岭南文化英语导读

会计113 张金源201110964322

Kaiping Diaolou

Kaiping city is located in the southwestern part of the Pearl River Delta. It is 100 km away from Guangzhou in the northeast. Kaiping is one of the renowned homes to overseas Chinese. It is famous for the multifunctional houses with their own style. The Chinese 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．

Kaiping Diaolou is listed by the Chinese State Council as a key cultural relic protected by the state．Its total number amounted to 3，300 in the peak years and now the registered number is 1833，and twenty of the better ones are inscribed on the World Heritage List by United Nations Educational，Scientific and Cultural Organization. These buildings take three forms：communal tower jointly built by．Several families for use as temporary refuge，residential tower built by individual rich family and used as fortified residence，and watch tower for guarding against bandits．In the 1940s during the war of resistance against Japan，some of these towers became strongholds for people’s militia．

The Diaolou structures in Zili Village，12 kilometers away from the Kaiping city center，are the most magnificent and best preserved．There are 15 in all，which are all listed as key cultural relics protected by the state．Among them the Mingshilou is the best of all. Built in 1925，it is a 5－storeyed reinforced concrete structure，with an hexagon observation pavilion on the top and a blockhouse built on the outside walls at each of the four corners on the fifth floor. This huge and imposing tower is installed with heavy iron doors and strong iron windows and is luxuriously decorated and well furnished．

Other well－known Diaolou structures are the Yinglonglou in Chikan Town，the Ruishilou in Yan’gang Town and the Fangshe Denglou in Tangkou Town．They were built in different years by different families and so are different in architectural style．The Yinglonglou，built during the Jiajing Reign of the Ming Dynasty in the middle of the 16th century is the oldest Diaolou structure and is free from foreign influence in architectural style. The Ruishilou，a 9 storied 25 meter high reinforced concrete structure，is the most luxury and is laid out and furnished in the traditional Chinese pattern．The Fangshi Denglou，a reinforced concrete structure built in 1920 by the Fang family，is typical of the Diaolou structure as a watchtower for it was located in an open land and was provided with electric generator，searchlights and guns