Jiangmen: The spectacles of overseas Chinese history

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In Kaiping, Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, tributaries of the Pearl River crisscross the countryside and diaolous pepper the pastures. The spectacular structures, radiating majesty and mystique, were fortified residences or watchtowers, first built during the Ming Dynasty around the mid-1500s, right up until the first half of the 20th century.

A residential diaolou in Majianglong Village. /CGTN Photo

Numbers peaked in the 1920s and ’30s – it’s said that at one point in time, there were more than 3,000 diaolous. Today, there around 1,800 left standing amidst the ravishingly raw and rustic landscapes of Jiangmen.

Who built the diaolous?

Jiangmen is known as “the city of overseas Chinese” for a reason – it’s the ancestral home of more than 3.5 million Chinese diaspora.

Inside one of the several diaolous open tot he public. /CGTN Photo

Many of the first generation who set sail from Jiangmen to Southeast Asia, Australasia and North America amassed immense fortunes in these foreign lands. And when they decided to return, they wanted to both protect and parade their wealth. So they found the answer: build diaolous.

The diaolous are celebrated for their complex and often flamboyant fusion of east-west architecture and design, their shameless splendor, and their peculiar yet harmonious relationship with their bucolic surroundings.

As of 2007, the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The three UNESCO-listed diaolou in Jinjiangli Village. /CGTN Photo

Visit the diaolous

Most of the remaining diaolous are locked up and abandoned but that doesn’t stop one from marveling at them from the outside. Many of them are protected relics that can be visited for a 180-RMB combined ticket covering four areas:

A diaolou emerging from the bamboo forest of Majianglong Village. /CGTN Photo

Zili Village, Tangkou Township, known for its concentrated collection of diaolous;

Sanmenli Village, Chikan Township, where the oldest diaolou is located;

Jinjiangli Village, Xiangang Township, popular for the tallest and perhaps most iconic diaolou;

Majianglong Village, Baihe Township, a cluster of five communities boasting diaolous linked together by stone paths winding through a bamboo forest.