The Kaiping Diaolou (watchtowers) are fortified multi-storey towers. The first towers were built during the early Qing Dynasty (1614 - 1912); reaching a peak in the 1920s and 1930s; when there were more than three thousand of these structures. Today; approximately 1;833 diaolou remain standing in Kaiping; and approximately 500 in Taishan. Although the diaolou served mainly as protection against forays by bandits; a few of them also served as living quarters.

Kaiping has traditionally been a region of major emigration abroad; and a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas Chinese. As a result; many diaolou incorporate architectural features from China and from the West. Pictures From Asia David Henley