Visiting Ancestral Village for the first time

[lesthean]

After years of researching and talking about visiting my ancestral village, the time is fast approaching to turn this into reality.

My grandfather left China over 100 years ago and this Xmas, I am taking my family of 4 back to Dan Shui, Guangdong.

From distant relatives in Malaysia I have found the address of the Ancestral Home and had even contacted the clans people there.

When I first wrote to them 2 years ago, they gave me their phone numbers and confirmed the address.I verified the names of that letter with the relative in Malaysia who confirmed that they are actually part of the Deng clan.

However, when I wrote this year to contact them, I never received a reply............

I am wondering what course of action I should now take- do I write again in case the mail got lost either on the way to them or their reply was lost.............. OR do I just arrive at the village/ Ancestral Home.

The relatives in Malaysia told me that they don't announce their arrival- they just show up. The rational is that if they announce in advance that they will be there, the whole village will show up

I plan to have a car take me to the village and have a translator to bridge the language gap.
From the various posts in theis forum, I plan to take little treats from Australia like Tim Tams etc as well as some Red packets to give out

I would appreciate any advice or suggestions

Thanks

[amy]

I went to my family village 2 years ago for the very first time. We went to 3 villages (maternal, paternal and in-law's). In 2 villages, we actually had some very distant relations and gave them about a week's notice so they could arrange a small ancestral offering in the home (e.g. incense, oranges, chicken, candles, paper money, etc.) for respect and tradition. We gave small red envelopes to those households, but not really to anyone else in the village. In the 3rd, we just showed up unannounced (mainly because we had lost all contact with the clan in that village as our immediate relations had moved away decades ago), but we had a general idea of where the house stood. Shortly after we pulled up and wandered around a bit, some elderly ladies directed us to the house and to a caretaker who had the keys! They miraculously remembered our family lived there over 50 years ago (down to how many children and their names and gender!). Inside the unoccupied house there were still photos of the family hanging on the walls. It was quite astounding. We gave red envelopes to the caretaker and the lady who directed us.

Other welcome gifts are ginseng and ginseng candy.

We also brought along photographs of our parents (who had lived in those homes) and the distant family were happy to see them and also wanted some of the photos. This may not be the case for you since it seems you don't have close relatives there anymore. But, you never know!

I don't know where you plan to stay during your trip, but we enjoyed staying at the Gao Ye Hotel in downtown Taicheng (aka Taishan City). It is in the center of town and pedestrian friendly with an attached mall and grocery story plus an active shopping street adjacent to it.

We had a great van driver who knew all the little roads in and around the villages. Be aware that it is customary to invite your driver/guide to dine with you.

-Amy

[lachinatown]

Very good report Amy.
If you don't mind would you like to list the villages & show the locations on Google map, if they are not listed already.
It maybe helpful for people looking for these villages.
Thanks.

[amy]

If this is helpful for anyone, here is a map of the places we went on our 2011 trip to our ancestral villages. We went to 3 villages:
Chin village of Dawan 大灣
Moy village of Nanyang 南洋
Lee village of Julong 聚龍

Also marked on this map is the Gao Ye Hotel where we stayed in Taishan City (aka Taicheng). I outlined a little stroll we took near the hotel and marked locations of some eating establishments and an ATM that allowed me access to my American bank account

goo.gl/maps/BE8lM

On this trip we also went to see two of the UNESCO World Heritage diaolou sites in Kaiping (aka Hoiping) -- Zilicun village (自力村) of Tangkou township (塘口镇) and the riverside promenade in Chikan (赤坎古镇影视城). This is totally worth a side trip to see.

[lachinatown]

Thank you Amy.
I guess our families are north of yours.

[laohuaqiao]

Amy,
(1) Recently, another forum member Damon was looking for information on Chin/Chan/Chen genealogy of Dawan 大湾 village, Shatan Shi 沙坦市 in Doushan. Perhaps you have some info for him. His recent posts are here siyigenealogy.proboards.com/user/1550/recent

(2) My mother's village is also Lee village of Dongkeng 东坑， Yinglong 迎龙, which is just north of Julong. Actually, her house is one of three houses which are across the road from Yinglong but technically still part of Yinglong. Informally, people just call it village of Three Houses 三间屋. Just curious if you are familiar her village.

[amy]

Hi laohuaqiao,

(1) I'll take a look at the posting from Damon and see if I can contribute any info.

(2) I'm not that familiar w/Dongkeng, but that area seemed quite interesting. I wonder how long those villages will continue to exist. Compared to the other villages we visited, Julong seemed quite small, sparsely inhabited and was right next to a commercial road that is not far from the city center. On our trip in November of 2011, a good amount of industry/factories/commerce seemed to be encroaching along that main road (Dong Keng Lu 东坑路) and along the roadside driving north from Taicheng to that area we saw banners protesting the government confiscation of farmlands without proper compensation. Is Yinglong any larger than Julong or other villages in Dongkeng?

-Amy

[msmoy9858]

What is diaolou??

[laohuaqiao]

Nov 4, 2013 5:39:14 GMT -5 msmoy9858 said:

What is diaolou??

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiping_Diaolou

[laohuaqiao]

Hi Amy,
Judging from satellite view of the villages, Yinglong is only half the size of Julong. You are right about Dongkeng, it's a fast changing area. Dongkeng Road ends not more than a 100 meters after it passes by Yinglong, at a T-junction with 工业大道 Industrial Boulevard; I can easily imagine the future plans for the nearby area. As late as 2006, Dongkeng Rd. was still a narrow rural road and Dongkeng village was a bustling marketplace; now the stores are gone, to make way for new wider, paved road.

Also, another bit of history is about 100 years ago Taishan had one of the few civilian built railroads in China, the main branch running from Gongyi in the north to Doushan. There was a train stop at Dongkeng and there was one at Shatan Shi 沙坦市, of course, since the principal behind the railroad company was 陈宜禧 of Liucun 六村. www.tsinfo.com.cn/en/xntls/1.htm

Today, there is plan to build a high speed rail connecting Guangzhou to southwestern coastal city of Zhanjiang 湛江 and the proposed train stop at Taishan is not far from Dongkeng.

[amy]

Dear Laohuaqiao,

Yes, I've read about the old railway and 陈宜禧. He is related to the family that help found and build up Seattle Chinatown too, right? I also recall that the 2010 movie 'Let the Bullets Fly' with Chow Yun Fat opens with a sequence re-creating a ride on that railway and it has other scenes in and around Taishan. Quite an interesting film.

Hope that high speed rail becomes a reality in my lifetime. Would be fun to ride, I think!

Have you seen this page from 2010 of photos and description of 東和村 which is just south of Julong?
rootsdb.org/dongkeng-xiang-dunghaang-heung-donghecun-dungwo-chyun

-Amy

[laohuaqiao]

Hi Amy,
Thanks for the link, I have not seen those pictures of Donghe. It seems as if some of the houses are in ruins, with caved in roofs.

[lesthean]

Thank you so much for the information- I am ready to go!Just have to get some goodies and cash for the red envelopes.

I'm counting down the days......

Will post my experience when I return in January 2014