Having built a house from locally cut wood in Panama, I'm always curious how people in other countries do these things. We fought with all kinds of difficulties - so I know what to look for.

When I spent a weekend in a Yao community named Tou Tian, near Long Cheng, Guangxi, I was delighted to see that new construction there resembled the older houses in the area very closely.

Absolutely beautiful wooden buildings, up to 4 stories, built entirely without nails, in an area without road access.

So how do they do it?

The short answer is: skill.

Here is the longer answer:

Each family owns a piece of land in the mountains above the village. They cut trees there for lumber. (When I walked across the ridge, I saw that most trees were gone, but most of the land has been replanted. I later found out that indeed the families are responsible enough to replant when they cut).

The wood is carried by horse to the construction site. 

The frame for the structure is built by hand, without nails. Holes are chiseled into the posts to stick the beams into, and wedged in. Very impressive work. The chisels they used look like the metal may be hundreds of years old, just the wood is replaced.

The roof goes up next, to have a good place to dry the wood.

A sawmill is put together with an electric motor, a belt, a giant circular blad (4ft, perhaps), and a thin piece of sheet metal. All these items can be carried easily to the construction site, and the rest is built locally with wood. (table, guide, etc).

Boards are cut, then dried, first outside, then under the new roof.

To get the edges of the boards straight, they use a table saw with a sliding rule made from - wood. The moving piece has nails sticking out from below so that when you put a work piece on it, it doesn't move. You then slide the piece by the saw.

Tungs and grooves are cut into the floor boards by hand, with not much more than another ancient piece of metal, a piece of wood, and a nail, see pictures. 

So, total power tools used:

- one giant table saw as a saw mill, built from pieces that are easy to carry

- smaller table saw to get the edges straight

- one electric hand planer

Hand tools:

- a chalk line setup, made from wood, beautiful carvings on it (40 years old)

- chisels. an old piece of steel with wooden handles jammed onto it.

- hand planers and routers. Basically a piece of wood with a metal blade wedged into and held down by a nail. (one of about 20 nails I saw in the whole building)

- broken pieces of a sanding disc, used to sharpen the blades

- hammer

- no rope, but pieces of bamboo used to tie down scaffolding

About 30 guest houses were built here in the last few years. The cost of building a 20 room guest house is about 500,000 RMB at this point. The "master" carpenter makes about 150 RMB per day. It used to be much less. So, in an amazing way, the mass tourism in these villages is trickling through. But that will be another post, when I find the time.