Kaiping

Our staff took a sightseeing trip to Kaiping last weekend- a UNESCO World Heritage site. Chinese who had made their fortunes in the US and Canada during the 20’s and 30’s and returned to this area of China to marry (I think) and to retire. The houses are of interest because they look like a cross between an architectural folly and a castle tower. Apparently they needed to be secure enough to protect the inhabitants from: (and I quote) marauders.

This guy would be enough to scare me off- no tower needed

The big tower above belonged to this dude and his 3 wives. 

One floor for entertaining and a level for each wife. 

A fabulous kitchen on each floor.











All connected by a spiral staircase with beautiful
scenic roof view.

At its peak Kaiping had 3000 towers. Now there are only about
1000. Only a handful are open to the public. I think the rest are still considered ancestral homes.



People still live in the area. Although I think that there live off the tourist trade. 


 It was very interesting for about 40 minutes. Unfortunately, we were there for 2 hours.