Sunday, 28 June 2026

Zili Village, Kaiping Diaolou


The only day we did something whilst in China was a road trip to see my great granddad Wing's house. This was the first time we'd been. We were meant to go the last time we were in China but my uncle wouldn't take us as it's a 2.5 hr drive. Grandma Wing hasn't even been but Tracy and Laura have been think 2 or 3 times.

Had my alarm set for 6am and was about to get up then my dad sent me a text to say we're leaving at 9am so went back to sleep but it was actually 8am we were leaving so had to rush to get ready. Had some breakfast then we set off.

We met with dad's think was his 3rd cousin and wife who showed us the old house. It was in the slums and basically just ruins now.


The front door was mad. The bars slide and work as security to stop people from coming into your house.




I didn't take that many photos but it was pretty big. It's in really bad condition now but would have been worth quite a bit back in the day.

After seeing the house we went for lunch with them at a restaurant. I didn't like the restaurant it was really old and dirty so didn't eat much. 



After we went to Zili Village, Kaiping Diaolou. We got there at 3pm and it shuts at 5:30pm so only had enough time to see the 4 main houses and didn't get to go to the park and see the other stuff.




 I had no idea what diaolou were and never heard of the them. They're watch towers that were funded by over seas Chinese to protect their families back at home in China. They were built in 1920 and 1930. The village has rice paddies and lotus ponds.









The inside of these look like what my great granddad's house would have looked like inside. Has the exact same style and layout.






















The insides are really well preserved.


























Jackfruit

It was interesting to learn about the diaolou and about the families as I had no idea about them. It was also cool to get an insight to what my great granddad's house would have looked like if it was preserved.

Considering there was water from the rice paddies and lotus ponds I didn't get bitten. Which was lucky as I'm usually really bad for it. I didn't think to wear any mosquito repellent and only sprayed some not long before we left as in one of the houses they had spray.

It was a 2 hr drive back and we got stuck in a bit of traffic.

That's the end of the Japan and China. Only took 2 months to finish... The Monday after we got back we booked to go on a cruise to go 5 weeks later.. So another belated holiday post!