Yupei Villa in the southwestern corner of the garden was built by Xie to preserve the wardrobe of his deceased second wife. A surviving, well-preserved image of her on porcelain shows a very elegant lady. A cheongsam Xie had personally tailored for her still hangs on a clothes stand.

    Nine floors and 25 meters in height, the tallest blockhouse in Kaiping is Ruishi. Its lower part is in Tang architectural style and the upper part in Western, making it the most unique diaolou in the place. The building is obscured by a large bamboo groove, and, lonely and aloof, it seems to gaze down on its protective forest. Its doors are scarred with the marks of war. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Invasion, people say, enemy soldiers made a huge effort to break into the house, but failed. This strongly suggests the diaolou blockhouses' defensive powers, either against Japanese troops or local bandits.

    In terms of fame, no diaolou is a match for the Bianchou Blockhouse tilting at the entrance of Nanxing Village. At an even more precarious angle than the more famous tower of Pisa in Italy, the "leaning tower of Nanxing" looks like it could collapse at any time. But this old blockhouse, built in 1903, has managed to stand for over 100 years. Even the huge earthquake that struck in the 1930s, and a fierce typhoon in the 1960s failed to do it any harm.

    Maxianglong, another village of Kaiping, impresses with its group of 13 blockhouses built against a mountain and facing a river. Some have a bamboo stand as a kind of cloak, or are nestled right in one. Others have ancient Roman, Greek or Islamic elements; they also vary in height and style. These constructions make a living landscape beyond any perfection an artist's imagination could conjure up.

A Living Museum

    Gulao is a tourist must for a different reason. Equally well-known for its water scenery, this is Jiangmen's other celebrated district.

    Different areas of China practice different ways of farming. The Guangdong method dates back thousands of years and has continued in Gulao in largely original form. Every aspect of it is connected to Lingnan Culture.

    Gulao is an ancient place with an expanse of wetlands by the Xijiang River in northeast Heshan, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen. It reminds one of a scene in Venice. Numerous fish farms make a home in the lake district here and it is cobwebbed with rivers and streams that invite many other uses.

    Land cultivation in this place began 600 years ago, conducted in the shoals left by Xijiang, which, after a long, tiring rush from its headwaters, widens and sweeps past more slowly, leaving large deposits that form the best kind of farmland. Local people have turned this wonderful gift to fish farms, sugarcane fields and mulberry cultivation. Human settlements and plots are seen on the levees that separate fish ponds. Boats used to be the only transportation for these settlements and every household still has a dock for its private use. In recent years, roads have been built into and through the area, leaving boats moored the better part of the year.

    Meandering the winding paths, tourists may find themselves in Erdu-qiao, a place overgrown with trees that shade a village bound by brooks and stone bridges, all as close to their ancient perfection as one could imagine. Some banyan trees here are hundreds of years old.

    Gulao is lush with fruit-laden plants, inviting visitors to pick at will. Hop on one of its boats for a ride, and dip your hand in the water, you will find lotus leaves and seeds – even playful fish – at the ready. About 30 hectares of the area have been made into a wildlife preserve offering ecological tours. Of all the vegetation and wildlife, the most eye-catching pair are an endless patch of unique lotus and flocks of egrets that stalk among them. As the last original wetland in the whole Pearl River Delta, this place is a paradise for zoologists and biologists too.

Paradise for Birds

    It is more than a tourist attraction, it's a childhood dream. Many people have read about it in prose by Ba Jin (1904-2005), a well-known writer who excitedly documented this place after his visit.

    About 380 years ago, on a moonlit night, a farmer accidentally left a banyan branch on a levee, which, as time passed, grew into a large grove covering 10,000 square meters. This is how the Paradise for Birds came about. Over the past 400 years, thousands of birds have made this place home. With water and banyan trees around, what else do they need?

    The egrets are many and come in a wide variety. They leave their nest in the morning and return at sunset after a long day fishing. Different species have happily mated with one another. Marshalling or moving in great numbers, they are a spectacular sight on land and in the sky.

    Close by is the former residence of Liang Qichao – scholar, thinker, statesman, and advocate of reform in modern Chinese history. people say, when Japanese troops seized the place, they were too in awe of the great scholar's reputation to destroy his home, and left it as it was.

    His offspring included many outstanding people. His eldest son, Liang Sicheng, was a successful architect, and his second son Liang Siyong, an accomplished archeologist. Both were among the first group of academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1948. His youngest son, Liang Sili, is a well-known rocket scientist and also an academician in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Three academicians from the same family is a first in the Chinese scientific world, and even very rare worldwide.