Liyuan Village

Liyuan is the most polished of the four main diaolou villages, its towers and surrounding garden well-maintained and presented with some care for the visitor experience. The village's Ruishi Tower stands nine storeys and combines a neoclassical base with a Byzantine dome in a combination that should be ridiculous and isn't — the sheer confidence of the design carries it. The surrounding garden and ponds, restored to something close to their original condition, give the complex a setting that the other villages lack.

Because Liyuan is the most visitor-ready of the four villages, it is also the most crowded at peak times. Weekend mornings fill quickly; a weekday or early arrival gives you the towers largely to yourself.

things to do sight
A story
The Ruishi Tower in Liyuan, completed in 1925, was the tallest diaolou in Kaiping when it was built: nine storeys, topped with a Byzantine dome, its lower floors in a European neoclassical style and its upper floors showing Chinese decorative elements. It was built by a family who had worked in North America and wanted their tower to be visibly the grandest in the district. The competitive logic — who can build the tallest, the most ornate, the most foreign-looking — drove the whole architectural phenomenon.