Cha In Village (Nam Long) in See Dai Doo District, Chongshan

[louiecs]

My great-grandfather was from the Nam Long Village of Cha In in the See Dai Doo District of Chongshan/Zhonshan. I am trying locate this village on a map. His name was Kwai Yau Chun (Chan in your database). Thank you.

[lachinatown]

Do you have any Chinese characters? How you come about these spellings?

Nam Long (Nanlang) = 南朗镇

[louiecs]

I'm sorry I don't have any Chinese characters. The spellings came from my Uncle Nick Chun. I believe he got them from the See Dai Doo Society records in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was a member of the Society before he passed away, as was my grandfather, Hung Yuen Chun.

James H. Chun wrote a book in 1983 titled "The Early Chinese of Punaluu." His father came from Cha In, too, and he spells it the same way. Enclosed are two pages from the book, showing the location of the See Dai Doo District (pg. 11) and the village of Cha In (pg. 12, item no. 2 on the map). I know these are a little difficult to read. My daughter found the book at the Harvard Library where she is a student and scanned these maps for me with the library scanner.

[lachinatown]

Too bad the photos are difficult. We have seen the first photo. The 2nd one is most interesting. Can you get the daughter to do a better job on it, like take a photo in high resolution so Chinese characters can be read?

[Doug 周]

Both of you try this reference: Geography of Kwangtung Province for Hawaii Residents ^click

[louiecs]

To lachinatown, yes, I have asked her already, but she has been busy. I'll bug her again :-)

To Doug: Thank you. I'll take a look.

[Doug 周]

Goto the local LDS (Mormon) Family History Centers and request the book. See: Punaluu Genealogy (in Honolulu County) ^click. Click on the The early Chinese in Punaluu link ^click on the page and choose #3. The fee should be reasonable. Any LDS site should be able to help you no matter how small the community. Save your daughter some time.

[louiecs]

Cha In is on the map on page 24 of the document Doug referenced above.

[Doug 周]

Now you need to find the Chinese characters matching the English phonetic spelling. It might be on page 21 or 26. You will need someone literate in Chinese to make a determination. Get them to digitize the characters for you so they become more portable as you search mapping programs.

[lachinatown]

I still don't see any copy of the 2nd photo you posted louiecs in any google search. Not sure what the character "In" in Cha In is?
But Cha is 茶 (tea), and Cha Dong 茶東 is located at 22.512716,113.53426.

Don't see Cha Sai or Cha Xi 茶西 is on the map.
I think we talk about the Cha 茶 villages before on another thread.

[louiecs]

Thank you both for your assistance and suggestions. I will follow up on them and a couple of other options I have considered. Judging by the District Map (page 11 of the book) the village you have identified, Cha Dong, must be very near, or actually be, Cha In.

My daughter sent me another image of page 12 last night (enclosed). She photographed it with her camera and said it is the best she can get. The original book is small and the print is very small. Some of the Chinese characters are illegible in the original text. I have never seen this map anywhere else either. Sadly, James Chun has passed away, or I would simply contact him to find the location of the village.

[louiecs]

James Chun notes on page 12 that Cha In is divided into two villages (East and West). You have observed this already. Cha Dong means "Tea East." There is a Chun (Chan) village in your Village Database, Cha Sai (茶西), or "Cha West." I entered the coordinates into Google maps (22 33 00 N, 113 28 00 E). It is about 10 km northwest of Cha Dong.

Also, I enlarged the map on page 12 and I believe I can see the Chinese Characters for Cha Dong and Cha Sai (or Xi). My husband agrees. He went through 3rd grade in China and Hong Kong so he can read and write Chinese a little.

[lachinatown]

The map is much better louiecs. I can see most of the Chinese characters.
Regarding your Cha In: as indicated in the English below, Cha In (divided in east and west).
On the map, I can read: 2- Cha In, arrow points to two Chinese characters (can't tell for sure, but it may be 茶枕 or 茶?), 茶西 (Cha Xi), 茶東 (Cha Dong). Therefore that area is your village, as one or 2 villages.

Please note that the coordinates are not exact, depending on the map you use. At maps.google.com, the location shifted if map to satellite views.

Yes, both villages are listed in the village database:
Fung Fau Heung (豐阜鄉), Cha Sai (茶西), 22 33 00 N, 113 28 00 E [This coordinates is general since we have not positively identify it yet; so don't go by that for actual location]
Fung Fau Heung (豐阜鄉), Cha Tung (茶東), 22.512716,113.53426 [This coordinates has been verified on a map]

Our goal is to identify the villages, but maybe too difficult to achieve.

[Doug 周]

I can't resist but to participate. Again from page 26 of the Kwantung Map:

Could the second village be correct? The Heung matches (methinks)

[lachinatown]

Not sure what you mean by the red box on the left.
The Heung is shown on the top box above the village names.