Most ancient buildings found in the West are stone structures. In comparison, ancient Chinese buildings are mostly of a wooden frame structure, and even buildings of masonry. Buddhist pagodas, palace buildings, mausoleums, etc, have an exterior modeled after wooden frame structures. The upright columns, not the walls, are the supporting parts of such buildings, hence the old saying, ¡°Walls may collapse, house --- never.¡± By adopting the wooden frame structure, the Chinese have been able to build the outer and inner walls of a building in ways that best suit local conditions. In south China where it is hot, walls of houses are often built with wooden boards or woven bamboo mats, and there are even structures without walls, such as ting (pavilions), xie (pavilions on terraces), lang (corridors), as well as some of the halls. Moreover, a large room may easily be partitioned into chambers with boards or screens. Buildings of wooden frame structure are easy to construct and relatively earthquake-proof, but are not as strong as stone structures. Few ancient buildings of wooden frame structure have remained intact to this day because timber is easy to burn and become moth-eaten and decomposed.