Travel Guide Kaiping 开平

Kaiping was a long-time emigration of merchants and coolies to the remote lands of Southeast Asia, Europe and America, and many of these emigrants returned to the country after making a fortune to settle on their own. Built in brick, peeled, stone or concrete, their diaolou (♀ ╩) present a provision and ornaments that clearly reflect Western influence, while preserving local traditions from the Ming dynasty.In the 1930 s, there were still more than three thousand. There are now 1,833 in Kaiping and about 500 in the suburbs of Taishan. Among these houses, some twenty houses were placed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO for «their complex and bold fusion between Chinese and Western architectural styles;» for their ultimate development of the local traditions of building towers; for their complete and unaltered state, thanks to their short life as fortified dwellings and relative abandonment; and for their harmonious relationship with the agricultural landscape. See if you're in the neighborhood.