Sojourn in Shunde China I

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

It's Day 1 of our trip to Shunde (Shuntak in cantonese), the hometown of Roemary's mum in Guangdong. The group of six of us (which included brother Weng Chiew and sis-in-law, brother Steven and nephew Mark) were making a visit to see the many cousins still living in the 'old home town' from where mum had fled to Singapore in the 1930s.

We met up at the Budget Terminal at 4.00 am, had a quick breakfast and caught the Tiger Air 6.30 am flight to Guangzhuo......it was our first time going with Tiger Air - and we were pleasantly surprised that everything went off without any problem.......


We arrived at the BaiYun Airport at about 10 am, got our bus tickets for the trip to Foshan where we were to meet our Shunde hosts......

It took an hour for us to reach the Foshan bus terminal where we were met by Cousin No. 1 and 3rd Cousin's wife and in their two cars we were whisked to our hotel in Sunde - the Le Yuan Hotel, not a 4-star hotel but adequate for our short stay there......

First order of the day - a 'welcome lunch' organised at the Restaurant where 1st Cousin worked . It was a sumptuous seafood meal with lots of the classical cantonese dishes....

There were a lot of catching up to do - so much to tell each other, so many stories to share.....
We reluctantly ended the first 'reunion session' with a group photo.

At 4.00 pm, we were picked up for the trip to the town of Rongui where Cousin no. 3 stays. The town was nice and so was 3rd Cousin's house - very nice house indeed.........

it is a four-storey mansion, with great design, marble furnishing.........

a large koi pond and rose garden.....

a roof garden and a mahjong room complete with 'automatic tiles washing' mahjong table....

The catching up continued with more sharing of old tales, we especially enjoyed those related by old Uncle Loh, mum's brother (from grandpa's 3rd wife - he had four in all! )........

Although we did not make it for the neice's wedding, we still were able to watch the wedding ceremony on video.........

3rd Cousin gave us a nice dinner at the same restaurant where the wedding dinner was held.

We had so much to eat, but more importantly were able to meet more relatives who turned up

to meet us....

After dinner it was back to 3rd Cousin's house where we took more photographs with each family......starting 1st Cousin's family

then 3rd Cousin's family.....

4th Cousin's family

and....5th Cousin's family

After that we went house visiting and ended the night with a nice 'Chinese Tea Party' at the nearby house of the sister of 3rd Cousin's wife.......

Sojourn in Shunde China II

Tuesday 17 March 2010.

It's Day 2 of our visit to Shunde and it started with another sumptuous 'yum cha' breakfast at the Restaurant where 1st cousin works. Again, we had all kinds of everything - too much for us to finish, but all so yummy! especially the 'pak tong kor' made according to the 'award winning' recipe from 4th cousin who used to work at the restaurant too. And what a story he had to tell us - the recipe had won him the China National Gold Medal for 'pak tong kor'! And he was going to show us the Gold Medal later.........

After breakfast, a quick visit to the fruit market - where we saw plenty of lychees on sale.....and then it was a visit to 1st cousin's house.

It is a spacious 4-level house where cousin no. 1 stays with his wife and only daughter, Jenny.

It was interesting to note how enterprising they are to also rent out the Level 1 space to a tenant who uses it as a warehouse - again the 'have house to stay plus earn income collecting rent on part of the house' strategy...

And we took the required group photo before moving on with our house visits........

A 20-minute walk took us to the house of Cousin no. 5 - had also cleverly partitioned the front part of her property to rent out as a shophouse while she stays at the back portion - 'have house to stay plus collect rent...' strategy again!

It was approaching lunch time and we headed to 'Loa Chun' - the 1000-over year old 'Loh Village' where we were able to trace Rose's mum's roots.....but before anything else, we had to have lunch and also place the order for a dinner banquet we were to give that night to all the Shunde relatives.......

All the menu ingredients are on show at the front part of the restaurant and we went around selecting whatever we want for the dinner party........some selected the chickens, others went for the fish, eels and snakes......

as for me, it was the gaint winter melon that caught my fancy.......

So, the menu for the night was confirmed - 680 yuan per table , 6 tables booked in all.....

After that it was a long trek to the ancient Loh Village.......

which brought us past the river that mum always talked about.....in those old days when roads were scare, everyone travel by boats along the many rivers criss-crossing the village.....

Finally we arrived at the village 'gateway' and visited the 100-over year old tree by the river bank - that same tree where mum used to sit by during her childhood days......some real history here...!

And look....that's the name of the narrow lane where her house used to be

and that's the entrance to the house she had stayed in

Inside the house......with cousin no. 2

Next we visited 2nd cousin's house......and other relatives' houses.......

And we walked to see the apartment block that 1st cousin built with many units rented out for rental income.......not bad, uh?

Next we went to see the apartment block owned by cousin no. 4, again with spare units which are rented out to earn income......and with a bakery within where he still makes all kinds of pastries on order

And 4th cousin proudly showed us the 'pak tong kor' Gold Medal................

and the bakery where he does his 'magic of baking'....

Upstairs, the grand ole uncle had been given the task by brother Steven to write a calligrahy piece to take home.....such great callisgraphy from one who is 84 years old.......

It was near dinner time and we had to make our way to the restaurant to greet the diners as we were the hosts for the night........it was great to see other long lost cousins coming with family members in tow.......so much to catch up, with so many of them, in so little time............

We brought great happiness to the young ones as all of them got a big 'ang pau' each.......

Next came the 'Family Photos' session - all the various families got together with us to take photographs...

And finally, one BIG group photo showing all 60 over relatives who came...........

If you are wondering whether we manage to do any line dancing.......well, not really, but we manage to join a big group of chinese 'line dancers'.....


And we ended our night at 3rd cousin's house teaching the nieces how to do the Rock 'N' Roll

And brother Steven got his nice choreography from Uncle Loh

All in all, a fruitful....but really tiring day....