#diaolou

The Watchtowers of Kaiping: Zili Village,

The Kaiping Diaolou are fortified multi-story watchtowers built to protect rural villages from ethnic warfare, bandits, and warlords. Most were built from the late 19th century to the early 20th century with a fusion of Chinese and Western architectural styles by returning immigrants with wealth acquired overseas.

The earliest diaolou were built in the Ming Dynasty as a response to banditry and floods. Building reached a peak during the Warlord Era of the 1920s and 30s. Of the more than three thousand diaolou built, approximately 1800 remain in the Kaiping countryside, another 500 in Taishan and other areas nearby. Most were abandoned after the Communist Revolution. Some are being maintained by families of the original owners who live in other countries.

There are three kinds of diaolou: watchtowers, communal towers built by several families as temporary shelter in an emergency, and residential towers built by rich families as fortified residences. Residences became a way for owners to showcase their wealth. Families and clans competed to build the tallest and grandest towers with modern materials and features at the time. Building was financed by Chinese immigrants returning from the West, Hong Kong and Malaysia, who incorporated Western architectural features, like domes, arches, and Roman columns into the structures. Local builders sometimes worked from postcards sent from abroad.

UNESCO designated the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages a World Heritage Site in 2007. The designation covers four separate areas: Sanmenli, Zilicun, Jinjiangli, and Majianglong village cluster.