Ancient buildings face tortures of nature

Taiyuan (Shanxi) -- "Most of our ancient wooden architecture is suffering the effects of exposure to the natural elements, and are on the verge of collapse," Tang Dahua cautioned visitors to an ancient temple in the village of Shanxi Province on May 22.

As a super fan of archeology, Shandong resident Tang is now on his sixth self-funded journey to look at ancient wooden buildings in Shanxi Province.

From the end of 2010 until now, he has seen nearly two hundred of the wooden buildings, a number of which are wooden-structure temples established in the Jin and Yuan dynasties.

"It is painful to watch such beautiful buildings go rotten in the strong sunshine, wind and rain," lamented Tang, and he also mentioned fire as a potential danger to the fragile structures.

Ancient Chinese wooden architecture is among the world's great architectural traditions. It started in the middle and late of Tang Dynasty and spread to Japan and other countries. There are many techniques deployed by Chinese wooden architecture, particularly for 'flying roof' construction which boasts great intricacy and variation.