Kaiping Diaolou Heritage Tour: Explore Western Architectural Style in Guangdong from Guangzhou
4.8
5 Ratings
Discover the unique Western architectural style of Kaiping Diaolou and old villages on this private day tour from Guangzhou. Explore the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Zili Village, Liyuan Garden, and Ma-Xianglong Village.
Duration: 9 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Silk Road Trips - Day tours, activities around Guangzhou.
  • Kaiping Diaolou and Villages - These Diaolou are old houses built by overseas Chinese for their families. It is a cultural heritage site, and the attractions included for the tour are Zili Village, Li Garden and Ma-Xianglong Village.

At 8:00am, your guide will meet you at your hotel lobby of the centrally located Guangzhou hotel. Then, you will take a private vehicle for about 2 hours to Kaiping.

  • Watchtower Group of Zili Village - Upon arrival, you will visit Zili Village firstly. It is the best preserved Diaolou (Watch Towers) villages that are listed as cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2007. Zili Village is the most popular site for its scenery and numbers of Diaolous. You can walk up some of the towers to view the quiet countryside.
  • Kaiping Garden - Kaiping Diaolou and Villages were built by overseas Kaiping people during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Liyuan Garden is the best one with its nice buildings and gardens, and it is nice to wander around the gardens.
  • Ma-Xianglong Towers Group - After lunch, you will head to the most beautiful village in China, Ma-Xianglong Village, where you will view the old houses spreading our in the green bamboos.

Afterwards you will be transferred back to your hotel in Guangzhou where this day tour concludes.

What's Included
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Local guide
  • Bottled water
  • Entrance
  • Lunch
  • Transport by private vehicle
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
Additional Information

Kaiping is recognized for its Diaolou and ancient villages in Guangdong Province. This exclusive day tour from Guangzhou enables you to discover the western-style Diaolou Towers and Villages constructed by overseas Chinese a century ago in Kaiping. It was also enlisted in the World Heritage list by UNESCO in 2007. Notable sights include Zili Village, Liyuan Garden, and Ma-Xianglong Village.

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.8
(5 Ratings)
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Camilli_e
Jul 24, 2020
Day in the countryside visiting unique sites. - Very enjoyable day getting out of the city, learning about the history and cultural importance of these unique buildings. Atmospheric mixture of Chinese and old colonial style architecture. Climbed to the top of some of the towers - great views over the countryside! Also, as part of the package we visited Liuyuan Gardens (charming) and a quiet old village hidden away in greenery surrounded by fruit trees. Lunch was organised and was tasty and plentiful. The guide, Mango, was a knowledgeable and professional young lady. A lovely day out. Would highly recommend. 👍
Review provided by Viator
Shaytay
Jun 28, 2020
Liyuan Garden - Short day trip to a beautiful village area near Guangzhou with an interesting history. It makes for a nice escape out of the city.
Review provided by Viator
Kirk_h
Dec 7, 2019
Great day trip from Guangzhou - I and nine business colleagues from the US, Canada, and Europe were in Guangzhou for a three-day association meeting. We all decided to come a day early to see the sights - we toured Guangzhou on our own, but wanted to see something interesting in the countryside so we booked this trip. It was great - the operator was very efficient, and our guide Mango was terrific - excellent and fluent English, a really nice person, and very knowledgeable about what we saw. We toured a number of unusual western-design fortified homes (typically built by very successful Chinese emigrants who returned to their roots in the early 1900s), plus an upscale family complex and gardens still supported by the family, plus an active agricultural family compound - all really interesting, with a good local lunch in the middle. It is a longish drive from the city on highways, but the drive goes quickly and you get to see some rolling hills and greenery - the toughest part is getting out of Guangzhou and back in (city traffic)! If you want a day off from the urban scene, you'd probably enjoy this.
Review provided by Viator
Brendanhoranhk
Aug 24, 2019
Good service, freindly staff, over all vey good day out! - We booked this tour via their web site. There was no issues with communications, replies to email questions was prompt and detailed. On the day the guide met us in the hotel lobby on time with no issues. The car they had was pretty new and very clean and comfortable. They had enough free water as well to last the day. The driver was friendly and drove well. It is a 2hour drive at best from Guangzhou, sadly we hit road works on the way out and that added more time to the trip. Can't do much about the road works or traffic jams but do keep this in mind that the travel time can very a lot. The guide had decent English, and was quite knowledgeable about the area and also Guangzhou. She also made a point of asking about what we would like to eat for lunch and if there is anything we do not want to eat or can't eat. We eat everything so that made it easy but I get the impression that she would go the extra mile to help you if you have diet requirements. She guided us around al the tour sites and gave insight about each of them. The kaiping diaolou's have decent amount of English information about them as well. This was a nice surprise.The area and buildings are well preserved and maintained. At no point was the tour "rushed" or we felt like we had to stick to a set route around the sites. Lunch was at a local restaurant, we were well taken care of and enjoyed the food that was served. The guide went out of her way to ensure we enjoyed our lunch. We finished off the reaming diaolou's after lunch and the started the trip back to the hotel. By this time traffic was quite bad. the return trip was around 3 hours. This is no fault of the tour at all but a reminder to save extra time if you had somewhere to be after the tour. Over all we are both very happy with the service and the tour it self. Nothing felt rushed or forced. There was no "shopping" stops. Lunch was amazing. The guide and driver where helpful and friendly. I would be happy to use Silk Road trips again for any tours they offer.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aaron
Nov 13, 2017
The drive to Kaiping was smooth, but... - <p>The drive to Kaiping was smooth, but it takes approximately 2 hours per way. It was great that we commenced the day trip early before other tour groups arrived. The guide was very engaging and knowledgeable. Thanks to the awesome weather, it made the entire experience all the more better, especially when taking a walk around Li Garden. The return to Guangzhou city centre was a nightmare due to a massive traffic jam, but thankfully additional time was catered for the return drive. Overall a pleasant experience!</p>
Review provided by Viator
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