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Kaiping guides

Kaiping
Kaiping (开平 Kāipíng) is a city of about 700,000 in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong province, China.

It is famous for its castle-like dwellings built by overseas Chinese in a mixure of west and eastern style.

Get in
From Guangzhou it is easiest to take a bus form Fengcun bus station (芳村汽车站) at Kengkou Metro station. The ride takes about 2 hours and should cost 45元.
[edit]Get around
Kaiping has two long distance bus stations, Yicizhan (义祠站) and Lechongzongzhan (勒冲总站). Former one is more modern and is most likely the starting point for your journey into the surrounding villages of Kaiping town. Kaiping itself has bus lines numbered from 1 to 8. Number 1 connects the to major bus stations and passes the city center.

See
Very close to the town of Kaiping (开平) there are a number of small villages and small houses that have been built by oversea Chinese during the beginning of the 20th century. Most buildings resemble the style of western or middle eastern culture mixed with traditional Chinese elements. Often there were designed to defend against bandits. The buildings have not been taken care of since, but the government started to restore and preserve them recently. The style of these buildings is often cheaply copied by many "modern" buildings throughout Guangdong.

Liyuan (立园)is the best preserved and renovated of all the villages and hosts a museum about overseas Chinese culture. It is about an hour away from Kaiping Town.
Zilicun (自力村) hosts the ruins of a former village with a giant watch tower. It is about 3km from Liyuan. See some photos here (The site has strange JScript so try opening with MS Internet Explorer)
Chikan (赤坎) is an inhabited village with many mansions build in the mixed western and eastern style of that period.

Eat
The Ganbasha Coffee House (甘巴莎咖啡馆) serves western and Chinese food at a reasonable price. It is located at Xiangyuan Xincun nu. 255 (祥苑新村255号). Tel: 2202626

Sleep
The Xiangyuan Binguan (祥苑宾馆) Is next to the Shopping and Tourist center and Xiangyuan Xincun no.261 (祥苑新村261号). Rooms are 100元 for a double after "normal" bargaining. Tel.: 2201928
If you are looking for something easier to find, you can stay in the high riser of the Xingdu Hotel (星都大酒店) at Changshaguangming Street no. 10 (长沙光明路10号). Tel.: 2287838