Xinhui Diaolou

I heard that the Kaiping Diaolou are very famous. On November 11, we arrived in Kaiping, Guangdong, and visited two diaolou sites: one was Liyuan, a private garden, and the other was Zili Village, a cluster of diaolou buildings. Liyuan is a private garden built over ten years by overseas Chinese Mr. Xie Weili, completed in 1936. The garden combines traditional gardens, Lingnan water town style, and Western architectural styles. Liyuan mainly consists of small Western-style buildings, with only one diaolou. The second picture shows the water pump of Panli Tower in Liyuan, which was brought back from the United States. The entire small Western-style building had running water at that time. This shows that the overseas Chinese brought back not only funds but also advanced ideas. Many of the diaolou in Zili Village are standalone buildings built in the fields, the most famous being Mingshi Tower (picture seven). Mingshi Tower is one of the representative works of the Kaiping Diaolou cluster and was listed as a World Cultural Heritage site in 2006. It was built in 1925 by overseas Chinese Fang Runwen who returned from the United States. The tower is six stories high, blending Byzantine, Baroque, and other styles, serving both residential and defensive functions. Now it is the golden autumn harvest season. Standing on the top of Mingshi Tower, you can smell the fragrance of rice flowers drifting from afar. Looking at these diaolou built hundreds of years ago, one can savor the homesickness of the overseas Chinese at that time.