I haven't really paid attention to houses but the one which appears in Zhang Yimou's 1991 film Raise the Red Lantern, the Qiao Family Compound near the ancient city of Pingyao, in Shanxi Province, China is said to be a courtyard house; that's a house where the main part of the building is disposed around a central courtyard. In Dongchuan, China, there was a hotel that my friends and I stayed in which reminded me of such opulent houses in China. Of course, the hotel was not half as magnificent; not ancient definitely and not even a court yard house perhaps; but somehow being there did give me a glamorous feel. I remember the pretty lady who cooked our lunch and dinner there mentioned something about a Singaporean TV crew having been there to shoot a costume TV series but maybe, I was just dreaming. We roamed the garden, took photos there and fed the rabbits. At night, when the sky was dark and we were about to call it a day, I inadvertently recalled Zhang Yimou's Raise the red lantern...
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