Our trip to China this time is indeed an incredible one. A ‘mission impossible’ that we never thought we could achieve with just a single trip is now accomplished in only a mere three days!!! Guess I gotta spill what our mission was. Well well, our mission to China was to find or rather to locate our REAL Hometown, ie to locate the origin of my grandpa, great grandpa and so on. It all started when…
One fine day, my third sister and I were suddenly so gungho in seeking lil’ information about our past generations. We were both oh so keen in asking dad about grandpa and grandma. He looked so enthusiast and kept telling us every bit that he knew. He even took out a letter written by my grandma’s lil’ brother (grand uncle) back in 1988. We somehow sensed that dad wanted to seek if there’s any of our relatives still residing in OUR hometown. And so we came up with an idea to plan out a trip in search of the origin of our ancestors, we called it a sistrip as this is the first time we four sisters went out for a true mission! My eldest sis (Kein) and third sis (Kuan) went scouting for information on the location and the contacts that may help throughout our journey. Well, I must say they did a great job in planning a smooth trip after all! And of course forging out a large sum of financial aid to support this trip..hahaha…and here we go…
20 Feb 09 (Friday)
We first reached Shenzen international airport late evening and were escorted by Kuan’s fellow friend (Alfa) to our Hotel (Four Point Sheraton). We had a good rest and made some plans for our stay in Shenzen before setting out for our mission.
In e Plane
Dinner time…straight after checking in
21 Feb 09 (Saturday)
Our first stop to the Shenzen famous tourist spot, Windows of the World 世界之窗, which made a journey “around the World in 6 hours” made possible. I must say this spot is a must to hang around!
That guy in red is Alfa…Xiao Mao Mi…hehehe
Breakfast
Around the “Big Window”
One, Two, Three, POSE!
Yah~ Keep Posing!
Second down left: Japanese Tea Ceremony Demo
Aih~ tak habis habis nak pose!
Yups, these are real!
For a shopaholic like my eldest sis, “Tung Men” 东门 was then our next stop! The locals called it ‘The Women’s World’! haha…which was indeed very true! You can find everything from head to toe with multi million types of accessories and all! Cool huh?
Dinner at 真功夫…Chinese fast food at 东门
22 Feb 09 (Sunday)
Since we made a trip to see the world, then it’s time for us to see the great heritage of China and its magnificent architecture. The best places are the Splendid China and China Folk Culture Villages located next to each other. We were able to witness the miniature of all the historical buildings in China as well as the culture of every minority (tribes) in rural China.
Breakfast again…
Nice arrangement eh?
Lunch
These two days was really tiring as we did walked almost 12 hours a day! Thanx to Alfa for being a good tour guide! A good rest is necessary to continue our journey!
23 Feb 09 (Monday)
We set out rather early, boarded a bus to HuiZhou. Based on the information gathered this should be the nearest pit stop for our mission. Here in HuiZhou 惠州 we were welcome by Aunty Ho, Kein’s colleague’s sister. She is the best tour guide in HuiZhou. She booked us a room at the Sea Dragon Hotel and even cook us food throughout our stay in HuiZhou! We could not thank her enough for her kind hospitality!
Breakfast before setting out to HuiZhou
Top: This lil girl is simply adorable!
Bottom: Around HuiZhou
“Wooden Wool Flowers” : direct translation…=P
In the late noon we make our first stop at the state’s government office to scout for more information. The personnel in the related department were oh so helpful and even got us some contacts which were of great help! We immediately get in contact with the YuanZhou’s government personnel, Mr Leong. We gave him all our information regarding our past generations. It was really amazing that Mr Leong gave us feed back on his findings and even able to get in contact with the people from the villages, which were believed to be the origins of my grandpa and grandma, on the very same day! However, we had to wait till the next day to travel to those villages. Of course we never missed a chance to discover more on China. During that evening we m,anaged to find time to hang around the state and get a good view of HuiZhou West Lake, “游四湖”. Haha…the scenes were just simple breathtaking! Judge it yourself!
Look at those reflections in the lake…Beautiful!
Cool eh?
桃花 (not sure if these are the correct chinese characters..huhu)
24 Feb 09 (Tuesday)
We met up with Mr Leong and he brought us to “tit lou hang” to meet Mr Lau, well, it’s just so silly to called him that way as 90% of the villagers carry the surname “Lau”! Mr. PH Lau should be more appropriate. He then introduced us the the authorities in charged on the village. There we get to look into the Lau’s family records. With the very few information, we somehow able to locate our great grandpa’s name in that record. However, my grandpa’s name was not recorded clearly. Then here come Uncle Pong, a really helpful uncle who went to investigate the past generations by ‘interviewing’ the older people in the village. There was this oldman in his 90s who had some blur memory on my great grandpa and grandpa himself. And so we made a conclusion that the record was 80% true! We were really touched that the mission went on so smoothly. Mr PH Lau kept asking us to stay in that town for a few days so that we could get to know the older ones. But his kindness were really too much for us to accept. So we went back to HuiZhou and continue our mission in search of my grandma’s brother.
Dim Sum early in the morning
Meeting the elders in the village
More food! the soup is darn nice!!! Slurp
Around the village..again…look at those gorgeous reflections!
The sisters at work…
25 Feb 09 (Wednesday)
Since we did not get much feed back on grandma’s side so we had to stay at HuiZhou praying that Mr Leong will update us on any findings he could get.Later that day Mr Leong called and with full excitement blurted “found them already!”…haha, we were so touched and ta the same time seems so impossible. The information he gave was rather blurry and we immediately plan our trip to the village the next day!
Market place somewhere near Aunty Ho’s home
26 Feb 09 (Thurday)
Very early in the morning, once again we meet up Mr Leong and set out to another village, ‘ji tou chuen’. There we went straight to the village’s main office to look out for their secretary, Mr Tham, again there were more than 90% of the population carrying the surname Tham (so is my grandma). Sect. Tham explained to us that our GrandUncle is on his way with his children to meet us. WOW…isn’t that simply amazing. We waited for some time then he came in with some of his children. Of course we did not immediately be certain that he is the one we are searching for. After some chatting we could not be surer that he is the one! He could even remember our dad’s name and our home address!!! Wow…all we did was stood there speechless with tears in our eyes! It was such a touching scene!
Look! my Grandma’s brother…a mission accomplished! The rest are all my uncle and aunties!!!
Later that evening we went back to our great grandpa’s village for a dinner held annually specially for the older ones. There we were able to meet even more of the villagers still residing there. It was such an unforgettable experience!
Left: Mr PH Lau standing right in the middle
27 Feb 09 (Friday)
A good day rest is just appropriate after a long journey. All we did was just to walk around near our hotel at ShaJing and had a comfy foot massage. We then make time to meet up with Kuan’s friends for a seafood dinner! =P
Sun You (Kuan’s friend), Alfa and Kuan
28 Feb 09 (Saturday)
And we’re once again back to our very own home! And we had a grand birthday party celebration for my second Sis MunYee, Brother, Bebe, Aunty FookHan, and Cousin Shosann, the March babies! Phew…yet another tiring day!
Hola…Last but not least, a great big hugs of appreciation to all who had taken part in our lil’ mission…special thanx to Mr Leong form the YuenZhou’s Gov., Aunty Ho, Uncle PH Lau, Uncle Pong, Sect. Tham, and Mr Chauffeur. Not forgetting our dear tour guide Alfa and all my dear sisters! Thanx for an incredible journey! *HUGS*
- This makes the longest post ever!!! =P -
Kang Kang cake cutting.
Kang Kang’s cakie.
