“You will see no houses in the village and even no one youheard the voice.”It is the description of the typical architecture which is calledthe Melt Pit Yard in the Loess Plateau. The building techniques of the melt pityards have been added to the 3^rd list of national intangiblecultural heritage in 2011. So far, there are more than 100 underground villagesand nearly ten thousand melt pit yards in Sanmenxia City, Henan Province.

The melt pit yards are the remnant of ancient peoples’ survival mode witha history of over four thousand years, which is also called “the undergroundcourtyard” in northern China. Taking the melt pit yard in Sanmenxia city as anexample: Firstly, digging a pit in square or rectangle whose side length is 10to 12 meters and the depth is 6 to 7 meters on the flat loessland. Then, hollowingcaves with 8 to 12 holes all around the walls in order to form a melt pit yard.Thirdly, digging a diagonal path to the ground as the passageway in and out ofthe yard. There are facilities such as pan millings and wells in the yard.Above the yard, there are low walls around to prevent water from intruding and alsokeep human and animals from falling down.

With the development of the society, the people who lived in the melt pityard have moved to the new houses built by the government in succession. The vacantmelt pit yards are open to the society as tourist attractions after severalrenovations.

Date：2015.2.11   

Source： People Net