A large Qing Dynasty thatched house

A large Qing Dynasty thatched house

A large Qing Dynasty thatched house

A large Qing Dynasty thatched house The large thatched house located on East Second Street, Bukui, Jianhua District, is the only surviving large thatched house in the old Bukui city. The exterior of the walls is covered with blue bricks while the interior is filled with adobe. This wall-building method is commonly known among locals as "raw inside, cooked outside." The roof has a gable-and-hip hard mountain design with a ridgeline in the shape of a character “人” (人字形), sloping down from the central ridge to both the front and back, referred to respectively as the “front slope” and the “rear slope.” The “front slope” faces the sunny side while the “rear slope” faces the shady side, and is covered with about one foot of thick reeds. On the east and west gable walls, there is a tall, tower-like brick chimney on each side. Qiqihar is located in China’s northern frontier, where the winter brings howling northern winds and extreme cold. The “raw inside, cooked outside” wall design is specially adapted to these conditions: first, the double-layered wall structure with outer bricks and inner adobe helps better retain indoor heat; second, although adobe has excellent insulation properties, the constant strong winds in the north erode it significantly over time. The outer blue brick layer effectively solves this problem. Firing blue bricks goes without saying — but “making adobe” is considered one of the “four most exhausting rural labors.” It requires not only experience but also great physical strength. The so-called “adobe” refers to “mud bricks” made from a mixture of mud and straw. The manufacturing process is called “molding adobe.” Generally, a flat, sunlit area is chosen as the molding site. The soil used must be sticky, and the straw — preferably fine, long, and soft — is commonly known locally as “goat horn.” It is cut into short segments of a few inches using a sickle. The process involves sieving the clay, mixing in the “goat horn,” then adding water to form a muddy consistency. This mixture is then “steeped” for several to more than ten hours, allowing the mud and straw to bind together — a stage called “fully steeped.” Next, it is stirred evenly with a toothed rake. The mixture is then packed into fixed wooden molds to form one-foot-long “mud bricks,” which are left to dry and harden in the sun. Typically, over a thousand such adobe blocks are needed to build a house. Because the mud-straw mixture is very sticky, molding and transporting the mud require exertion from all parts of the body — hence in the past, “mixing thick mud and molding large adobe” were counted among the “four most exhausting labors.”

This is a typical northeastern Chinese thatched house. The origins of the thatched house can be traced back seven to eight thousand years to primitive society. The thatched house is a uniquely characteristic human dwelling created by northern ethnic groups based on the region’s climatic conditions and natural resources. Although the roof of this large thatched house is damaged, it still provides shelter from wind and rain. The large western chimney has only the lower half of its blue bricks remaining, while the eastern chimney has been completely rebuilt with red bricks. The courtyard fence is made of irregular wooden boards, and the window frames are tightly sealed with window lattice.

Address: East Second Street, Bukui, Jianhua District, Qiqihar City