2021-07-15

Kaiping Diaolou and Villages

A typical structure of the landscape in the Kaiping county of Jiangmen district in Guangdong, China, is the famous multi-story fortified towers called Diaolou, the Kaiping Towers. These areas include four distinct Kaiping village areas, Sanmenli, Zilicun, Jinjiangli, and Majianglong village cluster. These areas display a unique combination of Western and 19th-century Chinese architectural styles. Their function was obviously military but there is no doubt that they were made with a remarkable artistic taste, which makes them one of the great tourist attractions in the area today. 

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Kaiping Guangdong

The Kaiping Towers


Kaiping Diaolou structures were constructed from the Ming Dynasty's time to the early 20th century. They reached their peak during the Warlord Era, which saw more than three thousand of them. Today, there are approximately 1,800 Diaolou remaining in Kaiping's rural countryside, with 500 more in Taishan and in other parts of Guangdong like Shenzhen or Dongguan.

Kaiping's oldest standing Diaolou is Yinglong Lou, located in Sanmenli (Chikan Township), which was built by the Guan family during the Jiajing era (1522-1566). It was a three-storey rectangular fortress of approximately three stories with walls one meter thick, and it was very different from the tall tower Diaolou constructed four centuries later. Yinglong Lou is 11.4m high and was rebuilt in 1919. The most spectacular is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Fortress Tower Kaiping


If the Kaiping Towers are so beautiful it is because they were not just defense towers, but rather fortified houses. They were built by Chinese who had emigrated to America and returned to their rich country to build large houses that had to be well protected against frequent attacks by bandits and looters. The money from the Chinese overseas has transformed the landscape of Kaiping's rural areas in a matter of just 30 years.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, banditry was stopped. With this, the role of Diaolou disappeared, and in the 1980s, after the reopening of China, many villagers moved. Now, most of the Diaolou are empty, although they are still considered by the overseas Chinese as their spiritual home to which they return for great celebrations or to perform rituals linked to the memory of the ancestors. Some of them still have original furniture and accessories inside.

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Kaiping Diaolou
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Diaolou
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Kaiping
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Diaolou Kaiping
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Kaiping China
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Kaiping Diaolou and villages
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Guangzhou villages
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Zili village
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Kai ping China
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Kaiping Guangdong
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Kai ping China
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Diaolou Kaiping
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Kaiping Diaolou and Villages
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Kaiping Guangdong
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Kaiping Diaolou and Villages Google map
Kaiping Diaolou and Villages, Guangdong Province — Video

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Fortress Tower Kaiping
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