Kaiping Diaolou and Villages

Kaiping is a district of villages in Guangdong province. From the Han period, Han people from the Central Plains moved in and mixed with the Yue, who grew rice and fished, and clan villages were laid out according to feng shui. From the 16th century, against bandits coming up the rivers from the north and against frequent floods, villagers began to build fortified towers called diaolou. After Kaiping County was created in 1649 security improved, and few towers were built under the Qing.

From the mid-16th century villagers traded along the coast, and in 1839 a poor farmer left his village for America. This began a large emigration, with many thousands travelling through Macao and Hong Kong to the United States, Canada and Australia. Those who built up savings abroad sent money home or returned to build conspicuous tower houses. The new wealth drew bandits, and 71 incidents of banditry were recorded between 1912 and 1930. Of the 1,833 diaolou in Kaiping, 1,648, just under 90 percent, were built between 1900 and 1931.

The Depression of the 1930s and the wars of the 1940s halted building. After the People's Republic was founded in 1949, banditry ended and flood control was introduced, and the towers lost their purpose. Tianlu Lou, built by 29 households, sheltered the villagers through the floods of 1936, 1965 and 1968. Twenty of the most representative diaolou, in four village groups, were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2007.