Visiting Our Ancestral Home in Conghua, China

Wednesday - Meeting distant relatives at the ancestral village

Our roots discovery journey in China!

We were all very excited!!! We talked about finding our roots and visiting our parents' and grandparents' villages for a long long time.

We were excited at approaching our ancestral village area

This was finally happening!! I could not believe it!
 Here we are in China!

A gate leading into one of the villages in the area

We were going to see what life was like and where our parents and ancestors lived when they were young.

After breakfast at our hotel, we strolled around in the area and had a quick tour of the new homes in the area. 

We could see that there were a lot of construction of homes going on in the area located just outside of the nearby big city. Many Chinese use these homes as their second or vacation homes giving them a break from the big city.

Apparently, my husband's home village is located in one of the most scenic towns in the area with natural hot springs, therefore, the government has decided to protect this beautiful region forbidding any future industrial development and keeping the area from future pollution.

We found the village!

The hotel called for a taxi to take us to find my husband's ancestral village.

Since my husband left his father's village at the age of two years old, he could not remember much of the place. 

We got some instructions from a relative back in Toronto and with the help of the taxi driver who was bold in approaching people for help, we finally found the village!

S.'s  father passed away years ago so few people in the village remembered him. However, some villagers knew of S.'s second cousin and we were brought to meet with this distant relative at the village.  

Some villagers doing their agricultural chores

We met the mother and her two young kids at their house. A little later, the grandmother came to meet us too! She remembered S.'s brother who visited the village a few years ago who was on the same roots discovery journey!

We were served some local grown fruit - delicious indeed!

We chatted with the family for a little while and were served some local fruits grown in the family field. The fruits were bright red inside, something we had never eaten before. 

It was delicious!

(Later on, we found that it is a very healthy fruit as it helps to cleanse your body!) 

Additions are made to village homes as economy improves locally 

We were eager to learn about how these people were doing. Due to the economic boom China has been experiencing for the past decade, many young people have migrated to the cities seeking employment opportunities to better their lives.

My husband's second cousin has been working in the city for a number of years and commuting back to his home village a couple of times a month to see his family. 

With better employment and a family income, the family could afford to enroll the two children in kindergarten school.  
( Kindergarten education starts at three years old and is not free in China; free education starts at Grade 1 only.)  

The family proudly displayed the children's school pictures on the wall. 


J. was tickled pick at meeting his distant young relatives and commented at how much the young boy looked like him when he was that age. 

This root finding trip was amazing! However, we kicked ourselves for not bringing some gifts/ toys for the children. We must remember to do that next time! ( I did give a little laisei to the mother and the grandma.)

After the visit,  the taxi driver took us to have a late lunch at a local restaurant and we had

a private room to ourselves overlooking a garden.

The Bishuiwan Hot Spring in Conghua, China

We wanted to see where the famous springs were. But the taxi driver took us to the  springs where some expensive resort buildings have been built around them, enclosing the springs in an area that has become private and accessible to the public only if you are hotel guests or paying an admission to the hot springs.

Unfortunately, we did not have time to go in and enjoy the springs. We need to plan on staying a night or two in the hotel or in the area to experience the natural springs this famous region has to offer.

We explored the beautiful area where my husband's ancestors used to live

We were all impressed by the beautiful scenery of  the area!  

It was a memorable trip, particularly for J. 

 Our son told us that he felt a special connection to the scenery and was proud that his family came from such a spectacular region in southern China!

Our taxi driver took us to the Conghua terminal to catch the coach back. He charged us only 300 Yuan even though he had his meter running and it says 400 something. What a discount he gave us!

The fare for taking the Conghua bus back to Guangzhou City was only 25 Yuan per person, very affordable public transportation for the average Chinese.

We got back to J’s place by 7pm. While he went out for an errand, we gave him a hand on organizing his place.  


We had pizza for dinner, bought from a restaurant close by. This was the first time we had pizza on our China trip. The pizza was very good! I just wish we had bought more as we all wanted more and there was not enough!

R.T.

Conghua, Guangzhou

Day 9 of our China trip