Sanmenli village

A tower built in 1912 where seven soldiers from Chikan fought and died in 1945 in the war against the Japanese. It's designated as a "patriotic education base", and the information about the seven-day battle is all in Chinese, so it might not mean much to you as a foreigner unless you have a special interest in modern Chinese history and national identity. But the top of the 7-story, 22-meter tower does have nice views of the Tanjiang River, the countryside, and Kaiping's blocks of high-rises. You may be the only visitor there unless you happen to arrive at the same time as a tour bus.

A village with lots of beautiful diaolou amidst rice fields and lotus ponds. Chickens and vegetable gardens are around too, and you'll see villagers working in the garden.

A market town with many arcade buildings built in the mixed western and eastern style by overseas Chinese during the early 20th century. Lovely short riverfront walk. On the opposite river side, you can rent bikes from the youth hostel to discover the area. Reach Chikan comfortably in 20 minutes using bus 106 running through most of western Kaiping. Chikan old town is under renovations, beginning 2017 and expected to last several years.

A group of neoclassical and baroque buildings with Chinese ornamental roofs in an elegant garden. Colorfully decorated and beautifully restored diaolou. The complex is well preserved but renovated so much it feels kind of artificial. Hosts a museum about the Xie family, who built the complex in the early 20th century, and other overseas Chinese of the early 20th century.

Diaolou among the bamboo thickets. This village is very quiet, though the chickens and geese in coops prove there are still people living here. Not many villagers and even fewer tourists walking around.

A ghost town. The people of Dengbian Village (邓边村) gradually moved away to cities, leaving their village to be overgrown by trees and vines. Inside the houses, many with roofs caved in and roots poking through the bricks, you can see remnants of the former residents' lives—a moldy sweater sleeve, broken pots, a dresser barely held up by a couple of ceiling beams. Given demographic trends, the "Village without People" is probably a harbinger of rural China's future—one day, the countryside may be full of ghost towns like this.

To get there, take village road Y811, and the first sign of the abandoned village will be an overgrown diaolou on the right. Just past it is the dirt road leading to the village. Walk down the dirt road and you'll pass a large complex of buildings that you can walk around and explore. The dirt road ends at a river, but a small dirt path to the right leads to another part of the village. When exploring the buildings stick to the paths where other people have gone. The houses are falling apart and may not be stable. If you're really adventurous, an extremely overgrown path from the first complex leads to the village's diaolou (if you go this way, consider grabbing a big stick to scare away snakes just in case). Don't even think about going up in the diaolou, though—the door is rusted shut.

Dengbian Village was one of many villages in the area where the Gin (甄 Zhēn) clan settled in the late 12th century. The village was considered one of the most prosperous in the area and many of its young men went overseas and remitted funds to support the village and build the Diaolou watchtower, the landmark which today identifies the location of the village. Many villagers established businesses and attended school in the nearby town of Xinchang in the Sanbu district of Kaiping. Today, on the outskirts of Xinchang is a Gin Sun Hall Memorial Hall named in honor of the Gin Sun Hall who 25 generations ago in 1190s settled in the area. The Gin Sun Hall Benevolent Association in San Francisco was established and supported by the descendants from this area.