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Kaiping
*** Shopping-Tip: Kaiping
Image:Location_of_Kaiping_within_Guangdong_(China).png 300px|thumb|Kaiping City (red) within Guangdong
'''Kaiping''' ({{zh-tsp |t=é–‹å¹³ |s=开平 |p=KÄ?ipÃng}};
Yale_Romanization#Cantonese Yale Cantonese: Hoi1 Ping4) or '''Hoi Ping''' is a
county-level city in the
Guangdong province of southern
China. Population: 681,120[http://kptj.kaiping.gov.cn/news/29/200558172910.htm]. Area: 1,659 km². The locals speak the
Taishan dialect.
Administration
Administratively, Kaiping City is under the jurisdiction of
Jiangmen. It was set up as a city in 1993.
Geography
Kaiping City is located 140 km away from
Guangzhou, in the southwestern part of the
Pearl River Delta. Kaiping consists of three port cities: Changsha, Xinchang, and Dihai.
Sights
The ''
diaolou'' are fortified multi-storey towers, which were constructed in the Kaiping area from the early
Qing Dynasty, reaching a peak in the 1920s and 1930s, when there were more than three thousand of these structures. Today, approximately 1,800 ''diaolou'' are still standing. The ''diaolou''served two purposes: housing and protecting against forays by bandits.
Kaiping has traditionally been a region of major emigration abroad, and a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas Chinese made good. As a consequence, several watchtowers incorporate architectural features from China and the West.
Examples include:
* Ruishi Diaolou, located behind Jinjiangli Village, Lianggang Township. Constructed in
1921. It has nine floors and is the highest diaolou at Kaiping. It features a Byzantine style roof and a Roman dome.
* The ''diaolou'' cluster spread across the three villages of Anhe li, He'an li and Yong'an li has 15 ''diaolou'' and houses
* Li Garden, in Beiyi Xiang, was constructed in 1936 by Mr. Xie Weili, a Chinese emigrant to the United States.
* Fangshi Denglou - Built in 1920 after contributions from villagers, this ''denglou'' is five storeys high. It is referred to as the "Light Tower" because it had an enormous searchlight as bright as the beam of a lighthouse.
* Bianchouzhu Lou (The Leaning Tower), located in Nanxing Village was constructed in 1903. It has seven floors.
Miscellaneous
Kaiping is twinned with
Mesa, Arizona,
United States, since October 18, 1993.
External links
-
Kaiping government website
-
Information about the dialou
Category:Cities in Guangdong
category:County-level cities in Guangdong
category:Jiangmen
category:Seiyap
de:Kaiping
fr:Kaiping
zh:开平市
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