Kaiping Diaolou and Villages - First UNESCO World Heritage about Overseas Chinese

Kaiping Diaolou and Villages (开平碉楼), located in Kaiping (Hoi Ping), Jiangmen, Guangdong, China, has been collected in the 31st UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list since June, 2007, from which it became the first world heritage site about overseas Chinese in the whole China. Before that in 2006, it also has won the golden prize of the “Top 50 Places Worth-visiting In China for Foreigners”. These building clusters originally are a featured local Chinese type of buildings used for defending against bandits and escaping from frequent flood and typhoon, but as time goes by, they perfectly collect various typical architectural styles from many western places, including ancient Greece, ancient Rome, America, Canada, other European area, Islamic area, and so forth, which not only add more exotic beauty to this traditional village place in southern China, but also symbolizes the first positive accept of western culture of Chinese historically.

Furthermore, as the fruits of overseas Chinese who made a fortune and succeeded in south Asia, America in the middle 16th century, Kaiping Diaolou and Villages is the can’t-missing place to seek the background culture and history of overseas Chinese, learn the thriving of Guangdong people, and also discover the cultural communication of China with the foreign countries at those decades. You are extremely recommended to visit here to see the more than 1,800 watchtowers still remaining to feel the blending charm of various exotic arts of buildings and admire the lovely sceneries of local villages with rice fields, bridges, stream, pool, azure sky, etc.

Best Tour to Enjoy Kaiping Diaolou and Villagea:

>> 4 Days Kaiping Diaolou and Villages Admiration Tour with Guangzhou Bests

Zili Village (自力村) in Kaiping, was named from the hope of “live on the hump” or “self-dependence”. It is a must visit diaolou village in Kaiping as it is the special western castle village of featured Lingnan countryside flavor, and the poetic idyllic sightseeing of pool, lotus pond, rice fields and grassland present you a so beautiful visual gift to appreciate. Keeping 92 residences in total, there are 77 traditional folk houses, 9 diaolou buildings and 6 cottage-style villas.

Among all the buildings, Mingshi Building (铭石楼), the typical diaolou, was built by the overseas Chinese Runwen Fang (方润文) in 1925 AD after returning from Chicago, America. This 5-storey building covers 600 square meters and displays its beautiful outlook and luxury decorations, such as the Roman Ionic Order column, four-corners overhung on the “swallow’s nest”, pediment of Baroque style, Chinese styled hexagonal pavilion, green glazed tile roofs and arches, etc. Once you enter this building, the strong life atmosphere of overseas Chinese comes in front of you, with the well protected layout, living supplies of that time, such as imported floor clock, phonograph, censer, letters, foreign newspaper and magazine, overseas remittance documents, old pictures, etc. This “complete museum of overseas Chinese family” is surely recommended to feel the fast holing of traditional culture and the simultaneous pursuit of western culture of the host at that time.

Besides, you can get close to the cottage-style villas, such as Yesheng Mansion (叶生居庐), Lansheng Mansion (澜生居庐) and Guansheng Mansion (官生居庐) of the 3 sons of Yangxian Villa’s owner to imagine the past living scenes of Master living in the north building and servants working in the kitchen in the south annex building. Also, the traditional dwellings of Lingnan style focusing on the “three rooms and two corridors” can be appreciated in Zili Village to know the layout of the principal room where to receive guests, dine and worship ancestors, bedroom and kitchen.

As Zili Village puts emphasis on the protection and usage of water system and villagers develop their home based on natural environment, harmonious and idyllic countryside scenery is formed to draw the attention and favor of various visitors. Water surrounds the village, golden rape flowers boom in early spring, red and white lotuses dance in the pool under blue sky in summer months, bustling scene of harvesting lotus roots shows in late winter, continuous pieces of rice terraces change their colors according to different seasons, etc.

Li Garden (立园) or Liyuan Garden was built in early 20th century by the overseas Chinese Weili Xie (谢维立), based on the Daguan Garden (大观园) described in “A Dream in Red Mansions (红楼梦)” that is one of the Four Great Classical Novels in China. Besides, it skillfully combined the charm of classic garden in ancient China and contemporary popular characteristics of villas from Europe and America, which conveys a special beauty of architecture, and can be treated really excellent among private gardens built by overseas Chinese. In this exquisite lovely garden themed with “little bridge, stream and households”, gardens show within gardens, landscapes are found within landscape, which is intriguing to attract your deeper discovery. With the rich sculptures, frescos and more cultural calligraphic arts show everywhere, strolling in Li Garden is like relaxing in a wonderland.

The whole Li Garden mainly consists of three parts, namely the Grand Garden, Small Garden and villa clusters, separated respectively and connected harmoniously. Panli Building (泮立楼) was constructed in 1926, and this villa cluster was named after the owner Weili Xie and his father Shengpan Xie (谢圣泮). In this garden building, apparent ancient Chinese palace elements can be found from the exterior yellow walls and green tiles, overhanging eaves and bracket sets, and vivid carving arts from Chaozhou and plaster decoration of Lingnan features are outstanding to strengthen the local features of the diaolous. Apart from that, rich exotic charm exists there including American styled windows, ancient Roman columns, etc. All the inner decoration and amenities were brought from overseas to tell the achievement of the overseas Chinese host, such as Italian terrazzo floor, exquisite Oriental ceilings, silver western tableware, bathtub, etc. Moreover, roaming in the Grand Garden and Small Garden, you can find more surprises hidden in traditional Chinese class gardens and learn some interesting culture from Chinese poems and calligraphies.

Majianglong Village (马降龙村) or Maxianglong Village was built in early 20th century and mainly is the residence of Huang family and Guan family.

The whole Maxianglong Village leaning the mountain and facing the water, with the 7 diaolous and 8 cottage-style villas dotted among the ancient bamboos and forests, and the enchanting image of birds, flowers, plants, etc., this village is extremely appealing like a hidden fairyland. In there, you can visit the Junlu Cottage (骏庐) and Linlu Cottage (林庐), which were built by overseas Chinese Chongjun Guan (关崇骏) in 1936 after coming back from Canada. In Junlu Cottage, under the shrine that is used to worship their ancestors is designed in a pattern of a lion rolling the earth, which converges that the owner hoping all Chinese people thrive to develop widely among the world forest.

So why is it called Maxianglong Village? There in the east of the village is the Horse Mountain like a horse and another Baizu Mountain (Hundred-foot Mountain百足山) like a centipede behind the village. Local people believe hundred foot creature to be a dragon and a dragon brings wind and rains which is not good, so they hope the horse can subdue the dragon and bless them to be prosperous and rich always, therefore, local villagers gave the name of Ma Xiang Long to their village to mean the horse subduing the dragon.

Chikan Old Town (赤坎古镇) is another place for a lot of overseas Chinese and their descendants nowadays to see the historical buildings. Built along Tanjiang River, the bank lined with pure arcade buildings of strong European styles is really attractive to admire the old track of Kaiping and Guangdong and learn the story of the families moving from other parts of China in the past time. And the South Tower (南楼) is a good place to know the heroic act of the 7 heroes of Situ family fighting with Japanese army and contributed their lives in 1945. You can get this town from Zili Village with only 10 minutes by car. Also, there are some buses available.

Besides that, you can also extend to appreciate more arcade constructions at Mei's Grand Courtyard where you can also feel the strong atmosphere in old Guangdong in 1930s.

Kaiping Diaolou and Villages is situated in Kaiping City, Jiangmen City in Guangdong Province, which needs to drive about 18-20 kilometers (40 minutes) from Kaiping city downtown, about 70 kilometers (1.5-2 hours) from Jiangmen downtown, about 135-160 kilometers (2-2.5 hours) from Guangzhou downtown, and 215-220 kilometers (3.5 hours) from Shenzhen downtown.

People usually visit Kaiping Diaolou and Villages from other destinations in China, such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, however, there is no directly transportation to the scenic area, so you need to get to Kaiping City first and transfer by hiring a local car or taxi. Local Kaiping buses are not really recommended since they will take more than 2 hours. I you go by bullet train, Kaiping South Station (开平南站) is preferred. If you arrive by coach, Kaiping Yici Station (开平义祠客运站) is recommended with shorter distance to the scenic area.

Free Shuttle Bus between Kaiping Diaolou & Villages

There are free shuttle buses serving for your transfer among Zili Village, Li Garden and Majianglong Village every day. They depart nearly every 0.5-1.5 hours between 10:00-16:00 between Zili Village and Majianglong Village from Monday to Friday. And during weekends and holidays, they depart 0.5-1 hour between 09:30-16:00.