Country China Population 668,692 (2000) | Province Guangdong Province Area 1,659 km2 | |
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Map of Kaiping
Kaiping (開平), formerly romanized in Cantonese as Hoiping, is a county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. It is located west of the Pearl River Delta and administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen. The surrounding area, especially Sze Yup (Cantonese romanization: 四邑), is the ancestral homeland of many overseas Chinese, particularly in the United States. Kaiping has a population of 699,242 as of 2010 and an area of 1,659 square kilometres (641 sq mi). The locals speak a variant of the Toishan (Hoisan) dialect.
Contents
- Map of Kaiping
- Village life in hoiping china kaiping near taishan a k a toisan
- Street food in china slippery candy falling down
- History
- Administration
- Geography
- Kaiping Diaolou
- Chikan
- Miscellaneous
- References
Village life in hoiping china kaiping near taishan a k a toisan
Street food in china slippery candy falling down
History
Under the Qing (1649), Kaiping County made up part of the commandery of Zhaoqing. It was promoted to county-level city status in 1993.
Administration
Administratively, Kaiping is administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen.
Geography
Kaiping city centre is located on the Tanjiang River, 140 kilometres (87 mi) away from Guangzhou, on the edge of the county Kaiping west of the Pearl River Delta. 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.
Kaiping Diaolou
Kaiping Diaolous (碉楼) are fortified multi-storey towers constructed in the village countryside of mainly the Kaiping area. They were built from the early Qing Dynasty to the early 20th century, reaching a peak in the 1920s and 1930s, with the financial aid of Huaqiao (華僑), when there were more than three thousand of these structures. Today, approximately 1,800 diaolou are still standing, with the most in the townships of Tangkou (塘口镇), Baihe (百合镇), Chikan (赤坎镇), and Xiangang (蚬冈镇), 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 overseas Chinese, "Huaqiao" (華僑), made good. As a consequence, many watchtowers incorporated architectural features from China and the West. These were examples of the Qiaoxiang (僑鄉) 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 Sites and consist of four separate restored village areas: Zilicun village (自力村) in Tangkou township, Sanmenli village (三门里) in Chikan township, Jinjiangli village (锦江里) in Xiangang township, and Majianglong village cluster (马降龙村落群) in Baihe township.
The Kaiping diaolou was the location for parts of the filming of 2010 movie Let the Bullets Fly (让子弹飞).
Examples of diaolous include:
Chikan
Chikan (赤坎) is officially designated as a National Historic and Cultural Town of China (中国历史文化名镇). 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 laus or Qilous (Chinese: 唐樓/ 騎樓) continuous, spanning over a length of 3 kilometers, including the riverside stretch along Dixi Lu (堤西路), sometimes referred to as 'European Styled Street'. Part of old Chikan town has be designated Chikan Studio City (赤坎影视城) for filming of historical scenes.
Chikan township also has two restored diaolous: Yinglonglou, built by the Guan (关族) lineage in the Ming dynasty, and Nanlou, memorialized by the martyrdom of seven Situ clan (司徒族) 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, 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, Enping and Xinhui, which is known collectively as Sze Yup. 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.