Guangdong

Scattered across Kāipíng’s 20km periphery are diāolóu – multistorey watchtowers and fortified residences displaying a flamboyant mix of European, Chinese and Moorish architectural styles. The majority were built in the early 20th century by some of the villagers who made a fortune working as coolies overseas. They brought home fanciful architectural ideas they’d seen in real life and on postcards, and built the towers as fortresses to protect their families from bandits, flooding and Japanese troops.

The oldest diāolóu were communal watchtowers built by several families in a village. Each family was allocated a room within the citadel, where all its male members would go to spend the night to avoid being kidnapped by bandits. These narrow towers had sturdy walls, iron gates and ports for defence and observation. The youngest diāolóu were also watchtowers, but ones equipped with searchlight and alarm. They are located at the entrances to villages.

More than 60% of diāolóu, however, combined residential functions with defence. Constructed by a single family, they were spacious and featured a mix of decorative motifs. As the builders had no exposure to European architectural traditions, they took liberties with proportions, resulting in outlandish buildings that seem to have leapt out of an American folk-art painting or a Miyazaki animation.

These structures sustain a towerlike form for the first few floors, then, like stoic folk who have not forgotten to dream, let loose a riot of arches and balustrades, Egyptian columns, domes, cupolas, corner turrets, Chinese gables and Grecian urns.

Meizhou (梅州, Méizhōu), populated by the Hakka (Kèjiā in Mandarin; 客家) people, is home to China’s largest cluster of ‘coiled dragon houses’ or wéilóngwū (围龙屋). Specific to the Hakka, these are dwellings arranged in a horseshoe shape evocative of a dragon napping at the foot of a mountain. You’ll also see tǔlóu (roundhouses) dotting the fields like mysterious flying saucers, and a jumble of other architectural treasures.

Fóshān-born Wong Fei Hung (1847–1924) is one of China’s best-known folk heroes. Although a consummate gōngfū (kung fu) master in his lifetime, he didn’t become widely known until his story was merged with fiction in countless movies made after 1949, most by Hong Kong directors, such as Hark Tsui's Once Upon a Time in China, starring Jet Li. Sadly, Wong spent his later years in desolation, after his son was murdered and his martial-arts school was destroyed by fire. Regardless, an astonishing 106 movies (and counting!) have celebrated this son of Fóshān, resulting in the world’s longest movie series and the creation of a national legend.

Another Fóshān hero, Ip Man (1893–1972) rose to fame as a Wing Chun master at the outset of WWII. He fled to Hong Kong in 1949 where he founded the first Wing Chun school. His most famous student was Bruce Lee. Ip Man was immortalised by Wong Kar-wai's award-winning The Grandmaster and a series of semibiographical movies starring Donnie Yen.

Guǎngzhōu (广州), once better known internationally as Canton, has been China's busiest trading centre for centuries. Despite breakneck redevelopment up to and after the 2010 Asian Games, much of the metropolis still hums along at a pleasantly sedate pace, where narrow, leafy streets conceal temples and mosques, pockets of colonial-era heritage, traditional dim-sum eateries, distinctive qílóu shophouses and Lǐngnán architecture. Equally, you can embrace modernity via the 21st-century architectural landmarks of the showpiece Zhūjiāng New Town, such as the late Zaha Hadid's Opera House and the slim-waisted Canton Tower, rising up over the Pearl River, which cuts a lazy swathe through the city.

People still take long siestas in lazy Cháyáng (茶阳古镇; Cháyáng Gǔzhèn), 27km from downtown Dàbù County. Its old streets (老街; lǎojiē) with pillared arcades are nice to lose yourself in for a couple of hours.

Yángjiāng (阳江) is a city on the southwestern coast of Guǎngdōng. While downtown Yángjiāng is unexciting, picturesque Hǎilíng Island (海陵岛; Hǎilíng Dǎo), located 50km or an hour’s drive away, is home to the Maritime Silk Road Museum and some of the finest beaches in the province.