Kaiping
The Diaolou Towers
Portrait
Chinese who emigrated to America, Canada and Southeast Asia sent money back to Kaiping, and their families built diaolou — watchtowers combining Chinese structure with Greek columns, Islamic arches and Baroque pediments copied from postcards — for defence against bandits and floods. Around 1,800 survive of the three thousand built, mostly between 1900 and 1931.
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