Jinjiangli Village, Guangdong, China

4Danzelho 5:00 PM May 10, 2015

Authentic watch tower experience without the crowd.
We made our way to Jin Jiang Li Diaolou (锦江里碉楼) Village without a clue of the direction and solely relying on the kind assistance from the locals. The bus driver was kind enough to prompt us when it was time to alight. We were then asked to tag along with a lady who was also alighting at the same stop. The lady was also very gracious as she offered to walk with us for half the journey and shared with us some information of the area. I reckon there is no deny that rural people are always much more hospitable as compare to city dwellers. People don’t really care about what you wear, what you do for a living, and they are genuinely just interested in you. Having the knowledge of mandarin chinese or cantonese will go a long way, as most local people do not speak english. However the locals are usually helpful and will try their best to assist you. Upon alighting from the bus on the main road, there is a huge signboard pointing towards the general direction of the village. Even without the assistance from the local lady, i am sure finding the way is rather easy, as there are not many buildings within the surrounding and you can see the watch towers even from far. The diaolou were typical buildings of traditional Chinese society, at a time of general public instability. The other reasons of constructing such towers in their homeland is also to reflect that they have succeeded overseas, and to display their prestige and wealth. Many of this towers reflect different styles of the countries which they have went, and display a flamboyant fusion of western and chinese architectural, and decorative forms that resembles styles such as Roman, Baroque and Indochina. During the early 20th century, bandits roam the country side looting and robbing from the villages therefore the towers are built with defensive purpose in mind. The towers are divided to 3 types, night watch tower, communal tower and dwelling tower. The towers are heavily fortified with reinforced concrete walls, metal doors and windows. Each level of the tower can also be sealed off to prevent intruders from entering and to protect the occupant. Jingjiangli Diaolou village is located in Xian Gang town (蚬冈镇), furthest away from the rest of the UNESCO inscribed Diaolou clusters. A peaceful village in the inner land along a flowing river, surrounded by local farmland. There are only 3 dialous standing among the traditional old houses in the village, however what stands out was Ruishilou (瑞石楼). It was the highest diaolou in Kaiping, was built in 1923 by Huang Bixiu, a rich merchant at a cost of HKD$30,000 who, together with his two sons, owned a medicine shop and a bank in Hong Kong. There are a total of nine storey in Ruishilou, covering 92 square meters on each level, and erected with reinforced concrete structure and metal windows. Every storey is designed differently, and the windows comes in different shapes and configuration. The interior of the diaolou is decorated in traditional Guangdong manner and the exterior is designed in western fashion. The top floor has three pavilions, highlighting a strong sense of Western architectural style, which incorporated Roman Byzantine dome roof giving the whole structure a unique twist of beauty. Jinjianli Village is the furthest away from the rest of the diaolou cluster, therefore it offers you a truly authentic experience without any other tourists around. A small, peaceful and quiet village, where people still go about with their daily routine. lastdiscovery(dot)wordpress(dot)com

5DjangoDjango 5:00 PM Sep 13, 2015

The less visited village of all the Diaolou village's
The village itself is not as beautiful as Zili village, But the surroundings of this village was our favorite of the Three villages we visited (Zili,Maxianglong, and this one) We really enjoyed cycling to here and the village is about 10 to 15 km from the village of Chikan, where we rented our bikes. From Chikan there are some easy roadsigns who will lead you to the village you can't miss it. When we were there, we had a lot less visitor's as in the village of Zili which made it really nice to stroll around and enjoy the scenery. This village is one of the 7 sights on the combo ticket for 180 Yuan.