Qualla: Chikan, Kaiping

Chikan, Kaiping: Introduction

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0. There are more people from Chikan living abroad than there are living in Chikan. That single fact shapes everything about this old town on the Tan River — its architecture, its clan rivalries, its periods of prosperity and abandonment, and the extraordinary buildings that still line its streets. When the overseas Chinese who left for North America, Southeast Asia, and Australia sent money home, they sent ambitions with it: visions of what a building should look like, fragments of styles picked up in faraway cities, a determination to prove that the village they had left behind was as sophisticated as anywhere they had gone. Walk the old town today and you walk through the evidence.

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Image: Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador | CC BY-SA 2.0

Chikan, Kaiping: A River Town That Built Itself on Departures

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RiansLu, CC BY-SA 4.0. Chikan was founded in 1649, originally part of Xinhui County. The Tan River, which surrounds it on all sides, made it a natural hub for waterway commerce; a pier was recorded by 1676. By the late nineteenth century, Chikan had become the primary maritime transportation center for...

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Image: RiansLu | CC BY-SA 4.0

Chikan, Kaiping: The Arcade Streets and Their Makers

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Earthengine assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5. Qilou — also called Tong lau — are the covered arcade buildings that define Chikan's streetscape. Their ground floors open to covered walkways for pedestrians; upper floors provide commercial or residential space. In Chikan, the emigrants who funded their construction brought bac...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Earthengine assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 2.5

Chikan, Kaiping: Nan Lou: Seven Days in a Tower

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wishds, CC BY-SA 3.0. Among the diaolou watchtowers scattered through Chikan township, one stands apart. Nan Lou, the Southern Tower, is a defensive diaolou in Chikan town. In the summer of 1945, seven members of the Situ clan climbed to its upper floors and refused to surrender as Japanese forces adv...

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Image: Wishds | CC BY-SA 3.0

Chikan, Kaiping: Clan Libraries and the Weight of Remittances

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Earthengine assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5. The Situ and Guan clans have dominated Chikan for centuries, and their rivalry shaped the town's built environment in a way that reads almost like architectural one-upmanship. In 1923 the Situ clan used overseas donations to build a public library — Situ's Library — which opened ...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Earthengine assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 2.5

Chikan, Kaiping: A Town Waiting to Return to Itself

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Huangkeipais, CC BY-SA 3.0. In April 2017, the government announced a 6-billion-yuan renovation plan for Chikan's historic old town — a project projected to cover nearly 4,000 historic homes. The scale of the plan reflects both the scale of the architectural heritage and the scale of the problem: buildings ...

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Image: Huangkeipais | CC BY-SA 3.0