kaiping

Liyuan Garden – a bright pearl in the sea of gardens designed by Overseas Chinese, is the one with unique architectural style which can well match tbe Four Famous Gardens in Guangdong.
Situated at Tangkou Town, Kaiping City, a noted hometown for overseas Chinese, and covering an area of about 20 mu, Liyuan Garden is a garden villa of the late Mr. Xie Weili, an overseas Chinese resided in the United States. This garden was built in the early 20th century. Based on the Grand View Garden described in the Chinese classic,, a Dream of Red Mansions”, Liyuan takes in much of the Chinese traditional garden architecture and integrate it with

the feature of European and American villas of its time, a successful combination of Chinese and the West. It aIso enjoys the reputation of being a Grand View Garden only smaller in size.
The Iayout of garden consists of three parts’ Villa Zone, Grand Garden, and Little Garden. There are five villas and a watchtower in the Zone. The exterior is composed of yeIlow waIIs, green tiIes, overhanging eaves and bucket arches which appears quite magnificent, whereas the interior Iooks comfOrtable and gracefuI, just like a haven of peace in the world! In both gardens, there are trees, songs of birds and scent of flowers everywhere and sights such as views from beside water, winding path leading to a secluded spots, memoria1 and decorated archways, birds garden, flower pavilion etc. Especially the Yupei Villa at the north west corner is really a place of attraction.
Each part of the garden has a sty1e of its own. They are separated by water or walls, but are connected by pavilion bridges and winding corridors, which can provide much food fOr thought for their views within the view and gardens within the garden. Moreover the coup1ets hung on the pillar and written by famous
calligraphers make the garden rich in cultural connotation. Plenty of romantic and elegant clay carvings and printed murals make us feel that we are staying in a Fairyland. The scenery of the garden is so attractive that it draws a number of photographers towards it. Some of the movie scenes such as in,l Great Decisive
Battle’, were taken in this garden. It is real1y a sample exhibit of gardens of Overseas Chinese!
Due to wars before 1iberation Liyuan Garden was for many a time on the point of destruction. After liberation, Tao Zhu and other government leaders came to visit it in 1957. They gave instruction toprotect everything the garden. Then it became a sanitarium of Zhaoqing District in l959. In the year of l983 the
garden was first listed as one of the historic reservations of county grade bythe PeopIe’s Government of Kaiping County. In October, l999 Ms Xie Yu Yaoqiong, the widow of the garden owner wrote a letter to entrust the People’s Government of Kaiping City to administer the garden for 50 years. Since then, the famous garden
has been completeIy renewed andexpanded. It will eventuaIIy become one of the first-class tourist spots in China.
The flowers of Overseas Chinese blossoms in their hometowns here and the South China pearl sparkles in the wor1d. Today Liyuan Gvarden welcomes the honored guests from everywhere with its new charm.
Meng Zhaozhen, vice-chairman of China Landscape Scene Association, came tovisit Liyuan Garden and wrote an inscription: “Set up the model of gardens combining Chinese and Western style”.

Zili Village is under the jurisdiction of Tangkou Township , Kaiping, 12 kilometers to the urban district of the city to its east. They were built on the plain in the river valley of Zhenhai , a branch of Tanjiang River . The housing pattern and natural environment of the village are both well-protected. Ponds and lotus lakes are seen among the houses and Diaolous. Now the village has 63 farming households with 179 residents. A total of 248 overseas Chinese from this village are mainly living in the United States and Canada . The villagers,—honest, open and optimistic – are living a casual and leisurely life.

The whole village has nine Diaolous and six western-style villas. They are Longsheng Tower , Yangxian Villa, Qiu’an Villa, Ju’an Tower, Yaoguang Villa, Yunhuan Tower , Zhulin Tower , Zhen’an Tower, Mingshi Tower , Anlu Villa, Yinong Tower , Yesheng Villa, Guansheng Villa, Lansheng Villa and Zhanlu Villa. The earliest Longsheng Tower was built in the eighth year of the Republic of China ( 1919 A .D.), and the latest Zhanlu Villa was built in the thirty-seventh year of the Republic of China ( 1948 A .D.). The most exquisite Mingshi Tower has seven floors. On the first floor is the sitting room. The living rooms and bedrooms are on the second to fourth floors. The fifth floor is the place where the family members pay respect to their ancestors. The colonnades and hanging-out corner towers are also on this floor. There is a hexagonal lookout pavilion in the mixed style of Chinese and western architectures built in the middle of the terrace of the sixth floor. Furniture, living facilities, labor tools and daily utensils are well-preserved in the tower. They are the witnesses of the life and culture of the returned overseas Chinese. The various Diaolous in Zili Village are the representatives of Kaiping Diaolous during their booming time.

There exist 1,833 Diaolous in Kaiping’s 16 townships. The most typical Diaolous are mostly seen in Tangkou, Baihe, Xiangang and Chikan Township in the central plain. Not many can be found in the hilly areas. The five nominated places listed for application for world cultural heritage are located in these four townships. They demonstrate the earliest and most representative Diaolous, especially the Diaolous built in their most booming time. They are the typical Diaolous that combine the Chinese and Western styles and indicate the relationship with the villages. One can see the various types of Diaolous and their different functions, which show their high value. All in all, these Diaolous are all major historical and cultural sites to be protected at the national level.
The Kaiping Diaolou mainly served the purposes of defence and dwelling. Kaiping Diaolou is divided into three types: Night Watchtowers, Communal Towers and Dwelling Towers. The Night Watchtowers were built for joint defence among villages. They were mostly built at the entrance of the villages, on the hill or beside the river outside the village. They functioned to give alarm. The Communal Towers were built in the rear part with the funds raised by all villagers or many households. Each family had one room to hide themselves in case of bandits’ attack. Such towers were built in a sealed and simple way for the purpose of defence. Solely rich families built the dwelling towers at the back of the village. Such towers well combine the two purposes. High, spacious and nice-looking as well as convenient for living, they are usually the symbols of a village.
The upper part of the Diaolous is built in the form of colonnade, terrace, receding terrace, over-hanging, castle and mixture of different styles. The appearance of a Diaolous reflects the economic strength of the owner, aesthetic taste and the impact of external culture. This is the most interesting part of the Diaolous.
From building materials and structure, Kaiping Diaolous can be divided into stone towers, lime-sand-clay towers, brick towers (including brick-wood and brick-concrete structure) and steel reinforced concrete towers. The stone and brick towers were mainly built in the hilly areas. They had a longer history. The early brick towers were of brick-wood structure. Later, they were mostly of brick-concrete structure. The steel reinforced concrete buildings were mostly seen in the plain areas. In the early 20th century, much steel and cement started to be used. Local people then began to accept modern building materials and technology.
Kaiping was the place where Xinhui, Xinxing,Taishan and Enping counties bordered. Because the society was not in good order and the bandits were rampant. The Ming Dynasty government stationed lots of soldiers during the reign of Emperor Wanli. It got the name “Kaiping” from then on, “Kaiping” at that time meant “establishing the safe of this area”. In the sixth year of Shunzhi’s reign in Qing Dynasty (1649 A.D.), bandits were rampant and floods often hit the villages. Local people started to build Diaolous to guard against bandits and floods. The Yinlong Tower at Sanmenli village built in the 16th century was the earliest Diaolous that can still be seen today. It also represented the earliest shape of Diaolous in Kaiping. The primary stage of the development of Diaolous lasted until the Opium War in Qing Dynasty (1840 A.D.). At this stage, the Diaolous were simple in both appearance and functions. Traditional materials and styles were adopted. The ten existent stone towers in Zhuliantang Village at Dasha Town in the mountainous area, which is not inhabited by returned overseas Chinese, are of the same type of Diaolous during the earliest period.
After the mid-19th century, the United States, Canada and Australia needed a great number of laborers for the opening of mines and the construction of railways. Thousands of impoverished farmers in Kaiping went to work abroad. As some countries did not allow Chinese workers to bring their spouses, and the Chinese had the tradition of returning to their hometown with position and wealth, some overseas Chinese soon remitted their money back home. “Buying land, building house and taking a wife” were the three musts for some returned overseas Chinese. Their vaunting of wealth had made the insecure Kaiping suffer more from bandits. Protecting the safety of people and property became the top important thing. Improved economic conditions also made it possible for them to build more comfortable and safe houses. In the early 1920s, building Western-Chinese houses and spreading western civilization were all the rage. A large number of Diaolous were built together with the traditional houses. Western building materials, techniques and designs were widely adopted. Many Diaolous with the western flavor were built. From the end of the 19th century to the 1930’s, it became the booming period for the development of Diaolous in Kaiping.
After World War II broke out, the remittances sent back by the overseas Chinese were reduced and suspended, making the house construction basically stop and Diaolous building decline. Today, with the change of social conditions, the conditions for the existence of Diaolous have fundamentally changed. The functions of the Diaolous have been weakened and diminished. Most of the Diaolous have been gradually laid idle. Some brick and stone towers have even been dismantled for people to get the building materials. Under the circumstances, the Kaiping city People’s Government ordered the protection of many most representative Diaolous and their internal facilities, defensive, production and living utensils. At the same time, the government also tried many ways to find and visit the Diaolou owners and help them take care of their property. It also put in a large amount of money into repairing and fortifying them in accordance with the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics. Most of them are therefore well-preserved till today.

KaiPing MidNight

Beauty City!