Why it looks like this

Jiangmen and its surrounding counties — the Wuyi, 'five counties' — sent more emigrants abroad in the 19th and early 20th centuries than almost anywhere in China. Remittances flowed back and built the city's long arcaded shopping streets along the river, in a blend of Chinese and Western styles.

In the countryside the same money built the diaolou: fortified multi-storey watchtower houses, part village home and part castle against bandits. The Kaiping diaolou were UNESCO-listed in 2007 — a street network's story told in towers.