Kaiping Diaolou and Villages

This UNESCO site, with beautiful towers, comprises four villages. So far I have two postcards but both of the same village

Zili Village

This postcard was sent by Bosen

Diaolous are fortified multi-storey watchtowers, generally made of reinforced concrete. These towers are located mainly in Kaiping County, Guangdong province, China.

The first towers were built during the Ming Dynasty, reaching a peak in the 1920s and 1930s, when there were more than three thousand of these structures.

Zili Village

This postcard was sent by Yunshui

Today, approximately 1,833 diaolou remain standing in Kaiping, and approximately 500 in Taishan. They can also occasionally be found in numerous other areas of Guangdong, such as Shenzhen and Dongguan. Although the diaolou served mainly as protection against forays by bandits, a few of them also served as living quarters.

Kaiping has traditionally been a region of major emigration abroad, and a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas Chinese. As a result, many diaolou incorporate architectural features from China and from the West. - in: wikipedia

The four villages (in red what I have):

• Yinglong Lou (at Sanmenli Village)
• Zili Village and the Fang Clan Watch Tower
• Majianlong Village Cluster
• Jingjiangli Village