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UNESCO Watchtowers World Heritage Ancient Villages Private Tour

icon 5 to 11 hours Mobile ticket
Tickets from € 353.65

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October 2025
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This exclusive day trip will let you explore Kaiping area(around 2 hours driving from Guangzhou), which is famous for its world class architectural and cultural heritage-Watch Tower (the house buildings look like fortress built in 1900s by overseas Chinese migrant workers) and villages. We would be travelling in a private car to visit a few UNESCO sites(like Li Garden, Zili Village) in the countryside area with many farmland, livestock shed and fishpond along the way. Kaiping/Taishan is also the hometown city for many overseas Chinese, if you are coming back to visit and looking for your ancestor's house, we can assist and arrange such a tour for you. We will follow up with you to firm up the itinerary after you book this tour on Tripadvisor.^_^.
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  • Hotel pick up and drop off in downtown Guangzhou
  • Local English speaking tour guide with full escort
  • Private car with air-con
  • Professional driver
  • Admission fee and lunch(for you and the guide)
  • Gratuities
Departure Point

Traveler pickup is offered

We could pick up customer at any hotel in downtown Guangzhou(hotel location is limited in Tianhe, Haizhu, Yuexiu and Liwan District)

  • Kaiping Diaolou and Villages, Kaiping, Guangdong, China
    The Diaolou Cluster in Zili Village and the Diaolou Cluster in Majianglong Village in Guangdong’s first World Cultural Heritage Site, and Li Garden, which is known as “a masterpiece of gardens built by overseas Chinese”. It’s a comprehensive tourist attraction integrating many elements, such as overseas Chinese culture, garden art, Chinese and Western architecture, cultural relics, five-country customs. Kaiping Diaolou is a special type of native architecture in China. It is a kind of multi-story tower building integrating defense, residence, Chinese and Western architectural art. It is also the fruit of Chinese rural people’s active acceptance of Western architectural art and its integration with the local architectural art, embodying the typical open, inclusive, conflicting and integrated development between overseas Chinese culture and Western culture with unique artistic charm, becoming a masterpiece of overseas Chinese culture and a unique world architectural art landscape.
    120 minutes
  • Watchtower Group of Zili Village, Kaiping, Guangdong, China
    Founded in the 17th year of Daoguang’s reign in the Qing Dynasty(1837), it is comprised of Anheli, He’anli, and Yong’anli unincorporated villages all with the surname of Fang. In the early days after the founding of new People’s Republic of China, all three villages were combined into Zili Village, implying “self-reliance”. The entire village has 92 houses in total, including 77 “three-room-and-two-corridor” traditional dwellings, 9 watchtowers, and 6 cottage-style villas. Apart from the finest building Mingshi Building, there are another characteristic buildings named Yesheng Mansion, Lansheng Mansion and Guansheng Mansion. The traditional dwellings and watchtowers in the village are well distributed and proportioned. Dotted with the lotus ponds, its unique country lifestyle and the stories behind the watchtowers have attracted visitors from all over the world.
    90 minutes
  • Jinjiangli Village, Kaiping, Guangdong, China
    Jinjiangli Village Diaolou Cluster, surrounded by mountains, with crisscross paths on the farmland and river flowing through away before it, lies in the Xian Gang Township, Kaiping City. Water buffaloes and geese appearing on the riverside from time to time, the granite-paved road leading from the pier to the village, and women carrying water coming and going, that is a pastoral life painting of Jinjiangli Village. 3 diaolou stand among traditional old houses, which gives you a sense of beauty of harmony in combination of western and Chinese traditional style. Ruishilou and Shengfenglou are 2 out of the 3 diaolou that forms the most beautiful diaolou cluster in Kaiping.
    30 minutes
  • Kaiping Garden, Kaiping, Guangdong, China
    Built in the early 20th century by Mr. Xie Weili, a US-based Chinese, the Li Garden is based on the Grand View Garden depicted in the Dream of the Red Chamber and skillfully combines the classical garden features with popular villa architectures in Europe and America, which presents a unique form of architectural art and boasts a breathtaking man-made garden landscape. Known as the “Small View Garden”, the Li Garden focuses on the conception of “bridge, brook, and household”. Divided into grand garden, small garden, and villa clusters, the garden layout forms a style of its own: separation with the artificial river or walls, connection with pavilions and bridges or corridors, contributing to the pattern of gardens within gardens and landscapes within landscapes. With profound culture represented by the couplets by famous calligraphers and substantial romantic and legendary sculptures and murals, it will turn back the clock to make you feel like being in the early 20th century.
    60 minutes
  • Ma-Xianglong Towers Group, Kaiping, Guangdong, China
    Situated at the flatland on the eastern coast of Tanjiang River, the Majianglong Village is under the administration of Baihe Township. It is composed of 5 villages: Yong’an and Nan’an Village of the Huang family and Qinglin, Hedong and Longjiang Villages of the Guan family. Yong’an Village was established during the Qianlong period(1736-1795). In the early years, it was known as “Fengsuilang” which bears the symbolic meaning of “good harvest every year”. They renamed the place “Majianglong” after 1949. There are seven Diaolou buildings and eight Western-style villas in Majianglong Village, which are all unique in design and well preserved, hidden in the dense ancient woods and bamboo groves, perfectly blending into the surrounding natural environment and folk houses. Standing among them, surrounded by luxuriant and well-spaced green bamboo, dense fruit trees, chirping birds and fragrant flowers, you will wonder if you are stepping into a fairyland.
    60 minutes
  • Chikan Movie Town, Kaiping, Guangdong, China
    Established in early Qing Dynasty, next to Tan River with convenient transportation for surrounding rural villages, Chikan Old Town is famous for its many Cantonese style Qilou street buildings as well as western villas. It is also an ideal and popular place for film makers and photographers for wedding celebration who'd like to take advantage of its traditional architectural background and atmosphere. Delicious local food and snacks are a plus to this site.
    120 minutes
  • Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
  • Suitable for all physical fitness levels
This experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed for any reason. If you cancel or ask for an amendment, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
    Odyssey36544688960
    05 Aug 2025
    The visit to the Watchtowers was really interesting. I am an ABC from California and this was a real learning experience. We also combined this with a visit to our ancestral villages which was a magical experience. Thank you Damon!
    eddye320
    11 Jul 2025
    Damon provided a superb day tour to Toison/Taishan/Kaiping to visit family villages and the Watchtowers. My husband and his father who were on this trip with me really wanted to see the villages their ancestors came from before they immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s, but we knew it might be kind of difficult to get to the villages. However, we contacted Damon a year ago and let him know what we were looking for and he made our goal a reality with this tour. Damon helped to get us to the villages as part of this day tour. He went above and beyond by helping us figure out the precise location of the villages and by translating once we got to the villages. We could not have asked for a better guide to help make this family/ancestral visit possible! We will cherish these memories forever. It was also very meaningful to get to see the Watchtowers that are pretty close to the family villages and an important part of the history of the Chinese diaspora, which my husband and father-in-law are a part of. The setting of these Watchtowers is very beautiful (expansive views of lovely rice fields) and only a couple of hours outside of Guangzhou. If you are looking to connect with family history in this Toison/Taishan region and/or want to see the UNESCO Watchtowers definitely reach out to Damon for this day tour!
    RyanF706
    11 Jul 2025
    This daytour from Guangzhou was truly amazing. Making the trip out from the big city to see the watchtowers is worth the trip along. The history and architecture of these buildings is fascinating, and the landscape that surrounds them is absolutely stunning. The buildings are well maintained, and if, like me, you have any cultural connections this region through relatives that emigrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, you will get to see a distinctive part of your specific Chinese heritage. Damon also worked with us to help us travel to our ancestral villages in the first part of the day. He helped coordinate travel with the information we had and helped communicate with distant relatives who did not speak English. It was a powerful experience of ancestral homecoming, and we could not have had it without Damon's help and translation skills.
    This tour in Southern China is organized by Guangzhou Local Tours

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