Sanmenli village, near Chikan, Kaiping, China

Sixteenth century Sanmenli village, near Chikan, Kaiping, China is a Unesco world heritage site and home to the oldest surviving diaolou.

Most diaolou were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to to guard against both bandits and periodic flooding. It s believed that about 3,000 were built originally, of these around 1,800 remain.

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