--FILE--Chinese villager Guan Woqiang, left, eats next to his wife as they watch TV in their house in the empty village of Fuheli, Kaiping, Jiangmen city, south Chinas Guangdong province, 3 September 2013. Kaiping, the county-level city famous for its Diaolou watchtowers in south Chinas Guangdong province, not only sees the booming tourism but also witnesses the decline of some of its villages abandoned by local people who went to big cities or abroad to make a living. The families of Chinese villager Guan Woqiang and his younger brother are the only two households in the village of Fuheli since 2005. Most of the buildings were constructed during the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949) and nearly half of the houses are Diaolou watchtowers in the village which is located less than 10km away from Kaiping but is not marked in many maps or GPS devices. Most of the villagers went abroad or moved into towns or cities while the two sons of Guan also left the village for Macau and Kaiping. The neighbouring Dengbian village, less than 7km away from Kaiping, was completely abandoned after the last two families had moved out in 1998. The young generation left the village, which now has a history of more than 130 years, for Western countries in 1920s and more people went abroad later. The villagers are now living in over 30 countries or regions including the US, Canada, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. There is also an empty village named after Canada, which was built in 1936 by overseas Chinese living in the North American country. It was destined to be desolate since it had been constructed though some groups of overseas Chinese visit the village every year to worship their ancestors.
