Society

NW China to turn 'pit dwellings' into hotels

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-28 16:05

XI'AN - China's northwest Shaanxi Province, home of the "terra-cotta warriors," will offer traditional sunken courtyards, or pit dwellings, as hotels, the project head said Friday.

A sunken courtyard dwelling, is a 10-meter-deep courtyard with rooms dug into the surrounding earth.

The hotel project covers 1,300 hectares. The first batch of dwellings covers 290 hectares and will be opened to the public in July, said Zhao Yiding, head of the "Cave Dwelling Ecological Vacation Chateau" project in Shaanxi's Yongshou County.

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Ventilation pipes will connect the rooms to the upper ground as "green air conditioning," making the dwellings warm in winter and cool in summer without generating any carbon emissions, Zhao said.

Cave type dwellings were popular in northern Shaanxi Province, where the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee was headquartered between 1937 and 1947. The simple caves at that time were where Mao Zedong and other top Communist leaders lived.