Kaiping Diaolou
Kaiping Diaolou are a kind of vernacular architecture.
The multi-floor buildings were designed in a style mixing
Chinese and western styles and for the purpose of defence
and residence. They were scattered in the Kaiping City,
Wuyi Overseas Chinese Township, Guangdong Province. The
first Kaiping diaolou appeared in the 16th century. The
booming period for such buildings was in the late 19th century
and early 20th century. There still exist 1,833 diaolou,
which are the key sites of cultural relics under state-level
protection. Kaiping Diaolou are various in scale, variety
and styles. They are indeed the models that combined Chinese
and western architectural arts in rural China. The colorful
and changeable architectural art forms are a collection
of architectural achievements in the history of western
building of different countries and periods, enriching the
contents of the world's vernacular architecture.
