Where is Â}B´å (Sheng Xia / Sing Ha)

[Ah Gin]

Henry et al,

Can you tell me where is this village? I have tried looking at the usual places. namely ditu.com.cn as well as the Village database. The clues are, it should be within the vicinity of Kaiping, Sanbu. It may be a Gin/Yan village, but I could be wrong.

In Pinyin I think it's Sheng Xia, in Cantonese it's Sing Ha. Other relevant information is as follows:

Many thanks, Ah Gin

ÀÕ›_àl
Lak Chung Heung
L¨¨ Ch¨­ng Xi¨¡ng
laak6 cung1 hoeng1
0519-0394-6763

Èý²º, º{³åàl, Â}B´å

[Henry]

Ah Gin,

I looked on-line and I also have some decent maps and could not find this village.

But, I found the village listed on a postal code list: www.aa21.cn/post/code/529300.html

Take look and see if this URL can lead you a postal map - sorry, I cannot read Chinese.


Henry

[twoupman]

Henry,

Look at your map of Kaiping, on the south bank of the Tanjiang River in Sanbu you will find Lechong.


houseofchinn.com

[Henry]

Al,

Thanks.

Sheng Xia/Sing Ha village should be near Li-chung town. Here is the map location:

[Ah Gin]

Henry, Twoupman,

Many thanks for the amazing quick response. Henry, thanks also for the direct email. Li-chung (Lechong) is virtually our neighbour (Shek Hai; aka Shek Hoi). Now that you folks explained it, it does make sense, as our own Ancestral village, which is within the administrative boundary of Shek Hoi, is a combination of two smaller villages (“쐷
Nam Shing/ Nan Sheng and “Œ¬ Tung Sing/Dong Cheng) to become Tung Nam Shing, which on a larger map, that is not usually shown. But in our own Shek Hoi Jiapu which has maps down to the family home level, I can see our village. Thus, I guess in the Lechong Jiapu, I should be able to find the map showing the little village as well. That will have to wait till I get to our Family Association, to view the Jiapu in our library. In due course I will report my findings to this forum, just for the fun of it.

Regards, Ah Gin

[Henry]

Ah Gin,

For the edification of other viewers of these posts, I think I need to post my remarks and the other map I sent you. The explanation I provide is rather important - especially when you cannot seem to find a particular ancestral village - even when you know it exists.

The following is the personal message (PM) I sent to Ah Gin and I have also posted the map that was sent:

"I was unable to find this village as a separate and distinct entity, however, with help from "Twoupman" I was able to locate Li-Chung Town. This town probably contains Sheng Xia/Sing Ha village. I have attached a map that shows the coverage of Li-Chung Town - the gray triangular area that contains the Li-Chung Town node.

I also checked my large scale topographic maps and it only shows Li-Chung as a large village. Probably since the 1940s, Li-Chung village grew along with other smaller villages like Sheng Xia/Sing Ha Village within that gray triangular area. Now Li-Chung became a Town complex that includes these smaller villages - that do not show up as individual villages. This is true in the case of my own ancestral village in Taishan and is quite common in the SiYi area. "

In larger clusters of villages - the name of the largest village is usually taken as the name of the new village complex. But, when they create a new name for the cluster - this really adds to the confusion.

mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/Li-Chung Town.jpg[/img]

[Ah Gin]

Thanks again Henry. Over and out for the moment. Regards, Ah Gin

[Ah Gin]

I did further search, and sure enough, in the 46th issue of the "Sun He New" (December 2007), (Ë´ºÓƒS„X 46 ÆÚ) Sheng Xia /Sing Ha (Â}ÏÃÀï) is listed as a hamlet within the administrative area of Luck Chung Village (º{³å´å). By the way, "Sun He News" is published by the Gin Family Association ( ÕçÊÏ) in Kaiping, China. Luck Chung is of course just on the outskirt of Kaiping.

Regards, Ah Gin

[Henry]

Ah Gin,

You have a definite advantage in being able to read and write Chinese - the Forum is very fortunate to have your contributions as well as valuable contributions from: Twoupman, tyuti1668, laohuaqiao, and bobhum, etc.

I do have a Taishan county gazetteer of places/administrative units and their component villages and I really struggle to use it because of my Chinese language dificiency, however, if you come across a gazetteer for Kaiping, Xinhui, or Enping county please let me know.

I know that there some on-line gazetteers that are provided by the county governments - I have a URL for one Taishan county - if I can still find it. I believe "tyuti1668" has referenced a couple in some of his posts. When I find the Taishan URL - I will post it. Hopefully, others that find similar URLs for county gazetteers will also post them on this Forum.

Henry

[Ah Gin]

Henry,

Thanks for your generous remarks. I have to thank my parents in insisting that I learn Chinese when I was younger. Mind you, at best and mostly, I struggle, but will continue to learn anything new. They say that will keep ones mind healthy -- and do I need it. Where are the car keys again :-) ?

The URL you referred to will be a great source of reference. I look forward to seeing it on this Forum. Meanwhile, I will do what I can with material I have access to, and starting with my Clan, pin down as much as possibe. Sources such as the Village DB is very well appreciated. (Wish they continue with the project to include all of Kaiping and beyond) I will attempt to go through our Clan Jiapu and add to our Clan Website (Ancestral Village Index) any hemlets the Village DataBase has ommited (because the hemlets were too small by definition to be included). The other good souce I found is, as you say, Governement and Official sites, such as "Welcome to Taishan" or "Welcome to Kaiping" etc., where they usually show the names of larger villages and towns. Of course, the smaller hamlets will not be shown, and if there had been admin boundary changes, it may not show up. In our Clan Jiapu collection, for each of the "major" villages or branches of the Clan, they actually show the names of the "natural villages" and the "Admin Zoned villages" (where hamlets have been combined under a bigger zone)

I guess having access to these resources is great, but I think it can not beat the collective Brain Power behind this Forum, as indeed the experience and willingness of forum members to help where they can certainly makes our researches that much easier and fun as we track down our roots. Many thanks, folks.

Regards, Ah Gin

[Henry]

Ah Gin,

Please go to "Ancestral Villages"
[http://siyigenealogy.proboards28.com/index.cgi?board=maps&action=display&thread=723 ] to see the various on-line resources that I have posted.

The URL for the website that provides information for all the village/town/county, prefecture, and provinces in China is an excellent on-line resource for guests/members of our SiYi Forum and also for overseas Chinese with ancestors originating from any village in China.

Even though the website is in Chinese, one can manage to see the town that a village/hamlet belongs to. But, the Forum members will have to rely on you and our other Chinese literate members to help us locate ancestral villages.

Henry

[Ah Gin]

Henry,

Many thanks for your research and willingness to share. PS: Am just in the process of packing up my camera, on a Field Trip, to capture some photos of the Tom (and related) Association around SF Chinatown. Hope to send them to your email address when I have developed the photos :-)

Regards, Ah Gin