How to Get to the Kaiping Fortress Towers
The Kaiping Diaolou (开平 碉樓) (Fortress Towers/Watchtowers) are a UNESCO world heritage site, originally constructed during the Qing Dynasty for housing and protection against bandits. Today there are approximately 1800 of the 3000+ Kaiping Fortress towers still standing.
Getting to Kaiping
First you must get to Kaiping 开平. Most people will want to come from Guangzhou. I read on the internet that you can catch a bus from the Fengcun Coach station next to the Kenghou metro station and the journey takes about 2 hours. Cost is about 60rmb.
From Shunde you can get a direct bus to Kaiping. It costs 48rmb and takes 2 to 2.5 hours. It leaves from the bus station in Da Liang, but I think it also goes by the one in Ronggui.
Getting to the Kaiping Fortress Towers.
aka Kaiping Diaolou (开平 碉樓) aka Kaiping Watchtowers
You will get dropped off at the Yi Ci bus station 义祠站 (at least we did). From there catch the #13 towards Jin Ji 金鸡. How far you go is up to you. You can see lots of the towers along this line.
If you go all the way to Jin Ji it will cost 8rmb and takes about an hour, but there isn’t much going on there except a small market down the road from the bus station.
Getting To Chikan
Chikan 赤砍 is a historical town which is nice to walk around. It is about 30minutes from Yi Ci, and costs 3rmb to get there.

Chikan, Kaiping, China
Getting to the JinJiang Daliao Cluster of the Kaiping Watch Towers
aka Kaiping Diaolou (开平 碉樓) aka Kaiping Watchtowers
The JinJiangLi Daliao cluster is about 15mins past Chikan. You will go over a long(ish) bridge and then a smaller one. On your right you see the sign for JinJiangLi village, then a sign for the towers. Get off the bus and walk to them. It will probably take about 30 minutes to walk to them, but this is just a guess. I think these are the ones that cost 80rmb to see, but that too is just a guess.
Where to Stay in Kaiping
I guess it is possible to see the Kaiping Fortress Towers as a day trip from Guangzhou, but it’s much more relaxed if you stay a night. We arrived in the afternoon and found a hotel. Looked around Kaping for the rest of the day, then in the morning, checked out and left our baggage at YiCi bus station (about 5-10rmb). Then we spent the day exploring Chikan and the fortress towers, before catching the afternoon bus back to Shunde.

This is the sign you will see
Get the Latest Survive Travel Books FREE! Click Here to Get Them.From the YiCi bus station, catch the #1 or #7 bus to the city. It costs 2rmb. In about 5 or 6 stops, get off at Xing Fu Lu 幸福路.
Walk in the same direction as the bus was going towards the Bank of China. When you see the sign (pictured), turn left at the street before it. You will see the sign down this road. It is a hotel. 100rmb/night is the cheapest room. It had a Chinese toilet inside the shower, but the showers water pressure was awesome. Good location, good price, comfortable hotel and not noisy.
How To Get to the Kaiping Night Market
The bus stop before the hotel stop is Gou Wu Jie Bei 购物街北 and it is a pedestrian street. It’s about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. Late afternoon it becomes a decent night market selling lots of snacks, clothes, electronics, jewelry etc.
Where to go for Massage in Kaiping
If you walk from the hotel to the pedestrian street, on the right hand side of the road is a massage place which advertised 35rmb for a foot massage. We didn’t go here but it seems like a pretty good deal.

Blind Massage in Kaiping
If you go to the pedestrian street and walk all the way to the end, then walk to the river and turn right. Walk a block or two (or maybe 3) past the ABC (Agricultural Bank of China). Keep looking to your right, down the streets, and when you see the sign pictured below, go to it. It is blind massage and costs 50rmb per hour for a full body massage.
Where to Eat in Kaiping
Kaiping has a lot of good and cheap ‘street’ food.
As you walk from the pedestrian street to the hotel, on your right there is a place that sells dumplings/dim sum (yum cha)/bao zi. Delicious and cheap. Next door to that is a noodle house which we didn’t try but looked popular.
Across the road from the Bank of China (near the hotel) there is a noodle place on the corner. As you face it, go to the lady on the right and choose three types of meat and the type of noodle you want. She will give you a peg with a number on it. They will call out your number (in Cantonese) and then they will deliver your noodle soup. It costs 7rmb per bowl.
Going Shopping in Kaiping
Besides the night market, there are a few shopping plazas scattered around Kaiping. Walk around or catch a bus around and you’ll see them. I didn’t go into any of them so can’t really comment.
When you come out of the street that the hotel is on, instead of turning right towards the pedestrian street, turn left. Just up the road is a shopping plaza.
Next Stop…
Back to Shunde (Guangdong, China) to get my passport, then onto Kyrgyzstan
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