How to spend 24 hours exploring the towers of Kaiping, Guangdong Province.

Kaiping

Population of this sleepy town in Guangdong province is 680,000 with an additional 750,000 living overseas in 67 countries. What happened here during the 19th century and first half of the 20th century is a microcosm of the history of overseas Chinese and indeed China itself. Following the Opium Wars the area was racked with over population and conflict between hakka settlers and local peasants. Many chose to escape overseas to conditions that often amounted to little more than slavery. Those that made their fortunes built tower like structures, diaolou, to protect their families and project their wealth.

Things to see

Since 2007 the villages of Zili, Sanmenli, Majianglong, and Jinjiangli have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. At its peak there were 3,000 diaolou but today only 1,833 remain dotted amongst the fields outside Kaiping. A good place to start exploration is Zili village. It contains a museum with a useful introduction to the area and its people. Few of those who went overseas ever made it back. The Fang family were one of the lucky ones. They built Minshi Lou from the proceeds of a restaurant business in Chicago. Here a traditional, ornately carved ancestral room is juxtaposed with concrete, defensive turrets and holes for shooting bandits.

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