Now that I got my bag out of the way, I went back to the bus station. From the hostel, I just took the metro at Fangcun 芳村 station to Xilang 西朗 station. The bus station connected to the metro station via bridgeway, confusingly enough, is the Fangcun Bus station. I need to go to the city of Kaiping 开平 also in Guangdong province. The bus station is very modern and I quickly got my bus ticket.
The bus itself was very comfortable and airconditioned. What I like about buses here in China is that they leave even if the bus is not full, unlike the buses in other countries where they fill it up all the way to the roof. In cases where the buses do not fill up, the tickets tend to be more expensive but at least it is not filled to the rafters with people.
Kaiping City is just a short bus ride outside of Guangzhou. It is famous for its collection of Diaolou 碉楼, which are relatively modern buildings built in the early 1900s by overseas Chinese. It is because of these buildings that Kaiping managed to land in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, which is the reason I’m here. There are a lot of these buildings in Kaiping and it is quite evident even when we entered the city. But I was not planning to stay and explore Kaiping city itself. My real destination is remote village of Zili 自力村.
From the Kaiping Bus station, I took another bus that passes right by the village of Zili. The Kaiping countryside is dotted with these diaolou and the village of Zili should be one of the best places to check them out. However, from the glistening highways of Guangzhou, the roads of Kaiping pale in comparison. In particular, the road to Zili turned out to be a long mudway. The bus slowed to an agonizing crawl that it took forever to get to the village.
I reminded the driver to let me off the village but it turns out that we already passed it! He got me on another bus going the opposite direction and gave instructions to the driver. Fortunately, service is still quite good here, I was half expecting him to just dump in in the middle of nowhere. The other bus driver promptly dropped me off at the entrance of Zili Village.
The road outside Zili Village is muddy and is wet because of the rains. It seems like construction is taking forever with the rains. Only big vehicles can pass through this section of the road now, as any small one would probably get stuck in the mud. And Zili village as remote as it is, getting your car stuck is not a good idea.
Anyway, I have a schedule to keep I proceeded to enter the village. Along the way I saw this small path from the main road. It led me to some strange mounds with incense sticks on them. Only then did I realize that I stumbled into their cemetery. I quickly got out of the place, lucky for me, it was still broad daylight, I wouldn’t want to be there at night.
Just within the cemetery area is lighthouse like structure, apparently it is a diaolou called the Fang Clan Watch Tower 方氏灯楼 and it serves as a watch tower for the village. It is in a strategic spot that it it on a small hill so and traspassers and invaders can be easily spotted. I went back to the main road to continue my journey to Zili Village.
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