开平碉楼讲解词.docxVIP

KAIPING DIAOLOU The Watchtower-like Houses in Kaiping City 【What how is Kaiping Diaolou】—【Outstanding Diaolou Structures】—【The Li Garden】 (Good morning! Ladies and Gentlemen: This morning we’ll drive 1.5 hours to visit the unique “Diaolou” houses in Kaiping City. You feel puzzled when hearing the word Diaolou, don’t you? Now let me tell you something about the city of Kaiping as well as what and how these houses are.) 【What how is Kaiping Diaolou】 Kaiping is a small city in Guangdong Province, about 100 kilometers to the southwest of Guangzhou, with an area of 1659 square kilometers and a population of 680 thousand. It has long been known as the native land of a great many overseas Chinese, the number totting up to or even more than its domestic population. The Chinese, you know, are a nostalgic people having a strong feeling of wistful longing for home, so the overseas Chinese from Kaiping, no matter how long they had been away and how far they were away from home, would come back to buy a piece of land to build their house and to get married. Those houses built by the returned overseas Chinese during the late 19th and early 20th centuries are all watchtower-like, with thick solid walls, small and narrow iron doors and windows, and even with embrasures on the walls and an observation tower on the top. So, “Kaiping Diaolou” is a proper name of the multi-storeyed defensive country houses of the returned overseas Chinese in Kaiping City. Built of stone, brick or concrete, these buildings display a fusion of Chinese and foreign architectural and decorative forms, and reflect the significant role these emigrant Kaiping people had played in the development of the countries they resided, in South Asia, Australasia, North America and other regions of the world. You may wonder why these returned overseas Chinese had their houses built into a structure of a watchtower. Well, the reasons are clear. First, public order at that time was bad and banditry was a real