Rong'anlou Tower

Rong'anlou is a diaolou tower in Chikan, set right at the water's edge and surrounded by wooden decking. Towers like this went up across Kaiping County in the first third of the 20th century on remittances from emigrants: thick concrete walls, narrow windows with iron shutters and a living storey on top finished with corner turrets. A diaolou served at once as a house, a granary and a stronghold in case of a bandit raid, while its upper tier allowed the approaches to be covered by fire. The mix of European decoration with Chinese planning made these towers the signature of the district, and in 2007 the diaolou of Kaiping were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

On the map