Year of construction: Jiajing (1521-1565), Ming Dynasty ,

Type: Zhonglou

Owner: Guan kindred

The oldest surviving Diaolou is the Yinglong Lou in Sanmenli Village. It has a history of more than 440 years. A narrow pine-lined path leads to the village, past farmers still carrying water from the well on shoulder-pole-mounted buckets, and past elderly ladies seated in the shade of banyans.

Chikan is a beautiful town in Kaiping.

 The name "Yinglong" embodies the meaning of peace, luck, and felicity. The three-story solid brick watchtower was their Noah's Ark in floods as well as bandits' attacks.

The lower two reddish levels were built sometime in the middle of the 16th century and an upper gray one was added in 1920. The walls are more than 1 meter thick, and there's a loopholed turret at each of the four corners of every level. It is the representative of the earliest traditional Diaolou.

Now the watchtower is uninhabited. All the offspring of Guan are living in America and Canada, leaving the house in the care of village people. The creak wooden floor echoes the whispering far away from the memories. Local elder people are always willing to tell the old story to strangers since Yinlong Lou is also part of their own history.

　Ruishi Lou

Year of Construction: 1921

Type: Julou

Owner: Huang Bixiu

In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Bixiu left his small village in Xiangang Town to make a living in America, followed by his two sons. They were successful in business and set up a bank in Hong Kong . Huang Bixiu returned to his hometown to build a watchtower for his old parents. It was also deemed as honor to his ancestors.

But, in the construction, a war of conflicting ideas of the father and the son broke out. Huang's conservative father lashed out at him for his derail off the beaten track.

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