year of inscription. 2007
criteria. Cultural
Kaiping, in the province of Guangdong, is the home of villages which feature diaolou. Dialou is a multi-storeyed defensive village houses that reflect a complex, flamboyant fusion of Chinese and Western architectural forms. While they were built as early as during the Ming Dynasty (1368CE - 1644CE), they reached a peak during the Warlord Era (1916 - 28CE), in response to warfare and banditry. They were often built with financial aid from Chinese emigrants to Southeast Asia, Australasia, and North America in the late 19th and early 20th century CE. They could take the form of: one, communal towers for use as refuge for a few families; two, fortified residential towers of rich households; and, lastly, watch towers.
