Whatever the scale of a building project, the Chinese consider divination using feng shui an essential part of the initial preparations. Literally meaning "wind and water", feng shui is a form of geomancy , which assesses how buildings must be positioned so as not to disturb the spiritual attributes of the surrounding landscape. This reflects Taoist cosmology , which believes that all components of the universe exist in a balance with one another, and therefore the disruption of a single element can cause potentially dangerous alterations to the whole. It's vital, therefore, that sites - whether for peasant homes, the Hong Kong Bank 's skyscraper headquarters, entire cities such as Beijing or the underground tomb of the first Qin emperor - are favourably orientated according to points on the compass and protected from local "unlucky directions" by other buildings, walls, hills, mountain ranges, water or even a Terracotta Army. Geomancy further proposes ideal forms for particular types of structure, and carefully arranges spaces and components within a building according to time-honoured formulae. As changing any of this risks upsetting the cosmos, there's a strong streak of conservatism inherent in all traditional Chinese architecture.

Depending on how heavily their form is governed by geomancy, buildings in China can be very broadly divided into two camps. Monumental architecture , such as temples, palaces and city plans, whose designs generally have some religious basis, all follow a similar structural pattern which seldom varies. Domestic architecture , however, while still guided by similar principles, also has to serve very practical needs, including the local climate, the ready availability of materials or even political considerations, and it's here you'll find the greatest variety of form.

Chinese monumental architecture is notable for constantly repeating cosmological themes , the most central of which can be traced right back to the Bronze Age - though the specific details of feng shui were only formulated during the Song dynasty. Four thousand years ago, cities were already laid out in a spiritually favourable rectangular pattern , typically facing south on a north-south axis and surrounded by a defensive wall . Aside from the business and residential districts, the central (though not necessarily centrally located) focus was a separately walled quarter; this later became the seat of the emperor or his local representative. As the emperor was styled "Son of Heaven", this plan - still apparent in the layout of cities such as Xi'an and Beijing - was a representation of the cosmos, with the ruler at the centre. The same general formula is also echoed in the ground plan of palaces, temples and even large family mansions, complexes of buildings whose organization in many ways represented a microcosm of city life. All these are surrounded by a wall, and all have their own central spiritual focus: a main hall in temples where statues of deities are displayed; a similar building in palaces, where the emperor or governor would hold court; or an ancestral shrine in a mansion.

As far as individual buildings themselves are concerned, spiritual considerations also ensured that traditional temples and palaces (the two are virtually identical) followed a basic building structure , which can be seen in subjects as diverse as two-thousand-year-old pottery models and the halls of Beijing's Ming-Qing Forbidden City. The foundations formed a raised platform of earth, brick or stone according to the building's importance. Columns rested on separate bases with the heads of the columns linked by beams running lengthways and across. Above this, beams of diminishing length were raised one above the other on short posts set on the beam below, creating an interlocking structure which rose to the point of the roof where single posts at the centre supported the roof ridge. The arrangement produced a characteristic curved roofline with upcurled eaves, felt to confer good luck. Though scale and space were ultimately limited by a lack of arches, essential in supporting the massive walls found in European cathedrals, this structural design was solid enough to allow the use of heavy ceramic rooftiles . Introduced in the eighth century, cantilevered brackets also allowed the curving eaves to extend well beyond the main pillars and acquire an increasingly decorative value, supplemented by lines of carved animals and figures on the gable ends of the roof.

Development of these features reached a peak of elegance and sophistication during the Tang and Song eras , never to be entirely recaptured. Though almost nothing survives intact from this time, later restorations of Tang edifices, such as the temples at Wudang Shan in Hubei Province, or Xi'an's central bell tower, convey something of the period's spirit. Two regional styles also developed: northern architecture was comparitavely restrained and sober, while that from the south eventually exaggerated curves and ornamentation to a high degree; Guangdong's Foshan Ancestral Temple is a classic of the latter type. Inside both, however, spaces between the columns were filled by screens providing different combinations of wall, door and latticework, which could be removed or changed to order differently the spaces within. The columns themselves were sometimes carved in stone, or otherwise painted, with different colours denoting specific religions in temples, or the rank of the occupant in palaces. Similarly, imperial buildings might be distinguished by four-sided roofs, by higher platforms reached by wide staircases and by special yellow glazed tiles for the roofs. In rare instances, buildings created their own styles without offending feng shui; Beijing's circular Temple of Heaven, for example, manages to break with convention by symbolizing the universe in its overall shape.

Pagodas are another important type of monumental structure, originally introduced from India with Buddhism . Intended to house saintly relics, they have intrinsically "positive" attributes, are often used to guard cities or buildings from unlucky directions, or are built along rivers to quell (and indicate) dangerous shoals. Their general design in China was probably influenced by the shape of indigenous wooden watch towers, though the earliest surviving example, at Shendong Si in Shandong Province, is stone and more closely resembles the equivalent Indian stupa. Most, however, are polygonal, with a central stairway rising through an uneven number of storeys - anything from three to seventeen. Buddhism also gave rise to the extraordinary cave temples and grottoes, best preserved in the Northwest at Mogao.

Whether Buddhist or Taoist, Chinese temples share the same broad features. Like cities, they generally face south and are surrounded by walls. Gates are sealed by heavy doors, usually guarded by paintings or statues of warrior deities to chase away approaching evil. The doors open on to a courtyard, where further protection is ensured by a spirit wall which blocks direct entry; although easy enough for the living to walk around, this foils spirits, who are unable to turn corners. Once inside, you'll find a succession of halls arranged in ornamental courtyards. In case evil influences should manage to get in, the area nearest the entrance contains the least important rooms or buildings, with those of greater significance - living quarters or main temple halls - set deeper inside the complex.

One way to tell Buddhist and Taoist temples apart is by the colour of the supporting pillars - Buddhists use bright red, while Taoists favour black. Animal carvings are more popular with Taoists, who use decorative good luck and longevity symbols such as bats and cranes; some Taoist halls also have distinctive raised octagonal cupolas sporting the black-and-white yin-yang symbol. Most obviously, however, each religion has its own deities . Inside the entrance of a Buddhist temple ( si) you'll be flanked by the Four Heavenly Kings of the Four Directions, and faced by portly Maitreya , the Laughing Buddha; there's also likely to be a statue of Wei Tuo , the God of Wisdom. The main hall is dominated by three large statues sitting side by side on lotus flowers, representing Buddhas of the past, present and future, while the walls are decorated by often grossly caricatured images of Buddhist saints ( arhats) - these are sometimes given a separate hall to themselves. Around the back of the Buddhist trinity is a statue of Guanyin , the multi-armed, vase-bearing Goddess of Mercy, who again is sometimes given her own room. Taoist temples ( miao or gong) are similar, but their halls might be dedicated to any number of mythical and legendary figures. Taoism has its own holy trinity, the Three Immortals , who each ride different animals (a crane, tiger and deer) and represent the three levels of the Taoist afterlife. Other figures include the Yellow Emperor, a further Eight Immortals and historical people who were canonized - the Three Kingdoms characters Guan Yu (the red-faced God of War and Healing) and Zhuge Liang are popular choices, as are local heroes. Strangely, statues to Guanyin are often also found in Taoist halls as her help in childbirth makes her universally popular.

In general, domestic architecture shares many of the guiding principles of temple and palace design: curved rooflines are desirable, and larger groups of buildings might also be walled off and include spirit walls or mirrors , the latter placed over external doorways to repulse demons. Older homes with these basic features can be found all over the country, but in many cases, practical needs - principally the climate - overrode optimum spiritual designs and created very distinctive local styles , which are once again most obvious in a basic north-south divide. Northern China's intensely cold winters and hot summers have spawned solidly insulated brick walls, while more stable, subtropical southern temperatures encourage the use of open eaves, internal courtyards and wooden lattice screens to allow air to circulate freely.

Rural areas are good places to find some of the more traditional or unusual types of residential architecture; aside from the climate, many of these also reflect local cultures. Striking examples exist in the mountainous border areas between Guizhou and Guangxi provinces, where ethnic Dong and Miao build large, two- or three-storeyed wooden houses from local cedar. The Dong are further known for their wooden drum towers and wind-and-rain bridges , which have a spiritual as well as practical function. Another ethnic group building distinctive houses is the Hakka , a Han sub-group, whose immense stone circular clan or family mansions - some of which can accommodate hundreds of people - were built for defensive purposes in their Guangdong-Fujian homelands. Extreme adaptation to local conditions can be seen in Shaanxi Province, where underground homes have been excavated in prehistoric sedimentary soils deposited by the Yellow River; these are cool in summer and warm in winter.

Traditional urban architecture survives, too, though it tends to be less varied. Wood almost invariably formed at least the framework of these buildings, but if fire hasn't claimed them, demolition and replacement by city authorities - either safety-conscious or simply eager to modernize - generally has. Scattered examples of old town houses can still be seen even in large cities such as Beijing, Kunming and Chengdu, however, while the ethnic Naxi town of Lijiang in Yunnan sports hundreds of traditional wooden homes, the largest such collection anywhere in China. In the east, the area surrounding Tunxi in Anhui Province contains whole villages built in the immensely inflential seventeenth-century " Huizhou style ", comprising a two-storeyed house plan built around a courtyard, which epitomized the basic forms of contemporary east-coast provincial architecture.

China's modern architecture tends to reflect political and economic, rather than ethnic or climatic, considerations. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, treaty ports were built up in the European colonial manner by the foreign merchants, banks, shipping firms and missionaries who conducted their affairs there. Today, the former offices, warehouses and churches - often divided up for Chinese use - still give certain cities a distinctive look. Hankou, part of Wuhan, has a Customs House and whole streets of colonial buildings, as do the former east-coast concessions of Shanghai, Qingdao, Yantai, Shantou, Xiamen and Guangzhou. European-inspired building continued on into the 1930s.

After the Communist takeover , there were various attempts to unite Chinese styles with modern materials. When used, this was successful, and many modern rural dwellings still follow traditional designs, simply replacing adobe walls with concrete. But during the 1950s, while Russia was China's ally, a brutally functional Soviet style became the urban norm, requiring that everything from factories to hotels be built as identical drab, characterless grey boxes. Since China opened up to the Western world and capitalism in the late 1970s, however, there's been a move towards a more "international" look, as seen in the concrete-and-glass highrises going up across the country. While brighter than the Russian model, these are, in general, hardly any more inspirational or attractive, and are afflicted by a mania for facing new buildings in bathroom tiles. Perhaps the most distressing aspect of this trend is that any indigenous characteristics are seen as old fashioned, and yet, compared with similar buildings in the West, these new buildings are very poor imitations. Yet even here there are occasional attempts to marry the traditional Chinese idiom with current needs, and in a few cases you'll see apartment buildings surrounded by walled compounds and topped with curled rooftiles.