Castle-Like Building 城堡式建筑

In sharp contrast to the new houses plastered with light-coloured mosaics, these old castle-like buildings, of which there are more than 1,400, created a unique skyline unparalleled anywhere else in China. Many of these buildings are considered forgotten architectural gems. The buildings are the result of Western influences brought back by Chinese emigrants. The first castle-like building was built in the initial years of the Qing Dynasty. According to the local Kaiping annals, the Qing court designated the area as the county of Kaiping, meaning open and peaceful, in the year 1649. Originally squeezed in between three other counties, the establishment of Kaiping County did not bring peace to the local residents. Bandits haunted the area in the middle of the 17th century. One day, local resident Xu Longsuo’s wife was kidnapped. While preparing the ransom, Xu Yi, Xu Longsuo’s, got a message from his mother. In her message, she asked him to use the gold to build a castle to safeguard the community from the bandits. The same night, his mother committed suicide. Thus, Xu Yi built a castle to fulfill his mother’s wish. Although the castle no longer exists, Yalong Building, built in 1650, still stands. First built to protect the locals from the bandits, villagers later sought shelter in the building during floods. For generations, local villagers have taken good care of the Yalong Building. The earliest castle-like buildings were few in number to start with, since few people could afford to build such gigantic homes. Most castles were constructed in the early 20th century as contributions from overseas Chinese flowed into the town.

With 1,659 square kilometers Kaiping is home to 680,000 residents today, but some 490,000 overseas Chinese and 250,000 residents of Hong Kong and Macao claim to have ancestral roots in Kaiping. The earliest Chinese who went abroad in search of better life were mostly men. They dreamed of building a house, finding a wife and buying a piece of land. Many began to send money to their relatives in Kaiping in the early 1910s. This money also brought more bandits. Local residents had to organize and pool their money to build more giant buildings to guard against robbery as well as floods. Help also came from abroad, as overseas relatives contributed money or simply returned home to supervise the construction. Historical documents show that some Chinese emigrants hired overseas designers while others imported the most solid building materials of the time, such as reinforcing bars and cement, which were not produced in China at that time. All the castles share many of the same features: the thick grey walls, the rusty iron-made doors, the small and fully-defended windows and the shooting holes hidden in each side of the walls. The most interesting is the fact that the builders borrowed architectural motifs from overseas for the design of the castles. As a result, the castles display architectural styles from various European countries, such as the Islamic domed-arches popular in Turkey, the 16th-century gothic-styled roofs seen in England, castle structures common in Germany and Roman domes from Italy. Many of the castle towers integrated Chinese and European styles into a harmonious unit. It is common to see European-flavoured arches surrounded by traditional Chinese archivolts like dragons and fishes. In China, it is not difficult to find old European-style buildings, particularly in cities like Shanghai, Qingdao, Dalian and Xiamen, where foreigners secured their concessions. But no city can surpass Kaiping in the number of such eclectic buildings. Foreigners built most European-style building in other cities during the time China suffered humiliation by colonialists. But in Kaiping, Chinese built the castles. During its peak, the total number of constructions numbered from 3,000 to 5,000. Today, after decades of disuse and the effects of the damp and hot South China weather, some 1,400 castle-like buildings remain. Legendary stories are still told about the folk heroes who were protected by the castles during the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945). Today, most of the families have moved out of the buildings for new houses that offer more comfort and convenience. But these buildings have drawn attention from both tourism companies and officials from the State Administration of the Cultural Heritage. There unique buildings (watchtower house) in Kaiping have both a high artistic value and an archaeological value. Blessed with both artistic charms and historic value, these watchtowers are treasures and our heritage from our ancestors. With the hope of getting the castles listed as the World Heritage Sites, the local government is now trying hard to restore and protect these surviving builings.

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