# Roofing in China

> Chinese roofing from the earliest known composite tiled roofs (c. 2400–2200 BC) through ranked imperial tile roofs to concrete, steel and rooftop solar today.

- URL: https://roof.wiki/roofing-in-china/
- Topic: Roofing Around the World
- Also known as: Chinese roofing; roofing in mainland China; wuding; 中国屋顶
- Regions: East Asia
- First published: 2026-11-01 · Last reviewed: 2026-11-01
- Cite as: "Roofing in China." roof.wiki. https://roof.wiki/roofing-in-china/

## Key facts

- **Earliest composite tiled roofs:** Qiaocun, Gansu, c. 2400–2200 BC
- **Traditional structure:** Timber frame with dougong bracket sets
- **Building standard:** Yingzao Fashi (1103), 34 chapters, by Li Jie
- **Oldest dated timber roof:** Nanchan Temple main hall, 782
- **Tile overlap:** About 40% (Song) rising to about 70% (Qing)
- **Forbidden City:** Built 1406–1420; nearly 10,000 rooms; UNESCO 1987
- **Roof engineering code:** GB 50345-2012, in force 1 October 2012
- **Minimum roof waterproofing design life:** 20 years (GB 55030-2022)
- **Rooftop solar pilots:** 676 counties applied, 2021

China has one of the longest continuous roofing traditions on Earth. Its classical architecture is a timber architecture in which the roof, heavy, tiled and often gracefully curved, is the dominant visual element, and for well over a thousand years the form, colour and ornament of a roof announced the status of the building beneath it.[3] The earliest known composite tiled roofs anywhere were made on the Loess Plateau more than four thousand years ago.[1][2] Today the picture is very different: most new urban buildings are reinforced-concrete structures with flat, membrane-waterproofed roofs, industrial sheds are clad in profiled steel, and rooftops have become one of the country's largest platforms for solar power.[11][13]

In Chinese the general word for roof is *wuding* (屋顶), and roof tile is *wa* (瓦). Glazed tile is *liuli wa* (琉璃瓦).[5] The interlocking timber bracket set that carries the eaves of traditional buildings is the *dougong* (斗拱), literally "cap and block".[12]

## Climate and hazards

China stretches from the cold, dry north-east and the deserts of the north-west to the subtropical south, and from sea-level deltas to the Tibetan Plateau. Roof design responds to these contrasts. In the humid south and east, roofs must shed intense monsoon rain and resist typhoon winds along the coast; in the north they must carry snow and keep out bitter winter winds; on the plateau, where rainfall is low, heavy flat earth roofs are practical. Much of the country is seismically active, and the layered, friction-jointed bracket sets of traditional halls spread loads and add elasticity that helps the structures ride out earthquakes.[12] Fire was a constant threat in dense towns of timber houses, which encouraged tile roofs and masonry firewalls that rise above the roofline to stop drifting embers.[3]

## History

### Neolithic origins

Excavations at the Qiaocun site in Lingtai County, Gansu Province, on the Loess Plateau, yielded about 5,000 fragments of fired clay tile.[1] Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating places them at roughly 2400–2200 BC, in the early Longshan culture, making them the earliest known composite tiles.[1] Researchers from Peking University and the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology reconstructed how the pieces fitted together, combining curved cover tiles and flatter pan tiles in the same pan-and-cover principle that Chinese roofs still use.[1][2]

### Timber frames and bracket sets

The bracket set is the structural signature of the Chinese roof. Early forms appeared during the Western Zhou dynasty, and by the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC) they were in wide use.[12] A *dou* is a wooden block set on a column, and the *gong* are bow-shaped arms that carry beams or further brackets above; stacked together they transfer the weight of the roof down through the column, held only by friction and compression rather than glue or nails.[12] By the Tang and Song dynasties, bracket sets had become complex assemblies that carried deep overhanging eaves far beyond the columns.[12] After the Song they grew smaller, more numerous and more decorative: the Ming-dynasty Bao'en Temple in Sichuan, built in 1440–1446, has 2,200 bracket sets of 48 types.[12]

China's oldest surviving timber buildings are Tang halls in Shanxi Province. The main hall of Nanchan Temple dates from 782, and the East Hall of Foguang Temple was completed in 857 after an earlier temple was destroyed during Emperor Wuzong's suppression of Buddhism in 845.[6] The East Hall, seven bays by four and about 34 × 17.7 m (110 × 58 ft), has a single-storey hipped roof.[6] It was identified by the architectural historians Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin in 1937, when inscriptions on a roof beam and a stone pillar confirmed its date, and it is part of the Mount Wutai World Heritage site, inscribed in 2009.[6] The Guanyin Pavilion of Dule Monastery, dated 984, and the 11th-century timber pagoda of Fogong Temple are other key early structures; the pagoda uses 54 types of bracket arm, against seven in the Foguang East Hall.[3]

### Glazed tiles and the Yingzao Fashi

Glazed roof tiles have been used in China since the Tang dynasty.[5] Under the Song, the official Li Jie (1065–1110) of the Directorate of Buildings and Construction revised older building treatises between 1097 and 1100 and produced the *Yingzao Fashi*, published in 1103 under Emperor Huizong.[4] Its 34 chapters cover units of measurement, earthworks, stonework and carpentry, give directions for tiling and walling, and set out formulas for paints, glazes and coatings and mixing proportions for mortar used with brick and glazed tile.[4] Li Jie also defined an eight-rank modular system (*cai-fen*) for the sizes of timber members.[4] A hand copy of a 13th-century edition was rediscovered in 1919 and published in facsimile in 1920, reviving modern study of the book.[4]

Tiling practice became more cautious over time. Under the Song standard, plain tiles overlapped by about 40%, which left a gap between the first and third tiles so that a crack in the middle tile would leak; by the Qing dynasty the overlap had risen to about 70%, so that each tile was covered by three others and single cracks no longer let water through.[5]

### Ming and Qing imperial roofs

The Ming and Qing dynasties produced the most elaborate roofscapes in Chinese history. Glazed tiles became increasingly common on top-ranking buildings, including the halls of the Forbidden City and ceremonial temples.[5] The Forbidden City in Beijing was built between 1406 and 1420 under the Ming emperor Zhu Di, was the seat of supreme power until 1911, and contains nearly 10,000 rooms.[7] Much of it was destroyed in 1644 and restored under the Qing.[7] It became the Palace Museum in 1925 and a World Heritage site in 1987, with the Qing palace at Shenyang added in 2004.[7] Yellow, the colour associated with the emperor, still covers most of its roofs, while the Temple of Heaven uses blue tiles to symbolise the sky, and green tiles evoke bamboo, youth and longevity.[3]

### The 20th and 21st centuries

Reinforced concrete, steel and industrial waterproofing transformed roofing in the 20th century. Demand for traditional low-rise buildings in cities declined in favour of high-rises, although traditional carpentry and masonry skills survive in rural building and in heritage reconstruction; the city of Datong, for example, began rebuilding its ancient walls and buildings in traditional style in 2014.[3]

## Traditional roof forms and ranking

Chinese builders recognised a clear hierarchy of roof shapes.[3]

- **Hip roof** (*wudian*): sloping on all four sides, reserved for the emperor and built with single or double eaves; the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City is the archetypal double-eaved example.[3]
- **Hip-and-gable roof** (*xieshan*): a hip roof whose upper part is a gable, ranked just below the full hip and spread throughout East Asia; it is found in Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam and has parallels as far away as the Kandyan architecture of Sri Lanka.[3]
- **Gabled roofs** (*xuanshan* with overhanging gables, *yingshan* with flush gables): the everyday form, used almost everywhere.[3]
- **Single-slope roofs**: the simplest and cheapest, common on commoners' buildings.[3]
- **Sweeping roofs**: curved roofs whose corners rise upward, usually reserved for temples and palaces though sometimes used by wealthy families.[3]

Flat roofs were uncommon in traditional Han Chinese architecture outside arid areas.[3]

## Tiles and roof ornament

The basic Chinese tile roof uses two kinds of unit: concave plate tiles (*banwa*) laid in channels and semicircular tubular tiles (*tongwa*) laid over the joints.[5] Tubular tiles were formed on a wooden mould as a tube and split lengthwise into two halves; eave tiles end in round discs, often moulded with dragons, and eave plate tiles carry triangular drip ends that throw off rain.[5]

Ridges on halls are built up from tiles and topped with figures that both decorate and weigh down the roof.[3] Temple and palace ridges are frequently crowded with ceramic figurines, and the ends of main ridges carry large ornaments such as the *chiwen*, which were believed to protect the building from fire.[3] Although the five-clawed dragon decorated imperial beams, pillars and doors, it was never placed on imperial roofs.[3]

## Regional and vernacular roofing

- **Northern courtyard houses**: in Beijing and the north, single-storey courtyard houses (*siheyuan*) have grey-tiled gabled roofs facing inwards onto a central yard.
- **Huizhou (southern Anhui)**: villages such as Xidi and Hongcun, a World Heritage site since 2000, preserve layouts and buildings dating from the 14th to 20th centuries, with carved gables and plain colours.[9] Stepped horse-head firewalls (*matouqiang*) rise above roofs in this and other southern regions to stop embers spreading.[3]
- **Fujian tulou**: 46 large fortified earthen buildings in south-west Fujian, built between the 15th and 20th centuries and each housing up to 800 people, are covered by tiled roofs with wide, overhanging eaves that protect the earth walls from rain.[8]
- **Southern Fujian and Chaozhou**: Hokkien shrines, temples and houses use swallowtail ridges whose ends sweep sharply upward, while Teochew builders favour "curly grass" ridges that curl into loops.[3]
- **Loess Plateau**: in Shanxi and northern Shaanxi, dwellings are carved into hillsides, so that the earth itself forms the roof.[3]
- **Tibet**: on the high plateau, buildings such as the Potala Palace in Lhasa, at about 3,700 m (12,100 ft), rise on thick rammed-earth and stone walls, with a golden hall crowning the summit.[10]

## Roofing today

### Flat roofs and waterproofing

Most urban buildings in China are reinforced-concrete frames with flat roofs, waterproofed with bitumen-based or polymer membranes and coatings and finished with insulation and protective layers. Pitched tile roofs remain common on rural houses and on new buildings in historic styles, and industrial and commercial buildings use large areas of metal panel roofing.[11]

### Codes and standards

Roofing is regulated by national GB standards issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD). GB 50345-2012, the *Technical Code for Roof Engineering*, was issued on 28 May 2012 and took effect on 1 October 2012, replacing the 2004 edition.[11] It covers the design and construction of tile roofs, metal panel roofs, glass skylight systems, membrane and coating waterproof layers, sealed joints, insulation, sloping and levelling layers, protective layers and roof details, and several of its articles are mandatory.[11]

GB 55030-2022, the *General Code for Waterproofing of Building and Municipal Engineering*, issued on 27 September 2022 and in force from 1 April 2023, is a general code for waterproofing across buildings and municipal works.[14] It requires roof waterproofing to be designed for a working life of at least 20 years, divides projects into three waterproofing grades according to building category and exposure, and requires a structural roof slope of at least 3% for drainage.[14] For exposed membranes on metal roofs it sets minimum thicknesses of 1.8 mm, 1.5 mm and 1.2 mm (0.071, 0.059 and 0.047 in) for the first, second and third grades.[14]

### Rooftop solar

China's rooftops have become central to its solar expansion. In 2021 the National Energy Administration launched county-wide pilots for rooftop distributed photovoltaics; 676 counties applied and nearly 700 were placed on the list announced in September 2021.[13] The pilots set minimum shares of roofs to be fitted with panels, including at least 20% of rural residential roofs in participating counties.[15]

## Notable roofs

- **Nanchan Temple main hall** (782) and **Foguang Temple East Hall** (857), Shanxi: the oldest dated timber roofs in China.[6]
- **Forbidden City**, Beijing (1406–1420): yellow-glazed roofs ranked by form, including the double-eaved hip roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.[3][7]
- **Temple of Heaven**, Beijing: blue-glazed roofs symbolising the sky.[3]
- **Fujian tulou**: ring and square roofs with deep eaves over earthen walls.[8]
- **Potala Palace**, Lhasa: a 13-storey complex rising about 110 m (360 ft) above the valley, on the World Heritage list since 1994.[10]

## Glossary

- *dougong* (斗拱): bracket set of blocks and arms.[12]
- *liuli wa* (琉璃瓦): glazed roof tile.[5]
- *Yingzao Fashi* (營造法式): Song building standard of 1103.[4]
- *matouqiang* (马头墙): horse-head firewall.[3]
- *xieshan* (歇山): hip-and-gable roof.
- *chiwen* (鸱吻): ridge-end ornament.[3]

## Sources

1. Researchers reconstruct the earliest known composite-tiled roofs — Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-reconstruct-earliest-composite-tiled-roofs.html
2. Reconstructing the earliest known composite-tiled roofs from the Chinese Loess Plateau — Scientific Reports. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35299-x
3. Chinese architecture — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_architecture
4. Yingzao Fashi — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yingzao_Fashi
5. Chinese glazed roof tile — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_glazed_roof_tile
6. Foguang Temple — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foguang_Temple
7. Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang — UNESCO World Heritage Centre. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/439
8. Fujian Tulou — UNESCO World Heritage Centre. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1113
9. Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui – Xidi and Hongcun — UNESCO World Heritage Centre. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1002
10. Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa — UNESCO World Heritage Centre. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/707
11. GB 50345-2012 Technical code for roof engineering — Chinese Standard. https://www.chinesestandard.net/PDF.aspx/GB50345-2012
12. Dougong — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dougong
13. China to pilot rooftop distributed PV power generation in 676 counties — CnEVPost. https://cnevpost.com/2021/09/14/china-to-pilot-rooftop-distributed-pv-power-generation-in-676-counties/
14. GB 55030-2022 General code for waterproofing of building and municipal engineering — Chinese Standard. https://www.chinesestandard.net/PDF.aspx/GB55030-2022
15. China set to mandate solar on at least 20% of residential roofs in pilot counties — pv magazine. https://www.pv-magazine.com/?p=27719
16. Nanchan Temple — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanchan_Temple
17. Chiwen — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiwen
18. Irimoya — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irimoya
19. Roof tiles — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roof_tiles
20. Fujian tulou — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujian_tulou