The climate is arid, and the loose soil is easy to dig on Loess Plateau, so the local people especially created the cave dwelling. Cave dwelling houses have many advantages, such as economizing materials, making the indoor warm in winter and cool in summer.
Underground cave dwelling
The second type of cave dwelling is No Cliff-side cave dwelling which is built where there are no hills. In this situation, people create sunken courtyards. After digging a courtyard that is usually about 10 meters deep, rooms are dug off the main courtyard. A large sunken courtyard complex, or pit dwelling, can have a courtyard as large as one hundred square meters.
The courtyards of cliff dwelling are usually larger than those of pit dwellings, because they are easier to create than sunken courtyards which must be excavated.
Hoop cave dwelling
The Hoop cave dwelling is not a real cave, but the cave-shape house built by bricks or sun-dried mud brick on the ground. The hoop cave dwelling is generally made of soil base and wheat straw yellow mud to form a base wall. The roof of inside is made into a hoop shape. The roof of outside is double slopes which is covered by wheat straw mud or blue tiles. Looking in distance, this kind of dwelling looks like a house. But looking in near, it is a cave dwelling.
With the development of economy of China, more and more cave dwellings have been abandoned. But if traveling in Shannxi, Shanxi, and Henan Province, you can also see the cave dwellings. Here we will list some Cave Dwellings which are opened to tourists.
The Date Garden in Yan'an
Type: Hillside cave dwelling
Add: Zaoyuan Road, Baota District, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Provicne
The Date Garden is also called Zaoyuan (枣园)in Chinese. The Date Garden was originally a garden of a warlord and at one time had also been used as the site of the CCP Secretariat from October 1943 to March 1947. As an important revolutionary site, it has now become a famous revolutionary tourist attraction. There are twenty cave dwellings along with over eighty tile-roofed houses and one assembly hall.In the garden some of the former residences, including those of Mao Zedong (1893 - 1976), Zhu De (1886 - 1976, a great general), Liu Shaoqi (1898 - 1976, Chinese communist political leader), and Zhou Enlai (1898 - 1976, first premier of the PRC) and the assembly halls are open to the public.
Shanzhou Silo-Cave Dwelling
Type: Underground cave dwelling
Address: Beiying Village and Miaoshang Village, Shanzhou District, Sanmenxia City
Shanzhou Silo-Cave Dwelling is the special cave dwelling. It is the courtyard below ground level, using loess soil as the material to keep it cool in summer and warm in winter. So it is one of the best place for people to spend summer holiday. As an ancient and magical residential style, Shanzhou Silo-cave is rich in culture. So it is one of the ancient unique residential buildings of China. This method dates back to the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is famous for square or rectangular dwellings sunk into the ground, and was recently listed as a provincial cultural demonstration base by the Cultural Department of Henan Province.