Kaiping Watchtower Houses

An increasing number of travelers are heading for Kaiping, a small city 122 kilometers southwest of Guangzhou, to see the 1,833 fortress-fashioned residences scattered around 15 towns.

Kaiping watchtower houses have become the hottest tourist attraction in China since being placed on the United Nations World Heritage List this June.

Set against a backdrop of lush checkered farmland in rural Kaiping, the watchtowers or Diaolou, are a spectacular sight. The oldest are from the 17th century, but those in the best conditions date mostly to the 19th century. While these buildings are merely a fraction of the age of many ancient buildings in China, the fusion of foreign and native styles and functions makes Kaiping Diaolou a prominent architectural site. There are no other constructions in China that display such a wide variety of architectural designs and styles, including Greek, Roman, Gothic, Islamic and Baroque.

Striking Beauty

Watchtower houses in Zili Village, Kaiping. (Image: China Today)“Diaolou have a striking beauty,” Yu Peilian, a local photographer stated. When he first set eyes on these buildings 20 years ago, he felt a charge run through his body. As he expresses, “they are a stunning and amazing sight, clusters of outlandish buildings in the heart of Guangdong’s countryside.”

Yu instinctively raised his camera. In the following years he scouted every village in the region in search of these fascinating buildings. Today Yu has lost count of how many Diaolou photos he has taken, but he can tell you without batting an eye when and where you can find the best lighting to capture any of these buildings. Over the many years of intense engagement with these buildings, Yu has come to realize that Diaolou will lose their identity when they are isolated from their surroundings. As a result, all his works locate these buildings in pastoral backdrops of his hometown.

Built with Overseas Earnings

The town of Kaiping currently has 680, 000 local residents, and it is also the hometown of 750,000 Chinese expatriates living in 67 countries and regions worldwide. As early as the mid 16th century, local residents have braved the ocean waves to seek better job opportunities in Southeast Asia.

In the early 1860s, the U.S. government came to Guangdong to recruit laborers for the construction of a railway in the U.S. From 1840 to 1876, approximately 100,000 men from Kaiping and neighboring areas headed for America. Meanwhile, many others left for Australia and Canada to fulfill similar labor demands in gold mining and railway construction. When their contracts expired, many of these guest workers remained in their host countries and found employment in trade or service sectors. Those who were lucky enough to make a fortune often wished to fulfill Chinese traditions of buying land in their hometown, building a nice home, and starting a family.

Iron bastions

Loophole views. (Image: China Today)The rich are often targets of property crime and burglary, therefore, security was one of the top considerations when the returned emigrants designed their residences in Kaiping. The architectural style of these buildings borrowed heavily from military defense techniques. The windows are smaller than on regular houses, and they were often fenced with iron grids and panels. The massive gate is made from imported steel that is impregnable to the fiercest gunfire. The tall and thick walls are lined with embrasures, and topped by jutting watchtowers equipped with guns, power generators, sirens, searchlights and gongs. The alarm systems in these buildings were often state of the art at the time. The local elders recalled that German-made sirens equipped by some families could be heard a dozen miles away.

These security measures may seem extreme but they are fitting for a region that has had a history of plundering and kidnappings in the past. 77 years-old native Zhou Licheng lived in one of these watchtower houses when he was young. He remembers that his father, like many other families of returning workers, lived abroad for most of the year, leaving behind elders, children and wives, who could do little to protect themselves except to remain in tightly guarded buildings.

“Security was the only concern at first,” Zhou continued, “however, as more and more of these structures were built, they became more stylish in appearance and more comfortable to live in and this style of building soon became a popular trend.” Zhou’s family watchtower, named Guangzhou Tower, has its own garden with a fountain and a parterre, distinguishing it from the neighboring gardenless houses.

In the 1920s, Huang Bixiu, who ran a successful banking and herb business in Hong Kong, built the nine-story 25-meter Ruishi Tower, the tallest watchtower in Kaiping. All the building materials for this house, including cement, steel bars, glass and timber were imported, costing a total of HKD 30,000 a record for this region.

This building is a great example of a mixture of Western and Eastern architectural styles. The Western interior architecture is contrasted with a pair of lion sculptures that adorn the roof, considered to be home guardians in Chinese traditions.

Chinese-styled furnishings are juxtaposed with European decorations, such as a clock, mirror and phonograph. Members of the Huang family still live in this building and they offer guided tours to visitors, regaling them with the history of this building.

The peasants in Kaiping are also different from other peasant populations in China’s rural areas. Many local elders are well read, love eating Western food and are able to speak English. “Not only have the overseas returnees brought outlandish architectures to Kaiping, but they have also brought Western culture and a way of life,” explained Zhou. “Although they made their living by farming, these local people are in no way uneducated,” He continued. Instead, the local people are open to the outside world, and pay a great deal of attention to their quality of life. As Zhou tells us, historically, Kaiping was one of the few towns in the nation with modern facilities, such as a bank, railway station and library.