Suopo Tibetan Village is located in Zhanggu Town, Danba County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. It is home of 1,000 Gyarong Tibetans. Suopo means Mongol in Tibetan language. It is said that many Mongols once grazed their animals in the village and its vicinity, hence the name. The village boasts of its unique ancient watchtower groups which are on the Candidates List of World Heritage Sites in China.  

The construction of the towers in Suopo Village can be dated back to more than 2,000 years ago. 84 watchtowers stand in the village today. Most of them were built during the Yuan (1271 – 1368) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties. They were built with stones and wood, look beautiful, solid and strong, ranging from 10 to 60 meters in height. The towers have 10 -20 layers, or more, and each layer has a small hole for observing and shooting. These ancient towers’ shapes are generally built in high square-shaped cylinder. Based on the shapes, the types of the towers can be classified 6 categories: 4-cornered towers, pentagon towers, hexagonal towers, octagonal towers, 13-cornered towers, ten-cornered towers, in which the 4-cornered towers are the most common. And in terms of the functional purpose，they can be classified into 6 categories: Family towers, village towers, fire-watch towers, defense towers, fengshui (geomancy) towers, and exorcise demons towers, etc.