RE: Kaiping Diaolou Tourist Attraction #2 LI Garden 开平碉楼 立园
It's very beautiful as I have read about it on the internet.
Li Garden or Liyuan is UNESCO site, located at Tangkou Township, Kaiping City. It is a big garden complex, which you may need time to walk around. After the gate entry is the museum of sort of Kaiping immigration flow to the California, the local called Kam-san, literally means gold mountain. Many went there as gold miners, and the later flow is business providing services for the gold miners there. Some make the fortune and sent monies back to Kaiping. Li Garden or Liyuan (立园) was one of the success story. It was constructed by Kaiping overseas Chinese Mr. Xie Weili .The family house is not the typical watchtowers you found around Kaiping, but worth a visit to know and understand the success story of the oversea Chinese from Kaiping, that is the reason why it was selected as UNESCO site.It is normally visited together with Zilli Village which is nearby. There is only one small watchtower in side the complex for the ladies, other than that is the buildings for the brothers of the family. It is rather a complex of old bungalow and garden. For visitors who are interested in architecture and buildings, the combination of European and Chinese style in the buildings will of much to study on the interaction of west and east on the life of oversea Chinese. The villa is also having a Chinese garden complex with beautiful landscapes, but when I visited there, there is some new addition of modern tourist element that may not match to the era of the garden.
You can take bus from Guanzhao, via Fengcun bus station (芳村汽车站) at Kengkou Metro Station, From Zhuhai/Macau via Zhuhai Gobgbei Long Distance Bus Station, walk across the large square in front of the border gate, just walk toward right, and cross the road to opposite you will find the main bus station( there is a bus terminal along the road, do not confuse with it, just cross the road), or even Hong Kong to Kaiping city. Get accommodation in the Kaiping city or Chikan town, and travel to Li Garden/Zilli Village by hired car or bus. If you use bus, expected to walk some distance from the entrance of the main road to the gate of the village.
The bus station to most tourist destinations can be taken from Yici Passenger Station(Yici keying zhongzhan).To Liyuan, take bus from Yici bus station, no 17(17 Lu) go to Liyuan, get off at Liyuan Lu Kou stop, and walk to the entrance gate of Liyuan.If your hotel is in town, you need to take local bus from Changsa Bus station from the downtown or bus stops to Yici bus station, take No2 and No3. There are also free shuttle bus to Liyuan if you bought the combined ticket for the tourist destination in Kaiping, which you can take from Chikan town to Liyuan.
Luyuan may not have watch tower cluster like the other destinations in Kaiping, but to understand the Kaiping oversea Chinese and their stories, Liyuan is a must visit to understand why UNESCO status was given to Kaiping.