Should rooms be added the 2 sides in front of mail hall are called "Hulong "(also is called east and west wings in Mainland China) and can serve as bedrooms or guestroom (locally named "King-ya" or "Kay-king").

　The construction of such building is based on lower front and upper back structure with a square internally which signifies rising up to the high level by steps, furthermore, it signifies everything can complete perfectly. Also it has very good effects for adjusting the temperature of winter and summer, not to mention its ventilation and sun exposure.

The Layout of Main Building

1.Main Hall, 2.Gate Hall, 3.First Room, 4.Second Room, 5.Third Room 6.Forth Room, 7.First Eastern Wing, 8.Second Eastern Wing, 9.First Western Wing, 10.Second Western Wing, 11.Internal Court, 12. Left-ear Room 13.Right-ear Room, 14.Front Gallery, 15.Back Gallery, 16.Worshiping Articles Rooms, 17.Dragon Pond, 18.Tiger Pond, 19.Sun Well, 20.Moon Well, 21.Left External Hulong, 22.Right External Hulong, 23.Study Room, 24.Dragon Well, 25.Tiger Well

 

1.Main Hall

Mail hall is the second entrance on the central line where for enshrining ancestors and gods, receiving guests and holding ceremonies and festivals.


 

2.Gate Hall

Gate hall is the first entrance on the central line where for controlling security and receiving guests. Presently, it is named as the An Tai Hall.


 

3.First Room

A bedroom for the eldest family
Now a wooden bed, a wardrobe, a dressing table, a washing stand and a clothes stand are in the room.


 

4.Second Room

A bedroom for the family in second position
Now a wooden bed, a dressing table, a washing stand and a clothes stand are in the room.


 

5.Third Room

A bedroom for the family in third position
Now a wooden bed, a wardrobe, a dressing table, a washing stand, a clothes stand, a table, chairs and a wooden stool are in the room.

6.Forth Room

A bedroom for the family in the forth position
Now a wooden bed, a wardrobe, a dressing table, a washing stand, a clothes stand, a table, chairs, a wooden stool and a bamboo cradle are in the room.

7.First Eastern Wing

This room is located on the eastern side of house and for the junior generations living in. Presently, they are a book case, a big chair for lying and living pictures of Lin family in it.

 

8.Second Eastern Wing

This room is located on the eastern side of house. Presently, it is laid out as an accounting office.


 

9.First Western Wing

This room is located on the western side of house and for the junior generations living in. Presently, they are a wooden chair, small tables, a big chair for lying and an old clock in it.


 

10.Second Western Wing

This room is located on the western side of house and for the junior generations living in. Presently, they are a dressing stand, a wardrobe and a wooden bed in it.

 

11.Internal Court

An open space in the internal position of house

 

12.Left-ear Room

A room beside the gate hall
At present, a pedigree, a money case, chairs and small tables are in it.


 

13.Right-ear Room

A room beside the gate hall
At present, an offering stand, a table cloth, an incense burner and an incense burner base are in it.


 

14.Front Gallery　15.Back Gallery

A passage way in front of the gate hall
A passage way in back of the main hall


 

16.Worshiping Articles Rooms

Presently, a Drum Stand and the awarded pictures of Northern Taiwan Ma-zu Festival are in them.

17.Dragon Pond

An open space between the third room and the left-side rooms（Left Hulong）
Now a stone mortar is in the space.


 

18.Tiger Pond

An open space between the forth room and the right-side rooms（Right Hulong）

 

19.Sun Well

An open space between the eastern wing and left-side rooms（Left Hulong）


 

20.Moon Well

An open space between the western wing and right side rooms（Right Hulong）

 

21.Left External Hulong

These rooms are located on the left side（turn back on the mail hall） of house and for the junior generations living in, presently, they are used for the exhibition rooms. In addition, a restaurant, a kitchen and a guest room are also included.

22.Right External Hulong

These rooms are located on the right side（turn back on the mail hall） of house and for the junior generations living in, presently, they are used for the exhibition rooms. In addition, a nursery room and a guest room are also included.

 

23.書房

A room for the children of Lin family studying in


 

24.Dragon Well

A construction for taking water from the underground（located on the eastern side of house）

25.Tiger Well

A construction for taking water from the underground（located on the western side of house）

●Red Circle:
1.Partition Walls, 2.Lau-Gu Stone Garden, 3.Aipo Pavilion, 4.Trail of Step Stones, 5.Stone Landscape, 6.Yu Dai Bridge, 7.Artifi cial Hills with Waterfall, 8.Yao Yueh Pavilion, 9.Yu Chain Lou (Pavilion), 10.Sueh Yueh Hall, 11.Ying Yueh Pond, 12.Tea Lover's House, 13.Gu Zhu Ming Shan (Artificial Clay Modeling Hill)

　Further, the designs of architectures, landscapes, traditional arts and painters are integrated in such extraordinary abundance of imagination and amazing variability. By touring around the courtyard, tourists can realize how early people enjoyed life through natural landscapes.

◆Architecture
The theories of landscape architecture and landscape gardening have developed over years. Now the View in Frame, View Borrowing and View Blocking are common examples of design skills.

◆Artifificial Hills
Clay molding is exercised to imitate the Chinese brush painting skills, moreover, the modern engineering of "wire meshed concrete" is applied to build the surface. This result of integrating is a unique native craft of artificial hills.

◆Vegetation
Flowers and plants are indispensible elements in landscaping. In addition, pliable postures, colors and fragrance which the nature gives, add the joy and peace in courtyard. General speaking, popular plants are plums, orchids, bamboos, chrysanthemums, pines, cypresses, peonies, lotuses and lilies. All have their own symbolization such as noble character（plum, orchid, bamboos and hrysanthemum）, eternal youth（pine and cypress）, wealth（peony）, self-respect（lotus） and relief（lily）.

◆Waterscape
The design skill of waterscape is called "water layout". A saying of "The proportion of water, bamboo and house is 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent respectively." concretely explains the importance of ponds in landscape gardening. Moreover, the waterscape is also capable of temperature regulating and fire preventing.

 

1.Partition Walls

In the undulating landscape of the courtyard, windows in the shape of vase (which rhymes with "all well" in Mandarin) are provided as zoning walls to separate the space as well as embellish the courtyard landscape. This is referred to as painting being viewed by one who passes.


 

2.Lau-Gu Stone Garden

A lone stone is used to represent the great mountain and a small pond the big sea. Such concept of miniaturized landscape expresses the meaning of "seeing big in small".



 

3.Aipo Pavilion

While the shore of pond is endless and the small pavilion is connected to the sky, indefinite depth is created in limited space by giving different layers.



 

4.Trail of Step Stones

A trail of cobbles epitomizes the featured view of creek in Taiwan.



 

5.Stone Landscape

These handpicked stones with distinct edges and masculine grains exhibit tension in various directions. The skill of interlocking emphasizes on making intervals of stones, within the chinks, ferns, mosses, cypresses butterfly gingers are planted to illustrate the scenery of nature.



 

6.Yu Dai Bridge  7.Artifi cial Hills with Waterfall  8.Yao Yueh Pavilion

The bridge, newly built of old stones, connects to the courtyard and brings about more amusement. It takes courtyard designers' artistic creations and craftsmen's skills to achieve.

On top of the artificial hills with waterfalls is the small pavilion, or moon pavilion. At night, along with the stars and moon, they are reflected in pond to embody the natural scenery. This is so-called "View Borrowing" among landscape gardening.

View Borrowing
Sceneries of other areas are often adopted in the courtyard as background. It can be such as faraway mountains or buildings outside, clouds and birds in sky, fishes and lotuses in pond, stars and the moon at night and the changing seasons, whereby to extend the spatial layers for the courtyard, enriching the variation in sceneries



 

9.Yu Chain Lou (Pavilion) 10.Sueh Yueh Hall 11.Ying Yueh Pond

The two buildings, side by side, are surrounded by thick bamboos and overlook the big pond in front of them. Applying the technique of View Blocking, the waterfalls keep the viaduct off the courtyard as well as reduce the noises of vehicles.

Obviously, this historical house builds a waterscape by setting the Moon Pond as a centerpiece in courtyard, moreover, pavilions, towers, boats and bridge to accompany it. In this way, the house can construct a wonderland for cultivating minds where is in accordance with Taoism.

View Blocking
By using the spatial contraction and shades, or utilizing various elements, the foreground can be blocked, thus creating the effect of exposure through concealment. This skill is often used in gateways between house, courtyard, and each zone, where one passing through is later surprised.



 

12.Tea Lover's House

This pavilion is connected with the Yu Chain Lou by bending bridge and faces to the Moon Pond. A stopping-by here gazing at the lotuses is a moment of seclusion.



 

13.Gu Zhu Ming Shan (Artifi cial Clay Modeling Hill)

Take a completed view of the historical house, the artificial hill stands at the front. Furthermore, the Chinese brush painting skills were applied to mold the artificial hills as a good Feng Shui.

The pond is named after its shape and which is the best shape for bringing wealth in term of Chinese Feng Shui study. It defends,fights fire,supplies water,cools down as well as adds to the splendor of the old house's surroundings.


 

2.Front Yard 3.An Tai Hall 4.Swallow Tail Ridge

The front yard is paved with red stones which were placed at the bottom of vessel to avoid shaking in business sail. They have advantages of being moss-free and preventing from slipping. Besides, the pillow-shaped stones, gate pillars and hollows for door axles are all carved and made by one-piece stone. Each door is equipped with a hidden lock. The couplet carved on the pillars made of Chingtou stones goes "To live with a kind heart and maintain the achievements of ancestors". Chinese characters signifying good fortune and longevity are printed on the two sides. As to the structure of roofs and ridges, it is adopted a single-ridge method to show a natural style.


 

5.The Three-Doors with a Hollow

This is made by three-doors with a hollow. At both sides of the doors, a couplet with patterns of birthday peaches is hanged. To the upper left on the wall, it is carved with vases, fruits and alchemist ovens, while the upper right carved with official seals, Taoist flags and helmets, representing being good at martial art and literature. Under the eave, flying phoenix and beam support, hanging bucket with flowers, ancient harp and Ling Dragon are signifying auspicious.


 

6.Wooden Brackets

They are important parts of Chinese buildings used in resisting earthquakes. Most of the woods and stones are used in the house are China firs and Guanyin stones. All structures are linked to each other by tenons.


 

7.Main Hall

A place for worshiping ancestors and carvings on shrine are the best of all. Above the hall, a horizontal inscribed board is hanged, carved with "Outstanding descendants inherit the honors of forefathers".
Besides, the characters of "An" and "Tai" are smartly used as beginnings in the couplet.


 

8.Hallway and Decorative Carvings

The side buildings in internal yard are engraved with auspicious figures including "Currency of Daoguang". It proves that the house was constructed in Daoguang period.