Kaiping Diaolou, a residential building combining Chinese and Western styles.

China is the third largest country in the world, including 56 nationalities. In view of the differences in landform, climate, customs and environment in different regions, the appearance of folk houses is varied. Every residential building is the product of local people's wishes, beliefs and favorite items, thus showing different forms and beautiful characteristic residential buildings. Now let the urban culture take you to the Kaiping Diaolou.

Kaiping Diaolou, located in Kaiping City under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province, is a unique local building in China. It is a multi-storey tower building integrating defense, residence and Chinese and western architectural arts. It is characterized by the combination of Chinese and western dwellings, with various styles such as ancient Greece, ancient Rome and Islam.

In the fields of Kaiping City, Guangdong Province, the small foreign buildings with European classical style are intertwined with the traditional earthen houses in the southern rural areas of China, forming a unique rural scenery in China. The diaolou combines Chinese and western styles, blending the essence of various architectural styles. At the peak of Kaiping, there were more than 3,000 watchtowers. At present, there are more than 800 watchtowers in/kloc-0, distributed in Kaiping 15 towns. These towers are the crystallization of the initiative of overseas Chinese and villagers in Kaiping in the last century to combine foreign architectural culture with local architectural culture. With a large number, exquisite architecture and diverse styles, it can be called the largest "Diaolou Museum" in the world.

The types and artistic features of carved buildings are as follows: in terms of building materials, there are early mud wall buildings (made of lime sand, sugar, salt, clam shells, oyster shells, etc.). ), the middle blue brick building (thickened with ordinary blue bricks), and finally the reinforced concrete building (built with reinforced concrete according to modern building materials); In terms of types, it can be divided into three categories:

One is the night watchman's building or lantern building, which is usually built at the head or end of the village, and some are built on the mountain for the use of security guards and night watchman. There are searchlights and alarms in it. Once bandits are found, they will call the police immediately to prepare the villagers. The second is a multi-storey building, which is built by more than a dozen households or several households. This watchtower has 3 ~ 6 floors, and each floor has 2 ~ 4 rooms. In case of bandits or floods, every family can live in a multi-storey building to avoid disasters. Third, residential buildings, wholly owned by overseas Chinese, are used for long-term residence. Kaiping Diaolou combines Chinese and Western styles, and the Diaolou has various shapes. The biggest feature is to integrate different foreign architectural styles according to their own wishes and form a whole. There are not only ancient Greek and Roman styles, but also architectural elements of Gothic, Islamic, Baroque and Rococo styles. It is difficult to classify Kaiping Diaolou as a certain architectural style in a certain period abroad.

These architectural elements of different styles, schools and religions complement each other in Kaiping Diaolou, showing unique artistic charm. The defense function is fully embodied in the building structure. Narrow doors and windows, heavy steel windows and iron gates, gun holes around the top floor, watchtowers, searchlights and alarms on the roof have made great contributions to protecting the lives and property of villagers in history.

On June 25th, 20001year, Kaiping Diaolou was approved to be included in the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. On June 28th, 2007, "Kaiping Diaolou and Ancient Villages" applied for the World Heritage Project, which was approved at the 3rd1World Heritage Conference, and was officially listed in the World Heritage List, becoming the 35th World Heritage in China, thus giving birth to the first overseas Chinese cultural world heritage project in China. 20 17 to 12 were selected as the second batch of China 20th century architectural heritage.