Kaiping (), alternately

romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

as Hoiping, in local dialect as Hoihen, is a

county-level city A county-level city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

Province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, China. It is located in the western section of the

Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area in official documents, ...

and administered as part of the

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province of China, province and above a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in China's ...

Jiangmen Jiangmen ( zh, c=江门), postal map romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong provinces of China, Province in southern China. It consists of three urban distri ...

. The surrounding area, especially

Sze Yup The Siyi (Seiyap or Sze Yup in Cantonese; ) refers to the four former counties of Xinhui (Sunwui), Taishan (Toisan), Kaiping (Hoiping) and Enping (Yanping) on the west side of the Pearl River Delta in Southern Guangdong Province, China. Geo ...

(), is the ancestral homeland of many

overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese people are Chinese people, people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 milli ...

, particularly in the United States. Kaiping has a population of 748,777 as of 2020 and an area of . The locals speak a variant of the

Sze Yup dialect Siyi (Seiyap or Sze Yup in Cantonese; meaning "Four Hamlets") is a coastal branch of Yue Chinese spoken mainly in Guangdong province, but is also used in overseas Chinese communities. Within the province, it is mainly spoken in the prefecture-l ...

History

During the

Northern Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, endin ...

(960–1127), Kaiping was under the administration of Xin'an county () Under the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

(1649), made up part of the

commandery In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

of Shiuhing (Zhaoqing). From AD 1649 to AD 1949, the administration centre of Kaiping was Cangcheng (), from AD 1950 to AD 1953, the administration center moved to Chican ()， from AD 1953 until nowadays, the administration center is Sanbu (). It was promoted to

status in 1993.

Administration

Administratively, Kaiping is administered as part of the

Geography

Kaiping's city centre is located on the , away from

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

, on the edge of the county Kaiping west of the

. Kaiping consists of broken terrain, mostly either rocky or swampy, with only a third of the land arable. The county is shaped like a giant question mark (see map, in pink) and includes rural areas as well as three port cities: Changsha, Xinchang, and Dihai.

Climate

Notable people

Wing-tsit Chan Wing-tsit Chan (; 18 August 1901 – 12 August 1994) was a Chinese scholar and professor best known for his studies of Chinese philosophy and his translations of Chinese philosophical texts. Chan was born in China in 1901 and went to the United St ...

: Chinese American scholar * Ed Chau: member of the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature (the upper house being the California State Senate). The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Califor ...

* George Chow: member of the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia () is the deliberative assembly of the Legislature of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The other component of the Legislature is the lieutenant governor of British Columbi ...

* Yun Gee: Chinese American artist * Víctor Joy Way: Chinese Peruvian politician *

Betty Kwan Chinn Betty Kwan Chinn (關惠群) is a philanthropist who lives in Eureka, California. She has helped the homeless—including the mentally ill, disabled veterans, runaways, and drug abusers—since the 1980s. She won the 2008 Minerva Award. She used ...

: Chinese American philanthropist * Lee Quo-wei (1918–2013): former Hong Kong banker *

Liang Xiang Liang Xiang (; 1919 – 13 December 1998) was a politician of the People's Republic of China. He was originally from the city of Kaiping, in Guangdong province. He graduated from Beijing Normal University, and was a representative in the fifth, s ...

: former Governor of

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

Betty Ong Betty Ann Ong (February 5, 1956 - September 11, 2001) was an American Airlines flight attendant who was onboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first airplane hijacked during the September 11 attacks. Ong was the first person to alert authoritie ...

: American flight attendant aboard

American Airlines Flight 11 American Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic Airline, passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into ...

Jean Quan Lai Jean Quan (born October 21, 1949) is an American politician who served the 49th mayor of Oakland, California from 2011 to 2015. She previously served as City Council member for Oakland's 4th District. Upon inauguration on January 3, 2011, sh ...

: former mayor of

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

Bing Thom Bing Wing Thom, (Traditional Chinese character, Chinese: 譚秉榮; 8 December 1940 – 4 October 2016) was a Canadian architect and urban designer. Born in Hong Kong, he immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with his family ...

: Chinese Canadian architect and urban designer *

Szeto Wah Szeto Wah (; 28 February 1931 – 2 January 2011) was a Hong Kong democracy activist and politician. He was the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the Hong Kong Professional Teac ...

(1931–2011): Hong Kong politician * Delbert E. Wong: Los Angeles County jurist who was the first judge in the continental United States of Chinese descent * Ken Hom: Chinese-American chef, BBC TV presenter, and author *

Jessica Soho Maria Jessica Aspiras Soho (; born March 27, 1964) is a Filipino broadcast journalist affiliated with GMA Network. She is the host of the news magazine program ''Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho'' on GMA, and was the news anchor for '' State of the Na ...

, Filipino news anchor, correspondent and TV host of ''

Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho , ''Jessica Soho'' (, abbreviated as ''KMJS'') is a Philippine television news magazine show broadcast by GMA Network. Hosted by Jessica Soho, it premiered on November 7, 2004 on the network's Sunday evening line up. It is the longest runnin ...

'' who traces her paternal grandfather's ancestral roots at

Hoiping Kaiping (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Hoiping, in local dialect as Hoihen, is a county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. It is located in the western section of the Pearl River Delta and administered as part of the prefectur ...

County,

, China.

Sights

Kaiping Diaolou

''Kaiping Diaolou''s () are fortified multi-storey towers constructed in the village countryside of mainly the Kaiping area. They were built from the early

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

to the early 20th century, reaching a peak in the 1920s and 1930s, with the financial aid of

, when there were more than three thousand of these structures. Today, 1,833 ''diaolou'' are still standing, with the most in the towns of Shuikou (), Tangkou (), Baihe (), Chikan (), and Xiangang (), in that order (see map in article by Batto). In the late 19th and early 20th century, Kaiping was a region of major emigration abroad, and a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by

, ''Huaqiao'', made good. As a consequence, many watchtowers incorporated architectural features from China and the West. These were examples of the Qiaoxiang () architecture. The ''diaolou'' were built by villagers during a time of chaos and served two purposes: housing and protecting against forays by bandits. In 2007, the ''Kaiping diaolou and villages'' were added to the list of

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

s and consist of four separate restored village areas: Zilicun village () in Tangkou, Sanmenli village () in Chikan, Jinjiangli village () in Xiangang, and Majianglong village cluster () in Baihe township. The Kaiping diaolou was the location for parts of the filming of 2010 movie ''

Let the Bullets Fly ''Let the Bullets Fly'' is a 2010 action comedy film written and directed by Jiang Wen, based on a story by Ma Shitu. The film is a Chinese-Hong Kong co-production, set in Sichuan during the 1920s when the bandit Zhang (Jiang Wen) descends upon ...

'' (). Kaiping September 2007.jpg, Ruishi Lou in Jinjiangli Majianglong Diaolou.jpg, Majianglong Diaolou Zili Village Yunhuan Lou 0005.jpg, Diaolou cluster at Zilicun 南樓.JPG, Nan Lou in Chikan Examples of diaolous include: * Yinglonglou (), oldest extant diaolou in Kaiping, in the village of Sanmenli (Chikan township) built by the Guan () lineage during the Jiajing era of the Ming dynasty (1522–1566), is a massive three-storey fortress with one-meter thick walls, in contrast with the high tower diaolou built much later with the aid of Huaqiao. * Jinjiangli Diaolou Cluster (), situated behind Jinjiangli Village (Xiangang Township), includes three exquisite diaolous: Ruishi Lou, Shengfeng Lou, and Jinjiang Lou. Ruishi Diaolou, constructed in 1921, has nine floors and is the tallest diaolou in Kaiping. It features a Byzantine style roof and a Roman dome. * The Majianglong ''diaolou'' cluster () is spread across five villages (Baihe township) in a bamboo forest: Yong'an and Nan'an Villages of the Huang () family; Hedong, Qinglin, and Longjiang Villages of the Guan () family. * Zilicun Diaolou Cluster (), located in Zilicun Village (Tangkou township), includes nine diaolous, the largest number among the four Kaiping villages designated by UNESCO. They feature the fusion of Chinese and various Western architectural styles and rise up surrealistically over the rice paddy fields. * Fangshi Denglou - Built in 1920 after contributions from villagers, this ''denglou'' is five storeys high. It is referred to as the "Light Tower" because it had an enormous searchlight as bright as the beam of a lighthouse. * Li Garden, in Beiyi Xiang, was constructed in 1936 by Mr. Xie Weili, a Chinese emigrant to the United States. * Bianchouzhu Lou (The Leaning Tower), located in Nanxing Village was constructed in 1903. It has seven floors. * Nan Lou (), or the "Southern Diaolou", located on the riverbank in Chikan township, which was known for seven local soldiers by the surname Situ () who died defending Chikan from the Japanese.

Chikan

Chikan () is officially designated as a National Historic and Cultural Town of China (). The old town of Chikan has many historical sites that are about one hundred years old. For example, it has over 600 late-Qing and early-Republic historic

Tong lau Tong lau or ke lau are tenement buildings built from the late 19th century to the 1960s in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southern China, and Southeast Asia. Designed for both residential and commercial uses, they are similar in style and function to the ...

s or Qilous () continuous, spanning over a length of 3 kilometers, including the riverside stretch along Dixi Lu (), sometimes referred to as 'European Styled Street'. Part of old Chikan town has been designated Chikan Studio City () for filming of historical scenes. Chikan township also has two restored

diaolou Diaolou () are fortified multi-storey watchtowers in rural villages, generally made of reinforced concrete. These towers are located mainly in Kaiping, Guangdong province, China. In 2007, UNESCO designated the ''Kaiping Diaolou and Villages'' () ...

s: ''Yinglonglou'', built by the Guan () lineage in the Ming dynasty, and ''Nanlou'', memorialized by the martyrdom of seven Situ clan () members in the early 20th century. Historically, Chikan has been shaped by these two competing clans. One example is the existence of two libraries: the ''Situ's library'', opened in 1926, and, not to be outdone, the ''Guan's library'', opened in 1931; both libraries funded by overseas Chinese and incorporated architecture features from overseas. It is a famous and well-known location for braised pork in noodles to locals. Chikan is to become a tourist destination and the closing of local stores, dining posts, and streets are scheduled for the summer of 2017.

Miscellaneous

Kaiping has been twinned with

Mesa, Arizona Mesa ( ) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The population was 504,258 at the 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Arizona, third-most populous city in Arizona, after Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, T ...

, United States, since October 18, 1993. Kaiping was a major source of emigrants at the turn of the 20th century. As a result, a large number of early Chinese Canadian and Chinese American communities had people who originated from Kaiping and its neighboring counties of

Taishan __NOTOC__ Taishan may refer to: *Mount Tai Mount Tai () is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai'an. It is the highest point in Shandong province, China. The tallest peak is the ''Jade Emperor Peak ...

, Enping and Xinhui, which is known collectively as

. It is said that there are more Kaipingnese people living abroad today than there are Kaipingnese in Kaiping. In a 2016 report, Deloitte estimated that there are 750,000 Kaiping-born overseas Chinese. In 1973, various people originated from Kaiping started the Hoi Ping Chamber of Commerce Secondary School in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Notes

References

Citations

4. < 廣東省廣州市佛山地區韶關地區沿革地理》(history and geographical cha es of Guangzhou region, Foshan region and Shaoguan region)

Bibliography

* , reprinted 2000. *

External links

Kaiping government website

UNESCO World Heritage Convention: Kaiping Diaolou and Villages

Deloitte 德勤: Research Report on Investment Environment - Kaiping, Guangdong 2016

Kaiping Press Release for future high speed rail station
{{Authority control World Heritage Sites in China Jiangmen County-level cities in Guangdong