn, overlooking the city, is another opulent building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The ruggedly beautiful, 512-room hotel, made of boulders hewn from the nearby Sunset Mountains, opened in 1913 and features massive stone fireplaces, four dining rooms, indoor waterfalls, a 40,000-square-foot spa, and beautiful views. It has hosted an endless list of prominent people, from politicians to movie stars.
Two small, but interesting museums are located on its ground, and their buildings can be directly traced to the Vanderbilts. Mrs. Vanderbilt, particularly, had been very interested in homespun fabrics, and ultimately established Biltmore Industries, a craft education program, which had later been sold to Fred Seely, son-in-law of Edwin W. Grove, himself architect and manager of the Grove Park Inn. Its weaving activities had been relocated to the small buildings currently on its grounds, whereafter it had achieved worldwide recognition for its hand-loomed fabrics.
In 1953, Henry Blomberg purchased the business from the Seely family and continued it until 1980. The daughters and sons-in-law of Blomberg, who had died 11 years later, restored the six English cottages and their surrounding landscapes, and created the two museums.
The first of these, the North Carolina Homespun Museum, had been opened to depict the history of Biltmore Industries originally founded on Biltmore Estate, but relocated to the present site in 1917, and exhibits examples of handiwork by North Carolina natives. America’s heritage of handiwork, which is now more than 200 years old, still thrives in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The museum itself displays a four-harness loom and examples of homespun fabric.
The second museum, the Estes-Winn Antique Car Museum, once housed 40 looms, but currently displays four horse-drawn vehicles and 19 automobiles, including a 1913 Ford Model “T,” a 1926 Cadillac, a 1929 Ford Model “A” with a rumble seat, a 1940 Packard “120” Coupe, and a 1959 Edsel, all in still-running, pristine condition.
The Grovewood Gallery, housed in a 1917 English Cottage next to the two museums, sells handmade furniture, ceramics, jewelry, glass, and artwork.
2. Chimney Rock Park
A popular day trip from Asheville is that to Chimney Rock Park. Located 25 miles away via winding, scenic Route 74-A, it had had its origins in 1900 when Dr. Lucius Morse, a physician from St. Louis in search of a better climate, had been entranced by its wall of stone and had envisioned a park incorporating it. Purchasing 64 acres of Chimney Rock Mountain two years later, he had taken the initial step toward that goal, but had elected to build an elevator inside it so that all could access its summit.
In 2007, the state of North Carolina had purchased the park from the Morse family, which had continued to own and administer it since its 1902 acquisition.
The 198-foot-long tunnel, leading from the parking lot to the elevator, had been created by blasting through 509-million-year-old rock designed “Henderson Gneiss,” which had formed as magma deep within the earth and had crystallized as igneous rock called “granite.” During the later formation of the Appalachian Mountains, it had metamorphosed into its present Gneiss form.
The 30-second elevator ride, which ascends 26 stories, could only be constructed after proper surveying had been conducted from its top and a 258-foot-high hoistway, requiring eight tons of dynamite and an 18-month construction period, had been drilled and blasted.
Completed on December 23, 1948, it had been North Carolina’s tallest elevator at the time, and today still uses its original, 3,500-pound capacity, stainless Steel Car, which ascends at 500 feet-per-minute.
A wooden bridge, 258 feet above the parking lot and spanning a water-carved gully, connects the Sky Lounge and Gift Shop, terminus of the elevator, with Chimney Rock, whose views, afforded by its 2,280-foot elevation, encompass 75 miles over Hickory Nut Gorge.
A recent visit, on a slightly cloudy day, had revealed multiple shades of green velvet-appearing, wave-like mountains based by the silver, reflective surface of Lake Lure.
Five hiking trails, varying between a half to one-and-a-half miles, and between “easy” and “strenuous” in gauge, afford equally beautiful vistas.
Hickory Falls, 404 feet in length, had provided the site for the filming of “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Firestarter,” and “A Breed Apart.”
Chimney Rock Park is a National Heritage Site.
3. Cherokee
Cherokee, located 50 miles from Asheville, can either serve as a day trip destination or an overnight location. An introduction to the highly developed Cherokee culture, it offers an opportunity for Las Vegas-style gaming and is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
As a people, the Cherokee had called these southeastern mountains home for some 11,000 years and they are one of the few Native Americans to have continued to occupy their original territory, designated the “Qualla Boundary,” a 100-square-mile sovereign nation. Several significant sights within this area enable the visitor to learn about their history, traditions, art, and culture.
The Museum of the Cherokee Indian, for instance—depicting its 11,000-year history—commences with their own beginning in the area’s mountains, before detailing their struggle for early survival amidst harsh climate and huge, now-extinct animals, such as the mastodon. Their later, sedentary lifestyle, centered round agriculture, had enabled them to refine their culture and enjoy increased leisure time.
After the Europeans had arrived and claimed their land, the Eastern Band of Cherokees had been forcibly exiled to Oklahoma in 1838 in an historic movement known as the “Trail of Tears.” Some, however, had been detoured and remained, ultimately preserving their customs and re-establishing the sovereign nation of today.
This culture can also be experienced in the nearby Oconaluftee Indian Village, which depicts mountain life in 1759. Amid the subtle, but ever-present wafts of smoke, traditionally dressed Cherokee demonstrate beadwork, pottery, finger weaving, basketry, weaponry, animal trapping, canoe burning, and wood and stone carving. A warrior house, waddle and daube houses, the village council house, and cabins from 1790 and 1800 surround the Village Square, where performances are periodically given.
The village is characteristic of the 64 towns spread over 40,000 square miles during this time.
A more extensive performance, entitled “Unto these Hills,” takes place during the summer months at the outdoor Mountainside Theater, and portrays the European arrival and Trail of Tears chapters in its history. Since its July 1, 1950 debut, it has played continuously, during which time more than five million have experienced it.
Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel, a 576-room complex in two, 15-story towers, thresholds the town and features 3,300 games in an 80,000-square-foot casino, five restaurants, and name entertainment in a 1,500-seat pavilion. It is adorned with the largest collection of Eastern Cherokee contemporary art.
4. Bryson City
Bryson City, located ten miles from Cherokee, is another mountainside community which serves as a gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains with their diverse, outdoor activities, including hiking, fishing, horseback riding, white water rafting, camping, and climbing.
Incorporated in 1887, and named after Colonel Thadeus Dillard Bryson, it is located on the Tucksagee River and had been linked to the outside world for the first time when the rail line between Asheville and Murphy had been completed. Along with the Nantahala and Little Tennessee Rivers, the Tucksagee River itself had formed nearby Fontana Lake, while the small town, with a population of 1,400, had been laid out in accordance with the ancient trails and roads of the Cherokee.
Its most major attraction is the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. Tracing its origins to the Murphy Branch Line completed in 1891, it had been intended as the first leg of an eventual rail connection between Asheville and the Midwest; nevertheless, it had exposed the isolated North Carolina communities to the rest of the world for the first time, introducing hitherto unknown lifestyles and ideas to them.
During the 1900s, the railroad had operated up to ten daily trains from Alabama and Georgia to the western North Carolina Mountains and hauled materials, equipment, and workers instrumental in the construction of Fontana Dam.
After the line had been obviated by road travel, the Southern Railway had discontinued passenger service in 1948, and the Andrews-Murphy stretch had been altogether closed by Norfolk Southern in the 1980s.
The tracks, purchased by the state of North Carolina, had provided the foundation for the current Great Smoky Mountains Railroad intended for tourism and sightseeing purposes, after a group of investors had sketched out a plan for it in 1988. Engines and coaches had subsequently been acquired from several US rail lines and extensively refurbished.
In 1999, the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad had been purchased by American Heritage Railways, which operates sister lines in Colorado and Texas, and in 2007, the North Carolina branch had carried some 200,000 passengers.
All trains depart from the Bryson City depot. Of the two primary itineraries, the first is a 32-mile, eastbound, round-trip “Tucksagee River” excursion to Dillsboro, while the second is a 44-mile, westbound, round-trip “Nantahala Gorge” run, with price depending upon one of four car types: open car, coach, Crown Coach, or Club Car, the latter of which includes train attendant service, drinks, and snacks. There are also railroad and rafting packages, dinner trains, and several theme trips, depending upon season.
The Fryemont Inn, in wooded surroundings overlooking the town, is on the National Register of Historic Places and offers either overnight accommodations or an opportunity for excellent dining, even for non-guests.
Constructed in 1923, it features a bark-covered exterior; a rocking chair-lined, outdoor porch; a wooden lobby with a huge stone fireplace; chestnut-paneled guest rooms; and a dining room with a peaked, wooden roof supported by tree trunk beams, a second large fireplace, and polished, hardwood floors.
5. Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, receiving some ten million annual visitors, is the most popular park in America.
The Great Smoky Mountains themselves, formed almost a billion years ago, had been created when the ancient sea had flooded what is presently the eastern United States, submerging a mountain range. Sea-deposited layers, exerting progressively greater weight upon each other, ultimately compressed the material into metamorphic rock, while a secondary layer of limestone, itself comprised of fossilized marine animals and shells, provided an upper covering some 300 million years ago.
Fifty million years later, the collision between the North American and African continents resulted in tectonic plate shifting and the older, metamorphic rock tilted upward, sliding over the limestone and creating the Appalachian Mountains.
Massive boulders, the result of ice age freezing and thawing cycles, gradually appeared, while erosive, water sculpting forces shaped the mountain’s rounded peaks over the millennia.
The area had first been populated when Paleolithic hunters and gatherers had crossed the frozen Bering Strait and then migrated down and across North America. A dissenting branch of the Iroquois Indians, later designated Cherokee, had arrived here from New England 11,000 years ago, and in 1540, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, ventured into the mountains, discovering a sophisticated Cherokee culture and religion. The Ulster-Scots, escaping repression in Belfast, Ireland, had also settled here because of the North Carolina Mountains’ resemblance to the Scottish Highlands.
Rural life can be gleaned at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Cherokee, and its adjacent Mountain Farm Museum, which had been created to preserve the cultural heritage of the Great Smoky Mountains at the turn of the 20th century.
Several original, relocated structures depict this era.
The Davis house, for instance, had been moved from the Indian Creek area, north of Bryson City. Completed in 1900 after a two-year construction period, it is made of split, chestnut logs and is divided into three rooms, including a living room with a fireplace and a piano and a kitchen with a hearth and a heavy block table.
The meathouse, relocated from Little Cataloochee, North Carolina, had always been positioned closest to the main house for convenience and security and preserved one of the most important food sources during this period. Although it could have theoretically housed several types of meat, pork, which had been standardly butchered during the autumn because of its characteristically lower temperatures, had been the predominant type and had usually been salted or smoked to protect it against bacteria and insects.
Chickens, stored in the chicken house, had provided both meat and eggs, and their feathers had been used for pillows and mattresses.
Apples, equally stored in earth and stone wall-insulated apple houses, had been a staple of rural, mountain farm diets and were eaten raw or used to make cider, vinegar, apple sauce, apple butter, and pies. Heartier winter apples had been stored in ground-level bins, while the more delicate summer variety had been stored above them.
Corn, the most important, multi-purpose crop, had been used for cornmeal, livestock feed (as leaves), kindling for fires (as cobs), and stuffing material for chairs, mattresses, and rugs (as shucks). The corncrib, the storage location, had protected it from weather and animals.
In the sorghum mill and furnace, sorghum cane had been converted to molasses, which had then been used for syrup and in cooking.
Hogs, the main source of meat on mountain farms, had also been formed the basis for lard and soup. Excess meat had been sold for profit.
The barn, the only structure original to the site, had housed livestock in the stable and feed, hoes, plows, and wagons in the loft above it.
The blacksmith shop, complete with a forge, an anvil, and a bellows, had been relocated here from Cades Cove, North Carolina, and had been used for ironwork forging and repair of existing tools.
The springhouse, purposefully located near a stream in order to provide a source of drinking water, had also protected food from animals, and cooled and preserved it by means of rock-line channels or elevated wooden troughs through which it had flowed.
The entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is just beyond the Mountain Farm Museum. Established in 1934 to protect the remainder of the Appalachian Forest, which had been severely depleted due to fires and rampant logging, the park itself, covering 500,000 acres, had been the 21st in the national system and the first to have been assembled from private land. Sixty percent of it is located in North Carolina and 40 percent is located in Tennessee. It features 800 miles of hiking trails, 700 miles of rivers and streams, and 200,000 acres of virgin forest. Its lower section of the Appalachian Mountains, the oldest in the world, are characterized by densely-forested, curving peaks once described as “blue, like smoke” by the Cherokee.
The Appalachian Trail, which stretches 2,174 miles from Maine to Georgia, runs along the crest of the Smoky Mountains and marks the North Carolina-Tennessee state line. There are three visitor centers: Oconaluftee in the former state and Sugarlands and Cades Cove in the latter. US Route 441, alternatively designed “Newfound Gap Road,” provides internal automobile access and crosses the Appalachian Trail midway through the park. The hiking trails, however, provide the best connection with nature and lead to 1,008 developed campsites and 100 primitive ones.
The park is comprised of five classifications of forest, depending upon elevation: “Spruce-Fir,” “Northern Hardwood,” “Cove Hardwood,” “Hemlock,” and “Pine-and-Oak.” It contains 60 species of mammals, 200 of birds, and 1,500 flowering plants.
I had recorded the following observations during a recent, late-May drive through Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
Clouds, hovering lower than the mountain peaks and nestled in their valleys, seemed to sheath the green-carpeted facades before rising like smoke tendrils, as if the entire mountain had been smoldering. The winding, ascending road through Great Smoky Mountains National Park seemed mired in thin mist. The multiple peaks, standing one behind the other and assuming dark blue, gray, and forest green profiles, appeared like ever-unfolding waves frozen at their upward-cycle apogees. The dense trees, providing tunnel-like walls on either side of the road with their extended limbs, formed canopies where they met in mutual handshakes, exuding an artist’s palette of greens: dark for fraser fir and light for oak--a green blur periodically interspersed by the brown shale rocks which appeared like vertical monoliths and from which these live tree sentinels grew, although I do not quite know how. Tiny trickles of water, gravity-induced downward over auburn and charcoal-hued rock and glinted by the afternoon sun, appeared like thin veins of liquid silver.
Atop Clingman’s Dome, the highest peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park at 6,643 feet, the air is thin and cool and the only view to be had is down, to the almost green-velvet facades of the rolling peaks, as if one had been rendered the high and exalted one of North Carolina and of all of the Appalachian Mountains which thread their way down the eastern portion of the United states. With this view comes the realization that the Rocky Mountains in the west, although higher, have a reflection in the Great Smoky Mountains in the east. And with this view comes the realization that it is not the relative size of the reflection, but that we reflect at all…
5. Conclusion
Western North Carolina’s topographical diversity offers a rich travel experience encompassing the art deco city of Asheville and its opulent Biltmore Estate, the geological sculpture of Chimney Rock, the introduction to the highly-developed culture of the Cherokee, the beautiful vistas afforded by a journey with the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, and the pristine, almost-ethereal experience of visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
About the Author
A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.