I've always wondered why wood was the primary building material. Is there a cultural reasoning behind it? Or was it simply China did not have access to the same amount of earthen material that the Romans did?

And I've always wondered how to tell the difference between architecture from the three East Asian countries. Korean seems more colourful, akin to the Chinese while the Japanese is more subtle and sobre. Was it because Japanese architecture was mostly influenced by those from the Tang dynasty while Korea architecture was influenced by the Qing dynasty?

Refer to http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php...t&p=4943114 for the use of wood in chinese architecture.

Reasons why wood are used include:

1. Wood is easily available and abundant in China, which can be obtained from many forests in China. It is also cheaper than stones. Stones were rather expensive in China due to lack of such material in China.

2. Wooden structure can better resist earthquake in China than stone structure. Stones/bricks were used more in defence structure such as walls, fortress etc.

3. Wooden structure is easier and faster to construct than stone structure.

4. There were frequent wars in China. It does not make sense to use very expensive material such as stones to build a house when they can be easily destroyed by nomadics raiders of the north. Many houses in northern frontier were built on a 'temporary basis' using wood.



The Japanese architecture is almost similar to Tang architecture, which does not have elaborate design on the column and roof. Korean architecture tends to be closer to Ming/Qing architecture, and have varied colours, design, sculpture on the column and rooftop.