My Excellent Adventures in China 2014

[douglaslam]

Ken, there is something special about your mother's village. My companion Ming pointed out to me the buildings were laid out on a grid, with lane ways crossing each other at right angle. It is a clear sign of town planning. I am sure those villagers who went to North America, came back with ideas to rebuild the village in an orderly fashion. By contrast my own village was laid out in a haphazard manner. It is a maze of twisting lanes, from time to time I still manage to get lost.

Your village isn't big but packed with surprises, you must see it one day, soon. I wasn't alert enough to observe that which was obvious to my companion. I want to re-visit it and pay greater attention when I find a good excuse to call on my new-found friend.

lachinatown, I saw the sign 海宴 a few times when I was in Toishan but I didn't care about it because I had no intentions of getting there.

Joe, it is a short bus ride to Duanfen from Taicheng,and well worth a visit. I was fortunate to have my own guide who could answer my every question.

[chansomvia]

Hi douglaslam

Thanks for your very interesting posts on your adventure, your observation of the every day events and places is absolutely terrific. I shall spend more time looking at the village and hope to make contact with the distant relatives. Most of the enterprising ones no longer live at the village as the cannot make a decent living there, a lot of them work in Macau, Kaiping, Xinhui. When they know that we are at the village they will try to take time off and come to the village. I intend to spend nights in the hotels (too old for hostels) and try to hire a driver and car for about a week. I am glad you managed to contact Shi Cheng as we had a meal together, then get a rapacious taxi driver at the last minute to go to the village area. On the way back we stopped at a restaurant built on top of motorcycle repair shop to have a meal. We waited a very long time for the meal as we were the only customers, it was worth the long wait as we had fresh prawns from their pond, fresh vegetable from their garden, a duck or goose, soup with fresh lotus roots, life is full of surprises.

Have a good time in China.

Joe

[lolly]

Hi Douglas,

You are certainly getting around and using your friendly nature to great advantage.
Thanks for the note on your conversation with "Suzie".  I am just very pleased to know that she did in fact receive my letter and pictures.  Any local information she can offer on the Pang family and relatives in Sing Sze would be of great interest to both me and Uncle Denis.  Again,  thank you so much for keeping our contact with her "alive". 
Thoroughly enjoying your ongoing reports.  We will be in Sydney again in January next year,  so hope to catch up with you again then.

[douglaslam]

Joe and Lolly, it has been frustrating for me trying to log on and sign in because it just didn't work for me. China makes logging on most overseas sites difficult. Social networking like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are banned outright. There was supposed to be some relaxation on the strdent stance because of the APAC meeting in Beijing, but I couldn't detect it here.

Joe, I did have an incredible piece of luck in meeting the villager who ferried me around and extended a very warm friendship to me. He is well known in the local area, just about everyone knows him.If Ken ever wishes to call on her mother's village, this villager is the go-to man.

Lolly, I called Suzie earlier on the day to inform her of my imminent departure next week. She said she would try to find if there is any keepsake pertaining to Andrew or his siblings worthy of passing on to you from the old abandoned house her family used to live. Suzie did tell me her father-in-law or one of Andrew's brothers was a Taoist priest. Taoist priests perform rites at funerals and even excorcism. A priest, in his ceremonial robe, would chant, sometimes wielding a peachwood sword to fight off evil spirits. He did this when he was in Hong Kong. When Communists came to power in China in 1949 , he returned to China. Very unusual act indeed. I think it is smashing to have a Taoist priest in the family.

I hope Suzie would call me before I leave for Canton on Monday.

[lachinatown]

We are looking forward to see your photos and description of them Douglas Lam.

[douglaslam]

Lachinatown;yes, I'd be a very busy boy when I return home because there is also a big job I did for a non-member of this forum. He didn't seem to appreciate what I had done for him last year because of incomplete information obtained. I returned to the village on my own initiative, I could not accept the result. And it did pay off handsomely on my second attempt.

[helen]

Last day in Canton Douglas - It'll be a sad one - but no worries - there's October next year. I do hope we can meet there in 2015 - but I think you will be there later in the month - and me earlier - depending when Cheung Yeung is

[douglaslam]

Hi Helen, October it will be next year, hopefully you can join the party to welcome Fay Chee to China.

This, being a leap year, there is an extra Chung Yeung which isn't observed. I have two birthdays because my birthday is on the ninth lunar month. So there.

[douglaslam]

It is about time I got down to write a little about my just concluded trip to China. It is not in chronological order, just bits and pieces of the things I thought might be of interest to those of you who do not get to see China as often as I do.

It was a frustrating time trying to post in the Forum with photos. I am not sure it was the operating system of the laptop I borrowed or the connection. I gave up. Must upgrade and buy myself something befitting 21st. century.

I did not anticipate my task to find Ken's mother's village would be such a smooth one. It comes down to an incredible piece of luck in getting to know a most friendly and generous son of Toishan who went out of his way to help me.

The man was a 梅; Mr. Moy / Mei / Mui :a common family name in at least five villages so he told me. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mei_Quong_Tart This well known Chinese-Australian was also a Mei from the district.

Our first stop was the small township of Duanfen. The one attraction at Duanfen is its rectangular Moy's Grand Courtyard 梅家大院.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duanfen 端芬镇








These are examples of the houses there. A few of the houses had modifications done to them. It is a bedazzling sight of fairly well preserved homes of the 1930s, which transport me back in time to the era. The influence of Western architecture is very apparent here. Mr. Moy told me the houses were not built as a job lot. Different people added to it over the years but each maintained the essential character.

The rectangle is roughly 250 m X 60 m. in dimensions. It is not a very big place, but it is big as a tourism drawcard.



An interior shot of one of the building Obviously the buildings have timber floors.



Mr. Moy also took me to see the Ding Kong River which is just beyond the buildings. The river is still relatively clean which is a rarity in China these days.



With tourism, you'll get the usual souvenir shops and merchandise outlets. These people are related to Mr. Moy. They set up shop here to sell local medicinal herbs, and sweet soups.

This woman is only to happy to pose for me. She is using a stone grinders to pulverise black sesame to make a sweet sesame soup 芝蔴糊 and an 杏仁茶 apricot kernel beverage , . We tried 芝蔴糊 On the left is a mechanised one. You can buy the soup mix in powder form from any Chinese grocer shop, but the one churned by an old fashioned stone grinder tastes much better.



Next stop is Shek Doi 石嘴 as Ken would call it in Toishanese. It is the village close to Ken's heart because that is where his mother was born and brought up. It is only a short drive from Duanfen Town on a single narrow lane . Above is the village gateway. It does look it's been there since the village was built. 

[kjhong]

Thanks for the update Douglas. The photos are terrific, and the one of the gate to my Pau Pau's village is priceless. I can taste the 芝蔴糊 already.

[douglaslam]

Ken, this is Shek Doi proper, a quintessential sleepy little village. It is peaceful and quiet because there are few inhabitants. All the young men are abroad or working in cities and towns. Our visit caused a stir because hardly anything happens here.



This is a row of houses with their back doors opening to the fields. Most of the houses are empty.



This is the 98 years old woman who is brought out by the commotion of our visit. She can not remember your mother but she knows where the house stands and knows many of the names you have given me. There are more free ranging chickens and dogs about than there are people. There are many flocks of birds but they all know which home to return to.

Observe also the neat lane way, not the twisting ones you'd normally find in most villages.



This is the entrance to your mother's old home, your home. It looks as though if had not been lived in for years as you'll see later.

Like Fay Chee's, your house has three chambers, all in fairly poor shape. Some parts have no roof at all. It would need a major rebuild to make it habitable.









The above photos show the general poor health of the house in all sections.





This is the centre or mid-section of the house. It once had a loft, but the timber was removed for other use under Mao's reign. The house must have been used as a village office or meeting place. The telltale Mao era Cultural Revolution slogan is still visible on the wall. Yours might have been the biggest house in the village or else it wasn't occupied at the time. I didn't ask for an explanation. Perhaps you can do it sometime soon.

[lachinatown]

Ken & Douglas, maybe you two can pinpoint the exact location on a map.

[kjhong]

Here's a map of Duanfen and Taishan City:

[douglaslam]

We moved on from Shek Doi 石嘴 to another village close by for another surprising discovery. First a pit stop at the village gateway to enjoy the pleasant, soothing rural scenery.



This is the back of the gateway. To the left is what is remained of a giant satellite dish. In the early years of China's opening up, there was a greater degree of freedom prevail. Television became affordable, and people tried every which way to tune into programmes beamed from Hong Kong. The satellite dish was a direct result of that.



Next to the dish is this heavenly retreat. There is a table and benches in the shade. On this very warm day, the three of us sat down and sip tea that Mr. Mui has brought with him in a thermos. It was so relaxing sitting in the shade with a cool breeze driving away the residual summer heat. There are acres and acres of rice plants swaying gently with the breeze. Having been a farmer himself, Mr. Mui told us the rice would be ready for harvesting in about two weeks.

Most of the farmers are from Guangxi province. They lease the land from the owners. The local people prefer to work on other jobs, go into business or try their luck away from the village.


Just two or three minutes away from Shek Doi is this village. It looks rather incongruous to the landscape that a village should sprung up with buildings that do not fit in with the traditional setting in rural China. Yes, that's how I found it. It was a little bizarre. But that did stop me from viewing the buildings with amazement and admiration.





There are sixteen buildings . The buildings are in pairs, seven pairs in all, plus a single unit brings up each end. It is weird. I think the villagers did not want to be outdone by the folks in Duanfen and come up with an alternative. This is just my speculation.

I think it is also trying to tell us that this small village had seen many of its young men went abroad to the Gold Mountain from the mid-19th. century on. They wanted to build homes to stand out, to reflect their wealth and taste regardless of their background and work they did. This village is less frequently visited by tourists because the road leading to it is too narrow for a coach or bus. It is OK if you come in small groups in small cars, on foot, motorcycle or better still cycling.

Ken, Duanfen, Shek Doi and this quaint little village are worthy of at least a half day excursion. There is nothing left in your mother's old place to remind you of her. It is still comforting to be there, to see it and touch it. Make it happen soon.



This is the man who made it possible Mr. Mui on the right. He was gracious enough to join my party for lunch. No, he doesn't drink. He would not even have a sip of a cold beer on a hot day. Mr. Mui is your go-to man if you should need help to find Shek Doi. I cannot speak too highly of him. I have his phone number. I would certainly call on him to renew our friendship the next time I stop by Duanfen.

At the village restaurant and at Shek Doi, I found two very attractive and lovely Toishan girls. I am not sure if the young woman (the one in the background taking orders ) working at the restaurant and the one from Shek Doi were married. They were truly beautiful. All you eligible bachelors and unattached young fellas take note; go back to Toishan to find your bride.

[lachinatown]

Ken, I don't mean Duanfen, since it is located on all maps. Since Douglas said Shek Doi 石嘴村 (Shi zui cun) is hard to get to, it maybe good get pinpoint it for your record. Do we know what is the nearest village or is it just next to Duanfen? Some maps do show more details that the map you posted above.

When looking at pictures and maps, I get conflicting locations as to the exact location of Moy's Grand Courtyard 梅家大院.
Hard to tell from satellite view as to its true location.