Kaiping Diaolou

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 …

Pulling into Kaiping by bus from Guangzhou I saw my first Diaolou. What a weird mix of castle tower and appartment building with some Asian decorations added to the mix. You will find the whole landsccape around Kaiping dotted with these structures and plenty of photo opportunities. The site itself covers three representative examples of this architecture. 

I started my visit in Zili, probably the most touristy one of the three villages. The premises and facilities indicate that they are devised to handle way more people than the few that showed up end of October. Zili is nice to explore with some buildings open for visitors. From the inside these look rather mundane, but this is to be expected. Obviously, you want to climb one of the towers for the view and photo opportunity.

After Zili I went by shuttle to Majanglong. Majanglong is surprisingly large. In the end I needed to hurry to catch my shuttle bus. Majanglong feels more like a true village. It's also the less touristy one, so I really enjoyed my time there. The individual buildings, though, are more spectacular in Zili.

Looking at Els review from 2007, things have changed dramatically. The Chinese have put in place a serious tourist infrastructure with combined tickets, a shuttle service instead of rikschas and plenty of restrooms. In Majanglong it felt there were more restrooms than tourists that day. China is changing fast.

Last but not least a few words on the merits. …

In August 2017, I traveled by bus from Guangzhou to Kaiping, where there were several taxi drivers awaiting to take travelers to visit the local sites. I had used my iPhone to take screenshots of the locations that I wanted to visit, and was able to negotiate an excursion with one of the local drivers. I visited two of the villages, beginning with Zilicun, where the largest group of watchtowers stands scattered among rice paddies and where I was joined by a few dozen tourists. I also visited Jinjiangli village, which is home to three well-preserved towers and where, aside from a few elderly residents engaged in chores and ablutions, I had the village to myself.

On the way to Guangzhou from Hong Kong, I decided to take a four hour direct bus to the city of Kaiping to see the famous Diaolou, currently a sole cultural world heritage in the heartland of Cantonese. It is very easy to take a bus to Kaiping; there are many bus companies in Hong Kong; however, the routes and bus conditions are quite different. I used Trans-Island since its air-conditioned buses seem to be the best. On the bus I made many new friends who wondered why a foreigner wanted to visit Kaiping. With my broken Chinese and I had only four hours to catch a next bus, one Chinese guy on the bus decided to help me tour Kaiping and a town of Chikan for FREE!

At Kaiping, my new friend took me to Zili Village, a part of WHS. On the way I was quite surprised to see many Diaolou buildings, before I came here, I thought Diaolou to be rare and unique buildings but turned out that there are hundreds or maybe thousands of Diaolou, as all new housing estates were built in Diaolou style! At Zili Village, I had to buy a ticket to enter the village, the village was located in the middle of rice paddies and ponds, and there was a nice long wooden bridge connecting ticket office to the village. The surrounding landscape seems to be redesigned for WHS beautification. At the middle of the village, there was a very …

I visited Zili, Majianglong and Jinjiangli in January 2010.

Before I had set out on my journey to Kaiping, I was of the impression that I could rely on the local buses to get me to where I wanted to go. The Kaiping website made it all sound so easy.

I was quite sure that I would easily reach Zili from the coach station by local bus. But no one told me that I would be told to alight at a stop 4 km away from the village. So yes, I trekked the entire 4 km to the village.

Anyway, my point is, do not trust that the local buses at Kaiping. You will be much better off hiring a driver. And that was what I did. In fact it was the driver who found me. I hired him on the spot!

As for the diaolous, I have to say that I am glad they have been inscribed. Besides their roles as village fortresses, they also represent a part of Chinese culture which was before their inscription not represented at all on the list. This is something like Chinoiserie in reverse.

I too met a lady at Ruishi Lou and I should think she was the same one Els had met. Her husband is the 4th generation owner of the building if I remember correctly. She gave me a quick introduction of the building and then charged me 30Y for it. I sure hope she had told me more about …

Kaiping is a city about 2 hours south of Guangzhou by bus. From there, I took a taxi to the first cluster of diaolou: those at Zili Village. I can testify that tourism definitely has arrived in Zili. An entry fee to the village of 50Y is charged. There's a car park large enough for a couple of buses. There might have been at least 200 other (Chinese) tourists around when I visited. The villagers seem to almost have given up farming. However, the diaolou here are plentiful and pretty. They somewhat resemble medieval castles.

My next stop was Li Yuan (Li's Garden). This is not part of the WHS, but a park with some diaolou created in the 1930s. I started to walk there from Zili, it's only a couple of kilometers and you pass the Fang Clan Watch Tower on your way. After a few minutes, I was caught up by a rickshaw, which driver's call I could not resist. Li Yuan itself is good for lunch but bring your own food. It's very touristy, they even have a jade store!

Finally, I wanted to go to Jinjiangli where supposedly the most elaborate diaolou can be found. My rickshaw driver tried to persuade me to go to Majianlong (because that's much closer), but we headed off for the 15-kilometer to Jinjiangli. What a different experience from Zili! Getting there is half the fun. You can see the tower of Ruishi Lou from afar, but how to …

A Japanese friend and I went last January. Kaiping is warm and sunny even if it's winter.

We went to Ruishi Lou, Zili Village and Majianglong. Best way to see all the sites is to hire a private car.

Two buses leaves for Hongkong everyday (four hours away).