佛跳墙was invented here.
Lin Zexu Memorial
Yet another 西湖 (there's one in almost every major city).
The old city 古街 (since the Song Dynasty).
That's our hipster guide chilling at Starbucks at the bottom left.
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Wuyi Mountain (武夷山) Bamboo Rafting
What a beautiful and scenic ride.
We took an hour and a half's bamboo raft ride along the river.
Heavy As A Log
This trip has been just overloaded with food and sitting on the minibus for hours on end.
Last night I weighed myself for the first time in maybe 6 months.
Back then I was at most 76kg.
For some reason maybe the combination of work and my lack of exercise, I have been steadily growing quite fat.
And last night it showed on the scale. I'm now a hefty 85kg.
That's a HUGE jump.
I better make an effort to exercise more before I start developing serious health problems.
Chuxi Traditional Hakka Village (初溪村土楼)
Today we travelled 2hrs of mountainous road to get to the Chuxi Traditional Hakka Village (初溪村土楼). What a sight to behold!
The village is still a living village with 3,000+ inhabitants. The entire village is made up of the Xu (许) clan, so everyone's surname is Xu. In fact it has ties to Singapore, or so the old folks say, which we suspect their descendants to be surnamed Koh in Singapore.
It started out with a 350-step trek up the opposite hill to get a panoramic view of the village.
After that we crossed the river via stone steps to trek up the village.
The village itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the main 土楼 pictured in the first picture is a preserved museum. The structure has survived several hundred years since the Ming dynasty.
We even found some origins of the Hakka Lum (蓝) surname!
The rest of the housing are actual living quarters, which we explored abit.
蓝家之歌 - The Lum Family Origins
In our search for anything familiar with my paternal grandfather's birthplace, we started off in a really small and backward village called Jicun (no such word in the new Chinese dictionary). We went to speak to several old folks (my dad specifically), and they pointed us to the village hall.
Jicun village.
Dad is in there asking for directions. The Hakkas here are ultra friendly, EVERYONE we spoke to started by inviting us to their humble abode for tea.
The village hall.
The 村长。
Unfortunately, we found out that Jicun with a population of 3,000+ was populated by the surnames, Lee (李), Hu (湖) and Fang (芳).
However, the 村长 knew of a place where ALL in the village had the surname Lan (蓝), and he wanted very much to bring us there!
Me giving thanks to the 村长。
This place is called Xincun (新村), just another few minutes drive away. And there was a 蓝 Hall, basically an ancestral heritage center documenting all the 蓝 surnames with origins there. It seems this surname is more common than I thought.
蓝氏家族 (The 蓝 Hall)
There was a very friendly guy here and there were pictures of all the 蓝 peeps from way back when.
So I also found out that I am of the 29th generation of 蓝家。Interesting!
Dad talking to the caretaker of the Hall, who was ultra friendly.
Then lo and behold, we found out that Dad's cousin is there! Top row, fifth dude from the right! Dad's own dad wasn't there though.
Turns out Dad's cousin was there because he had made a significant donation to the Hall (#2 all-timer). So it seems like your face will only be there if you made a donation.
Yet knowing his cousin led to the caretaker recognizing some people he might know, so he made a few phone calls, who spoke to Dad and made good conversation. In the end there wasn't so much leftover information of my paternal grandpa, but we are sure he came from here and he had family here.
Xincun is developing very fast. The farmlands that we walked past might make way for towering skyscrapers in the highlands soon.
In fact, surprise surprise, it was revealed that grandpa actually still owns a piece of land and house in Xincun!
And this might just be it! Right beside the 蓝 Hall.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)