UNESCO World Heritage SiteNational 5A Scenic AreaSouth China
Kaiping Diaolou & Villages
开平碉楼与村落 · Guangdong, Jiangmen
Fortified multi-storey watchtowers rising from rice fields, built by overseas Chinese in a unique East-West style.
The Kaiping diaolou are unusual fortified towers scattered across the rice paddies and villages of the Pearl River Delta, blending Chinese forms with Western columns, domes and arches. Built to defend against bandits and floods in the early 20th century, they were funded by emigrants returning wealth from abroad, creating a one-of-a-kind rural landscape.
Most diaolou were built between the 1910s and 1930s, when Kaiping emigrants who had prospered in North America and Southeast Asia sent money home. The towers fused overseas architectural fashions with local defense needs. The Kaiping Diaolou and Villages were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007.
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