開(kāi)平碉樓和立園
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This morning we’ll drive one hour to visit the unique “diaolou”houses in Kaiping City. You feel puzzled when hearing the word Diaolou, don’t you? Now let me tell you something about the city of Kaiping as well as what and how these houses are.
Kaiping is a small city in Guangdong Province, about 100 kilometers to the southwest of Guangzhou, with an area of 1659 square kilometers and a population of 680 thousand. It has long been known as the native land of a great many overseas Chinese. The Chinese, you know, are a nostalgic people, 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.
You may wonder why these returned overseas Chinese had their houses built into a structure of a watchtower. Well, the reasons are clear. First, public order at that time was bad and banditry was a real headache and the better-off returned overseas Chinese families naturally became targets for robbery; second , the Kaiping area is a stretch of low-lying land and floods were a frequent occurrence. So, these solid and high-rise buildings were good both for defence against bandits and for refuge from the floods.
The watchtower-like building in Kaiping is a structure incorporating the Chinese and Western architectural styles and combining the functions of a residence for the family and a watchtower to guard against bandits. The total number of such buildings reached 3,300 in its peak time. Nowadays the number of registered houses is 1,833. They are listed by the Chinese State Council as one of the cultural relics protected by the state. 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.
The Diaolou structures in Zili Village, 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 a hexagon observation pavilion on the top and a blockhouse built on the outside walls at the 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 luxuriously decorated and well furnished.
Other well-known Diaolou structures were built in different years by different families and so are different in architectural style. The Yinglonglou, is the oldest Diaolou structure and is free from foreign influence in architectural style. The highest and most luxurious watchtower in Kaiping is Ruishilou.This 9-storey tower is 25 meters high and built of armored concrete.Its indoor settings and furnishings are elegantly arranged in a traditional Chinese style. So,this tower is rated as No 1 tower in Kaiping. The Fangshi Denglou, a reinforced concrete structure built in 1920 by the Fang family, is most typical of the Diaolou structure as a watchtower, for it was located in an open land with spacious view and provided with electric generator, searchlights and guns.
Another tourist attraction in Kaiping City is the Li Garden. The garden built in 1926-1936 by and American Chinese, Xie Wei Li (謝維立) by name. The garden’s name “Li”(立) was derived from the name of its owner and it gives expression to the meaning of a Chinese idiom Xiu Shen Li Ben (修身立本), which is written on an archway in the garden, meaning that cultivating one’s moral and character is the key to success in one’s life and work. This idea of the owner’s is also embodied in many other inscriptions and couplets written in the garden.
The Li Garden is laid out in the way of traditional Chinese gardening but many of its structures are built in Western styles .
The residential buildings in the villa area are also combinations of Chinese and Western architectural elements. While their main structures are foreign-styled,some are roofed like a Chinese palace，and inside they are decorated and furnished with both Chinese and foreign artifacts: Western fireplace and pendent lamps. Italian ceramic tiles, Chinese wooden furniture, wall paintings depicting Chinese folk stories, Chinese gilded wood-carvings etc.
The Li Garden is indeed a paragon of harmonious combination of the Chinese and foreign cultures.
(Ladies and Gentlemen: We are now approaching the Zili Villgae We’ll stay here for one hour and will be back to the bus at 11 o’clock. I would suggest you keep together . Miss Wang will be taking the lead, please follow her ,and I will bring up the rear . Thank you!)
備注：黑體字為：中譯英，灰底字為：英譯中，下劃?rùn)M線為：景點(diǎn)問(wèn)答。
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