Yinglong tower

Yinglong tower

Yinglong tower is located in sanmenli village, Chikan Town, Kaiping City, 6 kilometers east of Kaiping City. It is the earliest existing watchtower in Kaiping City, built by Guan family. Sanmenli village, built in the orthodox years of the Ming Dynasty, has a history of more than 400 years (1436-1449 AD), is located in the alluvial plain of the lower reaches of the Tanjiang River. It is a low-lying land with reeds and waterfowls. Floods threaten the lives and property of villagers from time to time. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (1522-1566 AD), Guan shengtu and his wife, the 17th ancestor of the Guan family, donated their family savings and built the Yinglong tower.

survey

Construction scale

Yinglong building is located from northwest to Southeast. It covers an area of 152 square meters, with a construction area of 456 square meters. It is of brick and wood structure, with a height of 11.4 meters and three floors. It is the commanding height of the whole village. The first and second floors are built with large-scale red mud bricks of Ming Dynasty. The specifications of red bricks are 33 × 15 × 8 cm, and the wall thickness is 93 cm, which is the original structure of Ming Dynasty. In the ninth year of the Republic of China (1920 A.D.), the third floor was built with green bricks. The windows were larger than the second floor, and the floor was of wood beam and board structure. Each corner of the building has a floor type tower. The second and third floors of the tower are equipped with shooting holes. The top of the tower is a traditional hard hilltop style with simple style and simple shape.

Representative significance

In China, the dragon is a symbol of auspiciousness. The name of the building "Yinglong" is to hope that it will bring peace, good luck and happiness to the villagers. After the completion of Yinglong building, it plays an important role in protecting people from floods and bandits. The square shape of Yinglong tower is not affected by external factors, which is the most primitive traditional model of Kaiping watchtower

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characteristic

There are many watchtowers in Kaiping, but who knows which one is the oldest? It's yinglonglou, historically known as fulonglou. Yinglong building is located in sanmenli of Luyang village committee in Chikan. It was built in the early Qing Dynasty and has a history of more than 400 years.

It is said that the first person to settle down in Luyang village was Lu'an Gong. In 1644, the Qing government was corrupt, the society was restless, the thieves were rampant, and the people were in dire straits. In order to protect the life and property of their relatives and neighbors, Guan Zirui, the fourth son of Lu'an Gong, built a three storey watchtower at the head of the village, called "Ruiyun tower". After that, there were bandits or floods. The villagers took shelter in the building. Later, as the population gradually increased, ruiyunlou couldn't hold all the villagers. Guan shengtu, the great grandson of Lu'an Gong, built another watchtower in the village, named "Fulong Lou" (it is said that his wife took out her private money to help him with the charity).

In 1884 and 1908, Kaiping was hit by two major floods, which flooded the roof. However, due to the protection of ruiyunlou and fulonglou, the villagers in Luyang village were safe.

Over the past 400 years, ruiyunlou and fulonglou have played an important role in the struggle against bandits and flood control. Therefore, the villagers have deep feelings for them. They protect them carefully and keep them in good condition. Unfortunately, due to the construction of water conservancy, Ruiyun building was demolished in 1926, leaving only Fulong building.

Yinglong tower is a typical traditional watchtower in Kaiping. The building is three stories high, about 10 meters high, covering an area of 152 square meters. The four corners of the Diaolou are prominent, and each floor has a gun hole. There is a dome door on the front of the ground floor, with a small square window on both sides of the door, and three small square windows on the front of the second and third floors. The roof is a traditional Chinese hard hilltop building. On the third floor, the name of the building "yinglonglou" is written.

Each floor of Yinglong building is divided into middle hall and east-west ear room. The wall is 93 cm thick and is made of large red bricks 33 cm long, 15 cm wide and 8 cm thick. In 1919, when the villagers saw that the walls of the third floor were denuded, they strengthened them with green bricks and cement, replaced the beams and columns on the roof, renovated the tile surface on the roof, and changed the wooden doors and windows into iron doors and windows. Therefore, although Yinglong tower has experienced the baptism of years, it is still very strong. There is a Jiangnan poem on the wall of the building. It is said that it was written by a military commander named Guan Rongzhi in the most authentic format: a plum blossom in Jiangnan, a plum blossom in Shiyan, the flowing water in Shiyan, the murmuring clouds, the clouds in Jiangnan.

Address: yinglonglou, sanmenli village, Chikan Town, Kaiping City, Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province

Longitude: 112.58599853516

Latitude: 22.32299957275

Chinese PinYin : Ying Long Lou