I recently visited Kaiping Diaolou, and besides Zili Village, I made a point to visit Sanmenli Village (三门里). In practical terms, I couldn’t find any public transportation to Sanmenli, so I went by car with my friend. I wouldn’t recommend it for day-trip travelers without a car since there’s only one building to see, and the inside is closed to visitors.

However, I understand why Yinglong Lou (at Sanmenli Village) is considered a core part of this UNESCO World Heritage site. Yinglong Lou is a living testament to the site's OUV Criterion (iii): "The building of defensive towers was a local tradition in the Kaiping area since Ming times in response to local banditry." According to a local family living in a house next to Yinglong Lou, this tower is the oldest diaolou in Kaiping, with over 500 years of history. They take great pride in it, as it serves as a communal tower for the "Guan" lineage (关族). Every year, on the 5th day of the Lunar New Year, more than 100 families from the village gather inside for a feast and an ancestral worship ritual, possibly the only time it opens to the public. The villagers are very friendly, and there’s no tourism business in the village. Interestingly, the village has a special festival called "Stone Dog Birthday" on the 15th day of the Lunar September, based on a legend that two stone dogs once guarded the village against bandits.

As for Yinglong Lou itself, it's a three-story rectangular building with no Western architectural influences. The first and second floors were built with red bricks during the Ming dynasty, while the third floor was renovated with cyan bricks in the 1920s. According to locals, the original Ming-era wooden beams have been preserved. In 1884 and 1908, members of the Guan lineage took refuge in Yinglong Lou during floods.

Overall, the Kaiping Diaolou region has preserved its original form well. There aren’t too many modern, self-built high-rises disrupting the landscape, allowing the diaolous to blend harmoniously with their surroundings. I really appreciate this, especially considering that Guangdong is one of the richest provinces in China, with a strong private economy. Since the 1980s, many locals in Guangdong have built large but often ugly buildings, so it's nice to see Kaiping maintaining its historical character.