Kaiping Li Yuan Tourist Area, Tangkou, Jiangmen

Li Yuan was built by Xie Weili (谢维立), a wealthy US-born overseas Chinese whose parents asked him to return to their hometown and construct a garden. He spared no expense, flying a team of international engineers on a tour of the best gardens in Beijing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. The result was a 19,000-sq-m complex of gardens, villas and a watchtower, which is consistently rated one of the province's most important tourist sites. From a distance it looks like a traditional Chinese structure, but the pastel yellow walls and the emerald-green tiled roof mask what is actually a Western-style home with Chinese characteristics.

Li Yuan 立园, Kaiping Li Yuan Tourist Area, Tangkou
Township, Kaiping 开平市塘口镇立园碉楼度假村
www.kpliyuan.com