Riverside arcades
Rows of shophouses.
Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador — CC BY-SA 2.0 · TAOZIlovewiki — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador — CC BY-SA 2.0 · xiquinhosilva — CC BY 2.0 · Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador — CC BY-SA 2.0 · xiquinhosilva — CC BY 2.0 · xiquinhosilva — CC BY 2.0 · Windmemories — CC BY-SA 4.0
A river town founded in 1649 on the Tan River that grew into a river port and market for the Guan and Situ families, then a centre of emigration overseas; it was once the seat of Kaiping county and is today one of China's listed historic and cultural towns. Rows of arcaded shophouses line the riverbank, some three kilometres with nearly six hundred buildings from the 1920s, built by returning emigrants to designs they brought from the West on top of the local style, so their facades are crowned with European arches and ornament; the best-known buildings are the libraries of the Guan and Situ families. The town has been restored and reopened as «Chikan Overseas Chinese Ancient Town», with shows, boats on the river and an old-style tram, and visiting hours run into the evening, when the facades are lit. Tickets cost about CNY 150, the town is open from 10 am to 10 pm with entry before 9 pm, and boats and the tram cost extra, per visitor guides.
Rows of shophouses.
Guan and Situ.
On the facades.
Chikan town, about 12 km from central Kaiping, Guangdong
Yes, the town is close to the tower villages: see the towers by day, then come to Chikan in the late afternoon and stay into the evening for the lights on the facades.