Another tourist attraction in Kaiping City is the Li Garden. It was a private residential garden built in 1926 – 1936 by an American Chinese, Xie Wei Li by name. The garden’s name “Li” was derived from the name of its owner and it gives expression to the meaning of a Chinese idiom Xiu Shen Li Ben, which is written on an archway in the garden, meaning that cultivating one’s moral and character is the key to success in one’s life and work. This idea of the owner’s is also embodied in many other inscriptions and couplets written in the garden.
The Li Garden is laid out in the way of traditional Chinese gardening but many of its structures are built in Western styles, such as the two Roman-styled structures popularly known as the Bird’s Nest and the Flower & Rattan Pavilion. The garden covers an area of 19, 600 square meters, with a man-made stream running through and cutting it into two parts, which are connected by arch-bridges. Along the stream are pavilions, a hundred-meter-long corridor, archways, residential houses and other structures.
The residential buildings in the villa area are also combinations of Chinese and Western architectural elements. While their main structures are foreign-styled, some are roofed like a Chinese palace, and inside they are decorated and furnished with both Chinese and foreign artifacts: Western fireplace and pendent lamps, Italian ceramic tiles, Chinese wooden furniture, wall paintings depicting Chinese folk stories, Chinese gilded wood-carvings etc.
The Li Garden is indeed a paragon of harmonious combination of the Chinese and foreign cultures.as a watchtower for it was located in an open land and was provided with electric generator,searchlights and guns.
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