Wind and Moist Resistant Stone Strips House of Gin Ethnic Group

The traditional house of Jing people is the thatched cottage, which they call “Fence House.” The wall is woven with batten and bamboo strips, sometimes pasted with a layer of mud. Also, the wall can be made of thin bamboo strips inserted with cogongrass, straw, or leaves, etc. In order to prevent the blowing wind, the roof is covered with bricks or stones. On the four corners of the house there erects four bamboo or stone blocks of 20 to 30 centimeters tall. The house is separated into three small rooms with bamboo strips. The old man lives in the central room, and the children in the rooms on the left and right sides. The “fence house” has kept the old architectonic custom left by an Hundred Yue.

After the People’s Republic of China is founded, the living conditions of Jing people have witnessed a great improvement. Its evident mark is the appearance of the “stone strips tile-roofed house.” The wall of the house is built with the ashen stone strips of rectangle shape, each of which is 75 centimeters long, 25 centimeters wide, and 20 centimeters high. 23 stone strips are built from ground to the head of the eaves; 10 stones are built from the head of the eaves to the top of the roof. The house is separated into three rooms, before which is a spacious corridor. The farming tools are all placed by the corners of the corridor. The rooms on the left and right sides are the bedrooms. The central room is the hall, where the ancestral tablets are hung on the wall. Besides holding a memorial ceremony in the festivals, the hall can also act as ‘the sitting room,” receiving the guest, having a meal, drinking tea, and chatting.

The house is strong and durable, able to resist the wind and moist. So it is very suitable for the climate and life in the coastal area.

Jing people all have a custom of cultivating flowers and trees around their own houses. Chinese ilex, sisal hemp, tree peony, cactus, as well as the trees of pineapple, papaya, and jute get interweaved with each other. It looks like a seaside park.