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Guangdong towers fuse East, West styles
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KAIPING Diaolou, usually a multistory tower, is a unique rural architecture found mainly in Kaiping in southern China’s Guangdong Province.
Made generally of reinforced concrete, such buildings not only combine the functions of a rural dwelling and a stronghold, but also display a complex and flamboyant fusion of Chinese and Western structural and decorative features.
In 2007, the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages were collectively named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Kaiping has long been the home of hundreds of emigrants, who left China to seek a life in Southeast Asia, North America, other parts of Asia or Australia. This could be attributed partly to the fact that Kaiping was constantly plagued by both rampant bandits and frequent storms and flooding.
During the late years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), local villagers began to build fortified stronghold-like towers in the middle of their villages for use as temporary shelters during times of trouble.
In 1644, the first year of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), a local resident built a diaolou called Ruiyun Tower in Jingtouli Village. It was an extremely solid stronghold and its owner offered it as a safe house for his fellow villagers and people from a neighboring village during bandit invasions or during stormy weather and flooding.
In the ensuing centuries, more and more such towers appeared in Kaiping villages. Some of the emigrants who had made a fortune overseas came back to their ancestral homes to build luxurious homes to “glorify their family and ancestors.”
Most of their new homes were built into strong and multistory towers in order to protect their wealth. Some people not only invited foreign architects to draft architectural drawings for such towers, but also shipped home tons of building materials from overseas.
The diaolou building boom peaked during the 1920s and 1930s, when more than 3,000 towers stood in Kaiping villages.
Nanlou, one of the iconic Kaiping towers, was built in Tengjiao Village in 1912. It’s a seven-story reinforced concrete structure that stands 19 meters high. Every story has embrasures in all directions of its outer wall. The sixth floor was once a lookout equipped with machine guns and searchlights.
In terms of the building materials, Kaiping Diaolou falls into four main categories — those built with reinforced concrete, black bricks, cobblestones or rammed earth.
In terms of their functions, they could be classified as communal houses, residences and night watch towers. A watch tower usually stood on high ground near the entrance of a village and would be equipped with searchlights and alarm instruments. More than 60 percent of Kaiping Diaolou were built as fortified rural dwellings.
Also, due to the great Western influence, most Kaiping Diaolou are structures displaying a mixture of traditional Chinese and Western architectural styles. For instance, some towers feature ancient Greek colonnades; Roman columns, arches and domes; medieval European gothic vaults; Portuguese verandas or baroque adornments.
Many Kaiping Diaolou also have beautiful roofs with distinctive characteristics such as the traditional Chinese flying eaves, ancient Roman pediments and domes, Western rooftop balconies and North American castle coverings.
Today, there are more than 18,000 such unique towers standing in Kaiping and its neighboring areas. They have become a major tourist attraction in southern China.
灰雕 (huidiao)
Lime Sculpture
Huidao refers to sculptures, figurines and reliefs made of specially treated lime and used to decorate roof ridges and outer walls of residential buildings as well as temples.
Such architectural adornments can be found mainly in coastal areas of China.
In Kaiping in southern China’s Guangdong Province, the lime sculptures date back to more than 300 years ago.
In the early years, craftsmen used plastering trowels and lime mixed with straw and sticky rice flour to create on-the-spot reliefs and figurines on the outer walls and roof ridges. Then, they painted their works with layers of rich mineral colors.
Later, under Western influence, they began to mix lime with concrete and sand. Also, they employed pottery tubes and copper wires to help craft larger sculptures.
Since such lime sculptures and reliefs have never been fired, they need repainting every four or five years.
Today, huidiao has already been listed by local governments as an intangible cultural heritage, and young craftsmen are being trained to help preserve this ancient Chinese architectural tradition.
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