Waang Kong location

[drbilljohnson]

My grandmother went as a missionary to China in the early 1900s. On her passport application in 1914, she listed that she was living at Waang Kong in China. She had a friend, named George Kelley at Sai Nam, South China.

I can't find those anywhere on the internet.

Anyone know where they are?

Bill Johnson

[chansomvia]

any idea what dialect was spoken at the places your grandmother made the application, the place names are quite different when romanised as it depends on who the person writing it down. Have you anything in Chinese characters, it may help narrow down the search. Also what religion was the missionary?

[Henry]

Hi Bill,

Welcome to our Forum.

Apparently, "Waang Kong" is Cantonese "Wang Kong" and in PinYin - it is " Henggang", located in Shenzhen which is approximately 30 km northwest of Hong Kong. Henggang is located approximately 17 km northeast of Shenzhen. "Sai Nam" may be the town that is located about 1 km west of Henggang. The Chinese character on the map for "Sai" is the one for the numeral four, however, I checked with 2 other maps and it should be the Chinese character for the cardinal direction - west - which is pronounced "Sai" in Cantonese/Taishanese. Please see the bi-lingual map below, my Chinese literate colleagues will have to verify my clumsy attempts to interpret Chinese romanizations.

The following URL mentions George Kelley and the missionary efforts:

www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj12/woods.html

Henry


mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/Sai Nam.jpg[/img]

[drbilljohnson]

My grandmother was Assembly of God in China from 1910 til 1924, maybe until the 1930s.

Last week at the Assembly of God Heritage Center in Springfield, Missouri, I was able to obtain copies of 4 years of her diaries which are fascinating reading. She mentions all kinds of places and villages such as Pak Nai where she stayed for a number of years, Tung Mun which she sometimes spelled Tung Moon, where she stayed a couple of years. While at Tung Mun, she did her shopping at a place called Sincere's in Sha mien. She visits Canton and Hong Kong from time to time.

She struggles with the language, but I am not sure which dialect. She just mentions in her diary of the difficulty of learning Chinese.

She also talks about soldiers coming through the region and ransacking buildings.

Thanks for the map. I am sure I will have other questions. I knew very little about my Gr. Grandmother and little about China. But I have enjoyed reading about that country.

Bill Johnson

[laohuaqiao]

Sha Mian ( 沙面 ) was was the international quarter in Guangzhou/Canton before 1949, where many of the foreign consulates and foreign businesses were situated .

Sincere Company 先施公司, founded in 1900, is a well-known department store in Hong Kong. From its website, www.sincere.com.hk/html/about/about.html

"In 1910, the company opened its first store in Guangzhou. In 1917, the Shanghai store was opened..."