World Heritage Site - Kaiping Diaolou

🌈Attraction Features: Kaiping Diaolou is located in Kaiping, Jiangmen, Guangdong. Diaolou is a unique type of Chinese vernacular architecture, a multi-story tower-style building that combines defense, residence, and architectural art. At the end of the 19th century, Kaiping locals went overseas to do business and work, accumulating a lot of wealth, and brought the wealth accumulated overseas back to their hometown. This wealth also attracted bandit robberies. The Chinese and overseas Chinese who originally wanted to buy land and build houses to glorify their ancestors mostly built their houses into "Diaolou" style to defend the safety of their families. 🚩Attraction Strategy: The scenic area is mainly distributed in three areas: Zili Village, Majianglong Village, and Jinjiangli. 💗Evaluation by the World Heritage Committee: Kaiping Diaolou and Villages in Guangdong Province are famous for their multi-story tower-style rural houses - Diaolou, which are used for defense. They show a complex and splendid fusion of Chinese and Western architectural and decorative forms, and show the important role of Kaiping overseas Chinese in the development process of several South Asian countries, Australia, and North American countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as the close connection between overseas Kaiping people and their hometown. The included heritage includes four groups of a total of 20 Diaolou, which are representatives of nearly 1,800 towers in the village group, representing the peak of tower construction in nearly five centuries, and also showing the still close connection between overseas Chinese and their homeland. The Diaolou and the surrounding rural landscape coexist harmoniously, witnessing the final prosperity of the local architectural tradition for the purpose of anti-banditry since the Ming Dynasty. Kaiping Diaolou Cultural Tourism Zone