You may want to pay a visit to the Tujia Diaojiaolou when you come to Zhangjiajie. There was a widely known story about it: In the ancient time, the dynasties dispatched armies to suppress the people of Tujia ethnic group, so in order to get rid of this cruelty, the people escaped to the deep mountains and forests, but the conditions there were very hostile, just as the Book of Tang said, "Because of the land with malaria smell, the mountains with poisonous grass, insects, snakes, the Tujia people made a storied building, and relying on ladders which called 'Ganlan' in chinese to go up". what's more, the Tujia people had to make the "Diaojiaolou" on the slope of cliff, for there was very little land in the deep mountains and forests.
Diaojiaolou was made of wood. Previously, the King of western Hunan forbade his people to use tiles to build house, only can use fur of firs and grass, meanwhile, people can buy horses, but cannot buy tiles.Not until the event "Gaituguiliu" (which means the emperor ordered the national officers to take control of western Hunan ) in the 13th year of Emperor Yongzheng of Qing Dynasty, was the Tujia people allowed to use tiles to build their Diaojiaolou. Generally, the house consists of four windows and three rooms , and the middle room was usually the most important one, used for worshiping the ancestors and shrines and also the main place of family fete. According to the landscape, the Diaojiaolou can be divided into: only hanging the half of the house in the length, hanging the half part of the house, hanging the house like pushing the track with two hands, or like a form of a key, or like a twisting rule, and hanging it besides the river, or across the straits and cave. The rich often decorate the pillars with some pictures, make the corners of the eave raising high, and produce many stone steps, which form a castle in the air with the meaning of poetry and picture. A famous Tujia poet,named Jiangchengdong ,wrote a poem, "strange peaks and beautiful mountain all got together in this remote area, so, although I only have the chance to dream in spending a night in the Diaojiaolou, I would also be very happy and feel satisfied".
Almost all the Tujia nationality live on the hillsides and sleep mountains, so they have to make the Diaojiaolou to fit the terrain. People erect four big pillars beside the two sides of the house, making a wooden frame along the trend of hillsides, and put the crossbars with a certain height paralleling to the ground of the center room, and then cover the house with wooden board, wooden walls in the three sides or wooden corridor, and in the end , using grass and fur of firs as the roof. The first floor of the house is often empty,usually used for piling up the fertilizer, or tie the livestock temporarily. And the second floor is the place for eating ,enjoying the cool, also for the girls to make shoes and embroider. The Diaojiaolou is advantageous to draught, avoid being wetness, attract enough sunshine, so it not only get the fondness of the Tujia people , but also one of the most special architecture in the Tujia area. Now, the Diaojiaolou is still existing on the high and a little shorter hillsides along the two sides of the the Qing River, meanwhile, the design of tall buildings in Changyang, Wufeng Counties also adopts the form of Diaojiaolou, only changing the material to reinforcing steer and concrete.
The carving art of Papercut for window decoration of Tujia Diaojiaolou is the significant symbol to measure the level of architecture craft. The carving craft contains embossment, hollow carved ,etc, with the feature of exquisite skills and colorful connotation that it represents the status, praying for luck, showing farming,, reflecting life, educating the descendants and record amorous feelings. In this place, there are fowls and animals, flowers and insects, dance and competitive sports, myths and legends, which are lifelike and deeply deliberate. Diaojiaolou has many benefits, for example, the house built away from the ground is helpful to draught and be dry, and also can prevent the poisonous snakes and beasts, what's more, the cats and dogs can be laid on the first floor. Diaojiaolou has bright nation characteristic, elegant "Si Yan" and spacious "Zou Lan" which have made the Diaojiaolou become unique. And this kind of Diaojiaolou successfully got rid of the primitiveness and reached a high level of culture, so it is called the "living fossil" of the Bachu culture. The representative and well protected Tujia Diaojiaolou of Yinjiang are in the area of Langxi and Heshui.
Diaojiaolou is worth your appreciation, especially when you take a look at a distance. Diaojiaolou in rows hid itself in the high mountains and forests, the different sizes and shapes making it funny. What's more, being decorated by the Wind and Rain Bridge, Drum Tower, Terraces and Streams which are in front of the stockade, the Diaojiaolou form a real landscape painting. Actually, Diaojiaolou has different beauty in the different time , for instance ,when the sun goes up or goes down, the antique wooden buildings are with a long shadow in the sunshine, even the coalblack roof can't help changing the color of its "cloth" to golden yellow; when it is before dawn,and the people in there begin to work, Diaojiaolou in rows is flickering in the environment that is filled with fog, which like the castle in the air.
