Kaiping Diaolou is a local architectural group integrating defense, residence and Chinese and western architectural arts. Although there are differences in materials and styles, Kaiping Diaolou has the same characteristics, namely, narrow doors and windows, steel doors and windows, thick walls and holes in the walls. The top floor of the watchtower is mostly equipped with observation platforms, equipped with guns, generators, alarms, searchlights and other early defense devices. Every watchtower is a strong little fortress, guarding the life and property of its owner.
Kaiping Diaolou is a masterpiece in architectural history because of its diverse architectural styles and decorative arts. These towers, large and small, have not only the traditional hard-topped and suspended-top styles in China, but also the architectural forms and styles in different periods in Europe, such as Gothic and Romanesque.
Kaiping Diaolou was built by local residents in Kaiping hometown of overseas Chinese to protect their homes. Its rise is closely related to Kaiping's geographical environment, historical conditions and past social security. Kaiping is low-lying with dense river networks. Every time there is a typhoon and rainstorm, there is always the worry of flooding. In addition, the territory under its jurisdiction used to be the remote border of Xinhui, Taishan, Enping and Xinxing counties, which has always been known as "caring for the four" and the social order is chaotic. Therefore, in the early Qing Dynasty, villagers built watchtowers to prevent floods and bandits. By the Republic of China, warlords were separated, bandits were rampant, and social security was extremely chaotic. Kaiping, on the other hand, because of the blending of mountains and rivers and convenient land and water transportation, a large number of overseas Chinese relatives and returned overseas Chinese live here, which has become an important target for bandits to plunder. So in Kaiping township, the wind is trembling and everyone is in danger. At the slightest sign of trouble, people gather up their gold and silver and flee everywhere, often staying up all night. In this case, Kaiping people have to respond positively, among which the construction and use of watchtowers are the most obvious.
Kaiping Diaolou has different styles and building materials. Generally speaking, it can be divided into four types: reinforced concrete buildings, blue brick buildings, mud buildings and stone buildings. Most reinforced concrete buildings were built in the 1920s and 1930s. The whole building adopts modern reinforced concrete structure, and the building is very strong. Blue brick watchtower is a watchtower built with blue brick as the main building material. Some blue brick watchtowers are actually mud buildings, only with a layer of blue bricks on the outside, while others add reinforced concrete inside to enhance the strength of watchtowers. Mud buildings include mud brick buildings and yellow mud rammed buildings. Mud brick building is made of soil as raw material and dried as building material. In order to prolong the service life of mud bricks, a layer of lime sand or cement will be coated outside to prevent rain erosion, thus playing a role in protection and reinforcement. The yellow mud rammer tower is made of yellow mud, lime, sand and brown sugar in proportion, and then rammed with two large wooden boards to build a wall. This rammed yellow mud wall is generally nearly half a meter thick, and its firmness can be comparable to that of reinforced concrete walls. A stone building is a tower built with rocks or pebbles as building materials. These towers are few in number and mainly distributed in mountainous areas where quarrying is convenient, such as Dasha.
Swiss Building, known as "the first building in Kaiping", is located at the left rear side of Jinjiang Village, Qi Gang Town, Kaiping City. It is the best preserved watchtower among many watchtowers in Kaiping City. The building is 9 stories high and covers an area of 92 square meters. It has a reinforced concrete structure and is very strong. When people pass by expressway by car, they can see its majestic posture against the backdrop of bamboo forests from a distance. It is not only superior in height, but also unique in appearance. Ruishi Building is a typical architectural style combining Chinese and Western styles, and different levels highlight different western architectural artistic styles. The landlord also specially added some factors of China traditional architectural culture to the patterns of window frames and lintels, as well as the patterns and gray carvings of six-story walls. The two combine nature and bring out the best in each other. They are not abrupt at all, reflecting superb architectural concepts.
Nowadays, the era of bandits is long gone, and people no longer need strong barriers to ensure safety, but the watchtower still stands firmly on the land of Kaiping, telling the vicissitudes of history with rusty iron gates and scarred building walls.