Kaiping Diaolou | An Oriental castle hidden in the countryside.

📍Kaiping Diaolou Cultural Tourism Area, Guangdong 🟢Kaiping Diaolou is the 35th World Cultural Heritage Site. The scenic area mainly includes Liyuan, Zili Village, and Majianglong. We visited Zili Village, which has some residential houses, 9 watchtowers, and 6 cottages. The most famous is Mingshi Tower, where "Let the Bullets Fly" was filmed. It is also the best place for aerial photography. I was amazed by the interior. There are gramophones, steak pans, cat cages, bathtubs, toilets, and more. I was amazed by the wealth of the owners! 🟢Zili Village is an overseas Chinese village. After making money, overseas Chinese returned to invest in real estate. According to records, 15 watchtowers were built in the 1920s due to rampant banditry and frequent floods. 🟢From the outside, the watchtowers are mostly 4–5 stories high. The windows are small, with iron windows and doors. There are many gun holes in the house, escape ropes upstairs, and places to store large amounts of food. They are very smart. In case of emergencies or bandit attacks, the advantages are obvious! 🟢I did a lot of research before going, and there were mixed reviews. To be honest, the ticket price of 78 is really expensive, especially since we had 5 adults and 1 child. But the rice field scenery and the watchtowers were eye-opening. I think it was worth it. As the saying goes, "Since you're here, you might as well enjoy it!" 🎫: 78/person (Liyuan and Zili Village combo ticket: 120/person) 🛖: There are two free villages nearby: Zuzhai Village and Tangkou 🚘: Liyuan and Zili Village are about 5 km apart. There is a shuttle bus between the two places, about 1 hour/class. ⭕️Finally, I would like to share a sentence from the promotional video in the scenic area that touched me: "Heritage exists not only because of its appearance, but also because of the people who live here, the practice and expression of their way of life, and its thought-provoking nature. The preservation of cultural heritage is not only about protecting the buildings themselves, but also about the inheritance of its history and culture and the continuation of its way of life."