Diaolou...

Kaiping Diaolou and Villages feature the Diaolou, fortified multi-storey defensive towers.
Kaiping has traditionally been a region of major emigration (South Asia, Australasia and North America), mostly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a consequence, several watchtowers display a complex and flamboyant fusion of Chinese and Western structural and decorative forms, brought back by overseas Chinese made good.
These buildings take three forms: communal towers built by several families and used as temporary refuge, residential towers built by individual rich families and used as fortified residences, and watch towers.
Retaining a harmonious relationship with the surrounding landscape, the Diaolou testify to the final flowering of local building traditions that started in the Ming period in response to local banditry.
Today, approximately 1,800 diaolou are still standing.
Since 2001, all the Diaolou are protected as national monuments under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Relics, 1982 and also covered by Provincial and Municipal Regulations.
The Kaiping diaolou and villages were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2007.