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Post by douglaslam on Nov 30, 2011 9:15:17 GMT -5
Day 22, Nov. 29 Today, I continue my unfinished business with member Christine's search for her husband's ancestral village and genealogy records. My two usual companions accompany me to Nam Long once more. Before we set off, Ming and I sit down to look at the fresh information given us by Christine, and re-read our past correspondence. Ming decides we are to go straight to the overseas Chinese office of Nam Long Town Government. About two hours later we are at the govt. office. We find it reassuring all the people we meet so far speak the local dialect, which is not altogether dissimilar to our own. The overseas Chinese affairs officer is out, but another worker calls him and secures an appointment with him at 1430. Good start. The time now is just gone 1130, so we decide to have a long leisurely lunch to while away the hours. We order roast goose, blanched chicken, and beef stir fry with bitter melon. Ma Gor also orders a bottle of rice wine between the two of us. It is what you'd call a working lunch. We sit around to about1300, and decide to have a little exercise walk to work off the rich lunch which comes to RMB 147. We wander into Nam Long's town market. Today must be market day, which is still determined by the traditional lunar calendar. We walk and look at the stalls, and there are many, still open after the morning trade. The permanent and temporary stalls wind around the perimeter of the big indoor market which accommodates many fresh meat, poultry and fish stalls. It is a giant market undercover, which could easily house two Jumbo jets. Just before the appointed time we arrive back at the govt. office. Many people are coming because there is a big conference due to open. Shortly after, the officer arrives. He is a local and has the same family name as ours. He also tells us because of the conference, there is not much he could do. He takes down the names we give him and promises to call a village called Hou Moon Chuen ááéT´å Backdoor Village, where the Lees from Nam Long live. He is helpful, and sure of himself. As the conference goes for two days, we can look forward to his calling us sometime after tomorrow with his enquiries on our behalf. Ming is against my idea of calling the village ourselves. Protocol dictates that once we called for help officially we should let the matter take its course. That is the way business is done in China. And Ming knows its working well. Fingers crossed. We take the bus back to Shekki, and I suggest a second round of eating. This time we are going for a sweet treat... yum. There is still plenty of time before dinner. A walk of the older part of Shekki is a good idea. There is a little surprise in store as we come to the Zhongshan Overseas Chinese Museum. I've heard about this museum back in Sydney because there was a call for donation of items suitable for display. I could not think of anything I could donate to the museum then. Many of the historical events mentioned are familiar to me through the Internet, or through personal experience or knowledge. Unfortunately, the closing is nigh, we just don't have enough time to see all the exhibits. We'll be back. Now, it's dinner time, the third round of eating to round off the day.
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Post by tyuti1668 on Dec 1, 2011 1:52:50 GMT -5
...We find it reassuring all the people we meet so far speak the local dialect, which is not altogether dissimilar to our own... Info about these "´åÔ’" btw My parents mislead several Ó¡ÄáÈAƒS en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Indonesian#Identity as ¸£½¨ÈË due to similarities of the "accented" Cantonese just like theirs ;D
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Post by Ah Gin on Dec 1, 2011 4:10:22 GMT -5
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Post by douglaslam on Dec 1, 2011 7:44:36 GMT -5
Day 23, Nov.30 There is a planned power outage today. The power is switched off from 6 o'clock this morning for a large area in our district town. I believe this is necessary for essential maintenance or installation of new equipment, and supply won't return to normal until about 9;30 tonight. Such wide-spread interruptions to power supply not caused by natural disaster can only happen in China without vehement protest from the consumers. Today, I want to explore nearby villages and get to know them a little better. There is only Ming with me today. Our first stop is Dip Shek, the village I visited on twice last year to track down my distant cousin's ancestral home. ( Go to Dip Shek on youtube and have a look. Youtube is barred in China, no link possible.) Members who read my reports from last year would remember I, ( more correctly, Ming) successfully found the house cousin's grandfather built. I want to call on Octo 2 to express my thanks again and perhaps to re-visit the lady of the house to find out more about her and her family in order to fill in the gaps in my Australian cousin's family history. Alas, that is not going to happen because Octo 2 is sick in bed. Octo 2 is the unofficial keeper of the genealogy book and the oldest man in the village. Only he remembers cousin's uncle, who went to Sydney with his mother in the 1930s to join his father. In the unlikely event cousin wants to claim his home in the village after Octo 2 carking it, things are going to be difficult. Proof is difficult without Octo 2. Nobody alive in the village knew anything about cousin's family in Australia. We go instead to have a look see of the hillside resort right by the village. There are holiday bungalows, conference facilities and recreational areas set against a wooded low hill. We both find the place quite pleasant. It is low season now and the facilities are poorly utilised. We walk on to see more of the village, looking at the small garment factories, and furniture makers before settling for a long lunch. Then it is off to the river-crossing . Members will recall my photo report from last year on the same crossing.. This time I am doing it more leisurely on foot instead on a motor bike. Ming knows each village well. He tells me the official name and the name in common usage. My own village On Tong, for example, is the biggest in Lung Doo. Our clan members overflow to many villages. But our village hall is ancestral hall central. We go on by bus to what is now called Southern District or City South of Zhongshan City, which takes in the villages which were home to the fairy-tale style success stories of the Kwok / Gock, Ma, Louie and other illustrious families. These families from the south part distinguished themselves as true pioneers overseas.
There is in fact a public square with fountains, lighting display, footbridge, and an obelisk under construction. The obelisk, with inscriptions on each side in Dr. Sun's calligraphy proclaiming the great pioneers such as the Gocks and the Mas in retail merchandising. To my absolute disappointment, my camera's memory card is full. No photos possible.
Then. it is dining in a big Hakka cuisine restaurant. We can't order much because there are only two of us. Ming is an excellent dining companion. He is so well informed and enlightened. After the long diner break, it is time to get home in a circuitous way.
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Post by douglaslam on Dec 2, 2011 10:13:40 GMT -5
Day 24 , Dec. 1 Today is a rest day because none of my travel companions is free. I am going to talk a little about education in China, or this part of China, as I understand it.
China provides nine years of free but probably non-compulsory education up to year 9, or junior high school. But parents still have to meet a host of charges, some of them are questionable.
High schools are divided into junior highs up to year 9, and senior highs up to year 12. On completion of year 9, advancement to years 10, 11, and 12 is not automatic. The students must sit for an external exam. to determent suitability and placement. High ranking senior high school placements are very competitive. Senior highs are fewer in number and far between. As a result, most students are boarders. The costs add substantially in expenses to less well-off families.
Because of the highly competitive nature of selection for senior high schools, every year 9 junior high student preparing for senior high is expected to be present for extra after hours tuition. The tuition is from say 7 to 8:45, it is just like normal classes but held after dinner.
From year 10 on, fees are payable. Bursaries are normally offered to promising students or those on extraordinary hardship. At high school, students are expected to clean and mop their class rooms. Playground is also maintained clean by the students.
It is a totally different school experience for most of us. School life wasn't meant to be easy for China's tens of millions of high school students.
I am always interested in the daily mundane things in China. That's why after many recent visits, I still find things of interest to me.
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Post by mugenpower168 on Dec 2, 2011 10:37:32 GMT -5
Our first stop is Dip Shek, the village I visited on twice last year to track down my distant cousin's ancestral home.
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Post by douglaslam on Dec 3, 2011 7:29:07 GMT -5
Day 25, Dec. 2. Today, we are going to Xiaolan, the biggest district town in Zhongshan City. Just like all townships, each one's distinctiveness is eroded with the rate of high degree of urbanisation, migrant workers, and industrialisation. The wiki-link provides a good summary. We are in time for the Chrysanthemum Festival which is now an annual event. In old tradition, it was held once every sixty years, so that no one person could witness more than two exhibitions in a life time.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaolan . Being a week day, the crowd is not big. The exhibits are quite breathtaking. Some of the displays have a strong political message, I prefer not to take photo of any of those politicised ones. My everlasting memory of Xiaolan took place about fifty-six years ago or even earlier. I think sometime in 1956, my mother took me with her to visit her older sister who was a school teacher there. It was before my departure for Hong Kong. Mother wanted to take me to Xiaolan to see her sister, to say good bye. There was no way of knowing when I'd return. I think it was a bitter sweet experience for my mother and aunt. They both loved me dearly. A memorable part of the visit was the ride on a sampan plying the narrow waterways that crisscrossed the countryside. On both banks of the waterway, mulberry trees heavily ladened with berries would brush against the sampan. I could simply reach out and pick the berries. What a beautiful, peaceful, idyllic, rustic scene. Xiaolan then had a thriving silk industry. Now, Xiaolan is best known for its metal work and lock manufacturing. The silkworms all but disappeared. How I miss the old days. My next visit was probably in 1977. I visited my older cousin, her husband and family. The country was about opening up. Their allocated flat from their work units was right next to a noisy diesel power generator spewing out foul black smoke 24 hrs / day. My cousin's family of five was granted permission to leave China for the US in the early 1980s. Cousin's husband was originally from Toishan. His familial link in the US sponsored the family to emigrate to the US and eventually settled in the Silicon Valley. Within three days of granting the exit visa, the family uprooted itself to leave for the USA. They didn't want any last minute policy changes to spoil their search for a better life. Our lunch service at a restaurant is particularly slow. This, and poor timing means we have no time for Nam Long to follow up on member Christine's search for her husband's family roots. The overseas Chinese affair official at Nam Long Govt. assures us he had made calls for us, and awaiting reply. That is of little comfort for I am leaving for Hong Kong next Monday, and on the weekend we may not be able to get much done. I think the best course of action is to go back to Nam Long ourselves tomorrow, and do a search ourselves and hope for the best. We return to the village and go straight to a restaurant for we are invited to a small dinner party. Needless to say, the food is simple but delicious. The evening is not ready to end yet. Ma Gor my travel companion is inviting me and Ming to a reflexology and message treatment. I never had my feet manipulated before, I am looking forward to the experience. Three lovely young things look after us in a room for three. it is a relaxing session. The costs: just 55 RMB / hr. Very affordable luxury.
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Post by douglaslam on Dec 4, 2011 10:04:05 GMT -5
Day 26, Nov. 3 Today, we are paying Nam Long a third visit to look for Christine's Lee family connections. We arrive before midday, only to find the village office, which is opposite to a kindergarten, closed. We fully anticipated this. Native locals are happy to direct us to the old part of town where we manage to find a group of people in a house. One person calls on her phone, in no time at all an older woman arrives with a book of some sort. A genealogy book, perhaps ? Too good to be true. We follow her to a re-built temple awaiting dedication on the 9th day of the twelve moon. The book in fact is a donation pledge book. She thinks we are here to make a donation. Too good to be true indeed. We head back to the village office hoping for a miracle. Ming stops more people to ask , and one important looking man pulls out his phone and summons someone to come. He then drives off with his friends. The guard at the kindergarten then tells us, the man is in fact the village party secretary, the top man. Soon, a man arrives on his scooter. He takes us to a Lee family with overseas connections. The family very enthusistically receives us. But their overseas links are in Sydney, my hometown, not Honolulu. We find yet another old man, who gives us a brief history of Nam Long. Nam Long was never a single surname village. It in fact had dozens of names. Lee was but one of them. There is a small cluster of Lee families, but they are of no relevance to our search. There is no Lee genealogy book and no Lee village hall to speak of. We take the initialtives because I have no time for the overseas Chinese affairs official to call back. I am leaving for Hong Kong on Monday. Anyway, we are unanimous that the town government official could not do any better than what we are doing today. Nice try though. We return to Shekki with a firm answer that we are hitting a brick wall. I love walking about the older parts of Shekki town, looking at the old buildings. Too many have been demolished as recently as my last trip only twelve months ago. There is the Zhongshan Overseas Chinese Museum I want to see because we were there at closing time earlier in the week. A young assistant from the museum joins us because he speaks our dialect, and he cites one person that I know in Sydney. It ends up I am the one guiding him on the many exhibits, especially on Australian ones. I tell him about the head tax in Canada, the exclusion act in both the US and Canada. The museum is on a temporary premisis. A new one is now under construction just next door. I visited the overseas Chinese museum in Toishan with Shi Cheng, Henry's nephew last year. There is clearly a need for a museum in both Zhongshan and Sze Yup for both counties have a long tradition of sending young men abroad to seek better fortune. A quick visit to the nearby Sun Yat-sen memorial hall which was built in the 1980s by a generous donation form a wealthy Hong Kong businessman, winds up our day.
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Post by douglaslam on Dec 4, 2011 18:34:39 GMT -5
Day 27, Nov. 4 It is the penultimate day of my stay in China on this trip before my departure for Hong Kong. As usual, Ming is happy to be my guide. There are two places I have in mind. I want to see the village and memorial hall of the founder of Sincere department store. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sincere_Department_Store It is of special interest to me because of its Australian connection. Sincere Co. was a trend setter. It introduced fixed pricing, no haggling over prices. It employed female sales staff and installed electric lighting and lifts in its stores. A trail blazer in every way. I have actually gone past Sa Chung, the home village of the founder Ma Ying Biu on many occasions but never stopping to look. It is disappointing to see the memorial hall has nothing of substance to show, just a bust of Ma and a garden. We press on to www.world66.com/asia/northeastasia/china/zhongshan/things_to_doWugui Shan. Mt. Wugui is one of Guangdong's iconic mountains. I remember my grandmother and other women used to go there in the early 1950s to fetch holy water. The crisp clean underground mountain water must have quite a reputation in those days. We have no intention of scaling any of the peaks. I just want to have a look at the mountains from a distant and visit the township. Purely by accident, we walk our way to the new part of Sa Chung, on a highway leading to Mt. Wugui. There is no bus service, and after walking for a long while, there is no going back. We walk past newly established drug rehabilitation centre and low security prison, and carry on for a few kilometres under a very warm sun without shades. There are no shops or houses much of the way. By the time we get to the township, we simply want to stop at a good restaurant, have a cold beer with our meal. It costs just over 100 RMB. Then it is back to Shekki by bus and back to the village. I want to freshen up before my departure for Hong Kong tomorrow. A visit to a hairdresser is in order. I don't want one of those fancy ones, just the one in the older part of the village I visited last time. I have a haircut, a scalp massage and shampoo, a full facial hair removal with a cutthroat razor and a new blade, and ear canals cleaned. All these for a grand total of RMB12, not even $A 2. I feel embarrassed for getting so much for so little. This just about conclude my current visit to China. I think I am a bit of an oddity, never getting tied of seeing and visiting sites of little interest to most other tourists. It is perhaps to do with my wish to re-live a life that I was destined not to experience especially in those tumultuous days of the Mao era. Hong Kong is becoming more alien to me as I get older, even though I had lived there for eight years over two periods. High cost is also a factor. I don't think it proper to impose myself on my relatives. Therefore, I booked into a hostel for the first time, but I expect conditions to be vastly different. I may not have time for the keyboard or find a suitable place to log on. Anyway, most members are familiar with Hong Kong; there is little point for me to pass on my impressions.
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Post by douglaslam on Dec 5, 2011 3:42:12 GMT -5
Hello everybody.
I am now in Mong Kok, at a hostel up on the 14th. floor. Condition is surprisingly pleasant, three to a room with windows and air cond. You can't expect too much from Hong Kong given the high cost of real estate. At least I am free, not owing anyone favours. I have a mobile, please surprise me 0011 852 5472 5004
I am ready to explore the most densely populated area in the world, and prepared to be hit by a human tsunami. Eating out will be more expensive but safer I believe. Anyone within earshot of Mong Kok is invited to join me.
Douglas
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Post by douglaslam on Dec 5, 2011 7:51:06 GMT -5
Ah Gin,
You're the first cab off the rank to send me an SMS. It is a great morale booster for this lost soul in a city of over seven million people. Thanks.
If you think China was crowded, you ain't seen nothing. The positives are many in this bustling city. You don't get to hear the incessant blast of the horn by all manners of vehicle. You get to hear Cantonese spoken everything, and you get to see the traditional Chinese characters instead of the ugly simplified form.
I am still trying to remind myself that I am really in Hong Kong. I might fall in love again with this city which meant so much to me before.
Douglas
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Post by Henry on Dec 5, 2011 11:45:52 GMT -5
Douglas,
By the time you read this, you will probably be at the HKG airport sitting at a Pacific Coffee shop on their free Internet.
You had quite an adventure in China, but, there is so much more to see and do.
Welcome back and wish you a very safe journey home.
Regards,
Henry
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Post by douglaslam on Dec 5, 2011 19:20:18 GMT -5
Hi Henry,
I am not ready to return just yet. In fact, I am going to a wedding reception at the plosh Marriott Hotel tonight. Both the groom and bride are from well-to-do families. A poor cousin I am, I don't even have a suit or tie for the occasion.
Hope to have something of interest to report.
I'll try to fit in visiting a few relatives today.
Regards,
Douglas
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Post by helen on Dec 6, 2011 1:20:07 GMT -5
Hi Douglas - I hope your accomodation is better than mine was in Nathan Road, in April. I didn't feel that HK was crowded - just had nice food, and barriers in the middle of the road. Enjoy the rest of the holiday - it's been really interesting to read of you adventure.
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Post by helen on Dec 6, 2011 1:24:31 GMT -5
Day 16 , Nov 22 A very forgettable day. I spend the whole day in bed. I've got the runs. It must be the food I ate yesterday. A very miserable day. Later, I venture out to buy some patent medicine to easy the symptoms.It costs 9 RMB. I have only light meals in the hostel at 25 / meal. I feel it is safer for the time being to eat at the hostel. I am not as tough as I thought. (I read of a sure fire way to get over diarrhea - add some rice to a pot of water - boil - cool, then drink all the rice water. It is supposed to line your stomach and intestines)
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