Kaiping Diaolou Kaiping Diaolous () are fortified multi-storey towers constructed in the village countryside of mainly the Kaiping area. They were built from the early
Qing dynasty to the early 20th century, reaching a peak in the 1920s and 1930s, with the financial aid of
overseas Chinese, when there were more than three thousand of these structures. Today, 1,833
diaolou are still standing, with the most in the towns of Shuikou (), Tangkou (), Baihe (), Chikan (), and Xiangang (), in that order (see map in article by Batto). In the late 19th and early 20th century, Kaiping was a region of major emigration abroad, and a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by
overseas Chinese,
Huaqiao, made good. The
diaolou were built by villagers during a time of chaos and served two purposes: housing and protecting against forays by bandits. The Kaiping diaolou was the location for parts of the filming of 2010 movie
Let the Bullets Fly (). Kaiping September 2007.jpg|Ruishi Lou in Jinjiangli Majianglong Diaolou.jpg|Majianglong Diaolou Zili Village Yunhuan Lou 0005.jpg|Diaolou cluster at Zilicun 南樓.JPG|Nan Lou in Chikan Examples of diaolous include: • Yinglonglou (), oldest extant diaolou in Kaiping, in the village of Sanmenli (Chikan township) built by the Guan () lineage during the Jiajing era of the Ming dynasty (1522–1566), is a massive three-storey fortress with one-meter thick walls, in contrast with the high tower diaolou built much later with the aid of Huaqiao. ==Miscellaneous==