Discover China’s ancient fortresses and fortifications

Daqi Ancient Castle and Rosary Church Photo: Li Hao/GT

The opulent fairy tale wedding of Taiwanese pop idol Jay Chou recently in Selby Abbey, an Anglican parish in a picturesque little town in North Yorkshire, England, has led hundreds of swooning social media users in China to add the medieval-era church to their "must-see" lists on their speculative Europe itineraries.

For those who cannot afford such a lavish expense, the good news is that there are ancient towers and fortresses in China every bit as stunning as the churches and castles of Europe.

The marriage of East and West

Located in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, the Kaiping Diaolou are a collection of fortified multistory watchtowers, constructed in the 1920s and 1930s by returning Chinese immigrants known as huaqiao who had made their fortunes abroad in places like the US, Canada, Malaysia and Australia.

Scattered across a number of villages, the 1,800-odd buildings that constitute the Kaiping Diaolou were accorded the status of a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007.

"[They] represent a marriage of Chinese and foreign architectural forms, and stand as a historical record of the lifestyle and culture of Chinese huaqiao," said Chen Zicong, marketing director of Guangdong Kaiping Diaolou Tourism Development Company.

According to the official Website of the attraction, the best time to visit the towers is in spring, when the buildings look especially stunning framed against the blossoming of yellow canola flowers on the surrounding farms.

Unlike abbeys or cathedrals in the West, said Chen, the Kaiping towers were not intended as spaces for public communion, but rather as homes for wealthy returned Chinese immigrants. Consequently, they usually occupied a much smaller floor area.

"They served as houses, but were also strongly fortified to defend against forays by bandits, who ran rampant during the time they were built," said Chen.

Chen said that some of the buildings had been abandoned for decades, but any descendents of the original land-holders who could present evidence of ownership, such as a set of keys or a property deed, could reclaim rights to the towers under local laws in Guangdong.

The Kaiping towers have received greater attention in recent years due to being featured in big-budget movie spectacles such as Jiang Wen's Let The Bullets Fly (2010) and Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmasters (2013), but they still remain relatively unappreciated compared to many other tourist sites in the country. A 2013 CNN report noted that the city of Kaiping only receives around 600,000 visitors per year - the number that China's most-visited cities might receive in a week.

Kaiping's other attractions include its authentic Cantonese cuisine. In Chikan, one of its villages, travelers can sample traditional dishes such as baozaifan, rice that has been cooked in a clay pot by firewood, fish porridge and duck porridge.

The catacombs of China?

Underneath the Zhangbi ancient village in Shanxi Province is a labyrinthine network of tunnels reminiscent of Paris' famous catacombs. The tunnels extend as long as 5 kilometers, and are organized into three layers, with the bottom layer up to 20 meters underground.

Half an hour by car from the nearest city of Jiexiu, the fortress compound and underground tunnels were built during the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907). The fortified complex added residential spaces and areas for social life such as a theatre in the Yuan (1279-1368), Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). In addition, there are 16 temples and towers in the village as places for religious devotion.

Zhao Chen, a 28-year-old Beijing-based software engineer who visited Zhangbi last year, said it was a memorable experience.

"The three-layer underground tunnels are the most amazing and unique part of Zhangbi village," said Zhao. "We had flashlights to light our way through the tunnels, which have not been restored."