Kaiping Diaolou is a non-legacy building in Guangdong. What are the characteristics of this architectural design style?

1. Architectural features of Kaiping Diaolou. It has colonnades in ancient Greece, domes in ancient Rome, iron carvings of Islamic leaves, pointed arches in Gothic period and mountain flowers in Baroque architecture. And auspicious patterns such as dragon, phoenix and unicorn are found on some western-style components, which is a perfect combination of Chinese and western architecture.

2. The geographical location of Kaiping Diaolou. Kaiping belongs to four counties, and it is a place that nobody cares about. Bandits are rampant and public security is chaotic.

Kaiping area used to be an export place of labor force. After the Opium War, European and American colonialists began to cheat thousands of workers in China by various deceptive means, becoming the earliest overseas Chinese. After returning home, in order to resist bandits, they built watchtowers one after another, thus forming a large number of Kaiping watchtowers, up to more than 3,000, and now there are more than 1800.

4. Practical value of Kaiping Diaolou: Diaolou is often built by rich people alone, which has both defensive and residential functions. It is tall, with perfect living facilities, diverse shapes and strong decoration, and pursues the formal beauty of architecture on the basis of satisfying residence.

5. Stories in watchtowers: These watchtowers have both touching stories about defending their hometown and the sad blood and tears of overseas Chinese; And patriotic feelings for Japan.

It represents a history of China people making a living abroad since Qianlong. There are successes and failures, including going to Nanyang, going to America, going to San Francisco and going to South America. This period of history is particularly meaningful in the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian. It can be said that it is a reflection of the modern history of China, the Opium War, or the modern folk history of China before and after the Opium War. That lightness is the building they built locally after their success, which is particularly unique. Different from Hakka Panlong House, different. If Zhangjiajie is a living fossil of Chinese mainland's animals and plants, protect it. So Kaiping Diaolou. Know that history is also a living fossil.

To sum up, Kaiping Diaolou has cultural value, cultural relic value, historical value, scientific value, aesthetic value and development value, so it can become a world heritage.