Diaojiaolou (wood columns supporting building) is a residential house with a dense architectural flavor of the Dong ethnic minority. It is beautiful, comfortable, waterproof, damp-proof and fireproof, and can protect dwellers from wild animals. Diaojiaolous are mainly scattered throughout the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guizhou, Hunan and Sichuan provinces.

The Dongs, who prefer to live at the foot of a hill and near a stream, live in villages that with a big ancient tree as the dividing point. The fir Dong houses stand on a slope and are supported by several wooden columns. The dwellings have two to three stories with a verandah. A stone mortar is constructed on the ground floor to serve as livestock sheds or a storehouse for firewood and equipment. Family members, who live upstairs, have better lighting in the front section so they can work on handicrafts or rest. The rear part consists of rooms with a fireplace, memorial ancestral tablet, as well as a place to cook dishes and get warm. Bedrooms are located on the third floor.

Usually, every family owns a Diaojiaolou, although in some villages, such as Miaojiang, Bajiang and Linxi in Sanjiang County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, most people live together and the houses of the same clan are connected by winding cobblestone paths. During festivals, people gather together to eat and drink.

In Pingba, the Dong people living near the Lianjiang River in Tianzhu, Xinhuang and Rongjiang counties have two-storied Diaojiaolou. The ground floor is occupied by people, while corn and sundries are stored upstairs. There is a shrine in the main hall with bedrooms and a kitchen on both sides. Livestock sheds are located at the back of the house.

Residential Dong houses in Tongdao, Hunan Province maintain the ganlan style (split-level structures built on mountain slopes and supported by stilts). People live in ganlan-style wooden buildings with more than three stories where cows, pigs and other livestock are raised on the ground floor and people live upstairs. Corridors stretch out from the building, which is decorated with balusters. Fixed benches are installed beside the baluster for people to rest. The buildings are joggled together with mortises and tenons, which revealing the Dong people's outstanding architectural techniques.

The room structure is similar to that of the Dong mountain people. There is a fire pit on the second floor where dishes are prepared and guests are served. The Dong people in Daotong keep the traditional custom of squatting instead of siting and use tables and stools with short legs while eating. Firewood is put into the kitchen range from the west because, according to legend, the south is the birthplace of the Dong people and their ancestors brought kindling from the west.

The Dong people love beautiful things and they enjoy dressing up the environment. They like to carve the house into bamboo shapes and install corridors and carved balusters to the wooden buildings. They build small houses of stones with carved patterns to shelter wells and fill them with colorful fish. The Dong villages are usually bordered with huge, old trees that emit an air of tranquility and peacefulness. People pave the stone paths with different patterns, calling them flower streets. Strolling through Dong villages is just like walking into a gallery.