Back to our roots: Trip to Hong Kong - China - Malaysia (Part 1 - Hong Kong and China)

This trip turned out to be one of our most epic trips. We went back to our roots in Hong Kong, China and Malaysia where our ancestors are from. 

The first part of the trip to Hong Kong and China was with Sister Kristin Yee and her sister Rachel. Through several miraculous circumstances we planned this trip together and about midway through planning found out that our ancestors in China lived only about 40 minute drive apart from each other. It was truly a miracle. What started out as us helping Sister Yee visit her ancestral places in China, turned out to be a major family history trip for us as well. As Sister Yee often says: God is merciful!

Saturday, June 27

Here we are at the airport, at Cafe Rio, waiting for our flight: 

Sister Yee was soon surrounded by YSAs on their way to FSY who were excited to meet famous sister Yee: 

After a 13 hour flight we arrived in Incheon, Korea, where we had a 2 h layover. During the layover we could tell we arrived in Asia! The food at the lounge was amazing: shrimp and calamari and much more. 

We arrived at the HK airport at 11:15 pm on Sunday night and took the blue (Lantau Island) taxi to the nearby Four Points Sheraton Hotel.

Monday, June 28

Breakfast at the hotel was absolutely amazing!! A mix of western and eastern cuisine. It turned out to be the best breakfast on our entire trip. What a great start!

With the help of the hotel staff, we called 2 taxis to take us to the Big Buddha. It was a windy 30-minute ride. We left at 8:30 am and were glad we did. We basically had the whole place to ourselves, and it wasn’t too hot yet. It was a marvelous place. 

The first thing we did was take 100 pictures of lotus flowers!

We spent a lot of time there as every corner seemed picture-perfect.

And a picture of the Big Buddha:

At the foot of the Big Buddha is a beautiful monastery:

The interior of the monastery was very golden:

We then made our way up to the Big Buddha, and found more pretty views:

And here we are in front of the Big Buddha:

From the Big Buddha we took the gondola back to the Tung Chung metro station, near our hotel (booked tickets on trip.com for $17 - much cheaper than at the ticket booth). 

It was a gorgeous view from the gondola: 

The gondola station ended by the Tung Chung metro station where we literally ran to catch the free shuttle from there back to our hotel. Back at the hotel we grabbed our luggage and took a taxi to the Nathan Hotel in Kowloon.

After depositing our luggage there, we met Bonnie and Tim, Josh’s second cousins and had Dim Sum together, the Chinese version of the English afternoon tea. Bonnie was so nice, she gave each of us a hung bau, a red envelope with 100 HK dollar ($13). She even gave one to Rachel and Kristin!!

After lunch, Bonnie showed us the Hong Kong Opera House, which featured a display of beautiful costumes:

Next stop was the Star Ferry. For only a few dollars, we crossed from Kowloon to the Hong Kong island. It was a nice view of the HK skyline. We said our goodbyes to Bonnie and Tim at the ferry terminal before we boarded the ferry.

We disembarked and strolled through Hong Kong, the city of high rises:

Here we are enjoying the Hong Kong skyline:

Back at the hotel, we had just enough time to check in and rest before boarding a bus to meet our relative, Peng Xie, while the Yees visited with their own relatives. Peng Xie is the wife of my grandmother’s younger brother (maternal side), who has since passed away. She and her second husband met us at the metro station and walked with us to their apartment. They were incredibly gracious hosts and treated us to a delicious homemade soup for dinner.

Our conversation with Peng Xie was fascinating. We talked about the family home in Taishan and who lives there now. She said that no relatives live there, but it was the home where my grandfather lived before emigrating to Malaysia. Our conversation moved between three languages: Josh, our hosts, and I spoke Cantonese; Janette and Jared spoke Mandarin with the hosts; and we all translated for Sarah in English.

Their apartment consisted of a single main room where we ate dinner. A curtain divided part of the space to create a bedroom. The kitchen was located on the balcony, and the tiny bathroom was outside as well. Despite its modest layout, Peng Xie was very grateful for the apartment and considered it quite spacious compared to the homes of some other family members. In fact, she mentioned that family gatherings are held in their home because it was so spacious. 

The kitchen on the balcony:

The shower is right above the toilet:

And a view of their bedroom, separated from the living area by a curtain.

Back at the hotel we did a quick stop at the night market, which was way more civilized and calm than during Josh's mission time - quite a disappointment for Josh:

 

Tuesday, June 30

The next day, we took 2 taxis to the Kowloon West train station to take the train to Guilin, China. In the taxi, we learned that none of our 3 apps (Alipay, Wepay, and Octopus card, nor any of our American credit cards worked to pay for the taxi. The only way we were able to pay for it was with the cash that Bonnie gave us!! OMG, we were so grateful for her!

When I bought the train tickets I learned that we had to be at the train station 1 hour before the departure. Well, we got there 1 hour 20 minutes before - plenty of time- or so we thought. Well, this happened to be one of the most stressful part of our travels!! Here are the steps we had to go through:

1. Stand in line for a security check. (Same as airport security check without the liquid restrictions)
2. Stand in line for leaving HK passport check. 
3. Foreigners were then sent to a far right part of the station where there were kiosks and QR code to fill out a China Arrival document with the end result a QR code on our phones. We spent about 25 minutes to get that to work for everyone.
4. Stand in line for Passport check and finger printing for crossing borders to Mainland China. That was the most stressful part, but luckily everyone got through, even Josh who had a business 10 year visa on an old passport, not a tourist 10 year visa. Our Swiss passports worked perfectly without needing a visa.
5. Stand in line for going through security check again, this time to enter mainland China.
6. Stand in line for using the automated ticket system to board the train. Our passport was the ticket. All we had to do is scan that.
7. Find which gate the train is at in a massive train station.
8. Speed walking with our luggage to the right gate, and elevator to get to the correct floor (thanks for a staff who yelled where to go…)
9. More speed walking to find the right coach.
10. Finally, finding our seats and storing our luggage.
11. The train takes off 2 minutes later!!

 The whole process took us 1 hour 20 minutes!!! We were all so grateful we made it! The lines weren’t too busy, I can’t even imagine how long that would have taken with more crowds.

Here we are, very relieved to have made it!!

The high speed train ride to "Guilinx" took 3 hours. The train was very comfortable, soft seats and plenty of leg room. Food was widely available. There were both western-style and eastern-style (squat) toilets on the train, which were reasonably clean. 

Finally, on the train we got to relax and enjoy the views:

We were amazed at how many new bridges were being built!

The scenery got prettier and prettier as we got closer to Guilin. Soon we took non stop pictures of the Karst mountains.

After a 3-hour train ride, we were so excited to arrive in Guilin. Exiting the train station was much simpler, we just had to swipe our passports again. 

Outside the station, the taxi driver I had arranged through the Yangshuo hotel was waiting for us with a sign bearing our names. He had brought a 15-passenger van to accommodate all of our luggage. The 1.5-hour drive to Yangshuo cost $80. The scenery along the way was breathtaking, although we became a little concerned when heavy rain began to fall, especially since we had tickets for an outdoor show that evening. Thankfully, by the time we arrived in Yangshuo, the rain had stopped.

We stepped out of the car in Yangshuo in awe. We were surrounded by beautiful mountains that looks unlike anything we’ve seen before. The Riverview hotel ($80/night) was ideally located by the Li River, at the edge of town. It was the perfect hotel for us, the staff spoke English and they helped us with many things, including laundry, buying tickets for bamboo rafting, exchanging money, etc. 

Here’s the view from the balcony of our hotel room:

And here is picturesque Yangshuo:

By the river, we enjoyed watching photographers capture images of girls and women dressed in traditional clothing as they posed gracefully on bamboo rafts. The scene was absolutely idyllic and felt like something out of a painting.

It didn’t take long for Jared to make a new friend. The boy loved talking with him!!

For dinner we enjoyed some delicious, inexpensive, Chinese food. The only draw back was that none of our payment methods worked, and we had to run back to the hotel to exchange money to pay them with cash. 

At 6:30 pm we took a taxi to the Impression Sanjie Liu show, an outdoor light show created by the same producer who did the Beijing Olympic Opening and Closing ceremonies. I bought the tickets on booking.com for $58/person (much cheaper than at the ticket gate or the hotel). 

The view of the nearby river gave us a glimpse of how beautiful Yangshuo is: 

Before the show, we explored the area and enjoyed the lively pre-show experience. Four ethnic groups were showcased along the path to the theater. 

 The traditional costumes are stunning!

The walk to the theater was creatively decorated: 

When we arrived at the theater, we were greeted by the most beautiful outdoor setting I have ever seen:

We purchased B1 seats, which were considered the second-best section. From our elevated vantage point, we enjoyed a nice view of the stage and the river:

The show itself felt very Chinese, with traditional music and hundreds of performers moving in perfect synchronization. Watching the performance, we couldn't help but notice the contrast between the Western emphasis on individuality and the Chinese focus on conformity.  

The performance took place directly on the Li River on illuminated fishing boats. The 600 performers were local fishermen and farmers from the surrounding area.

We didn't understand much, but could tell that it told the story of life along the Li River. 

The visual effects were unlike anything we had ever seen. 

It wasn't the most exciting story, but it was definitely an amazing cultural experience. 

Wednesday, July 1

The next day we took a taxi to Xing Ping, a 40 min. drive from Yangshuo. The hotel helped us buy tickets to the bamboo rafting ($25/person incl. taxi to Xing Ping and shuttle to the river). 

The drive to Xing Ping was very pretty: 

At the bamboo rafting ticket office, a shuttle took us to the bamboo rafting place by the river:

After a short ride, we arrived by the river, and enjoyed the famous "20 RMB" viewpoint:

We were soon assigned to 2 bamboo rafts and embarked on the prettiest river journey I've ever been on. This was definitely a highlight of our trip. 

The (motorized) roundtrip bamboo rafting took 50 minutes. We took hundreds of pictures!

Here is the turn around spot, where we headed back to the starting location, 

after of course taking many more pictures:  

Here we are back at the starting point, very happy after this picturesque trip: 

The shuttle brought us back toward the ticket office. On the way there, the driver pointed out where the ancient village Xing Ping is and we asked the driver to let us exit there. We're so glad we did, because Xing Ping was the quintessential Chinese town.  It had much more old town feel than Yangshuo, and we were mesmerized:

Entrance of Xing Ping:

Shopping in that old town was so exciting!

We also found an old government building, open to the public:

We then used the app DiDi to call 2 taxis that took us back to to Yangshuo. It was much cheaper than the van the hotel booked for us: $17 for 2 taxis versus $36 for the van! However, this was the scariest ride ever!! Our taxi driver would pass anyone at such high speed in unsafe spots, that we were a bit scared for our and others' lives! 

Back at the hotel we went on our next adventure:

We rented e-bikes (mopeds) and spent the evening riding through the countryside. These mopeds are available for rent on many street corners. We chose to join a guided tour with an excellent English-speaking guide, and for just $18 per person from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., it was well worth the cost.

At first, we had a quick lesson on how to ride a moped and were soon on the road. The first part was quite scary, as we weaved in and out through traffic. 

But outside the city - it was the best moped ride!!

 

Our ride took us past the Romance Park: 

And through narrow walkways: 

We rode along the beautiful Yulong River and passed rice patties and more:

The Yulong River also has bamboo rafting (non motorized):

Our tour guide was a wonderful lady, who taught herself English. She was fun and fascinated by especially Jared and kept saying she will tell her two girls to study hard.

We rode to this bridge before turning around and heading back.

For the return trip, we chose a faster, less scenic route. It was getting dark, and we appreciated the extra speed as we rode through clouds of bugs.

We returned around 8:00 p.m. and ended the day with a stroll down Yangshuo's famous West Street. The city was bustling with activity, and we even found a shop that engraved custom stamps for our pottery. We paid about $60 for the two stamps, and they made a memorable souvenir from our trip.

For dinner, Josh and I ordered the most famous dish in the region: beer battered fish. The waiter recommended the most pricey one for $25, and came back with this huge pot!

We ate about 3/4 of that. It was delicious.  

Thursday, July 2

We got up early the next day to head to the Yangshuo railway station, which is not in Yangshuo, but back in Xing Ping. So, we drove all the way back there. We got there 50 minutes early, but this time, all we needed to do was go through security, wait in the big hall for the billboard to indicate to head to the gate and swipe our passport. This time, it took only 20 minutes to board the train. 

Here is the Railway station: 

And the views from the railway station: 

The train ride to Guangzhou South took about two hours. After a 90-minute layover in Guangzhou, we boarded another train to Taishan. To our relief, the transfer was once again smooth and easy. About an hour later, we arrived in Taishan and took two taxis from the station to the Fairfield by Marriott. The fare for both taxis was about $10, and they luckily accepted Alipay.

 The hotel was very pleasant. And it was one of the prettiest Marriott hotels we've been to:

At the hotel we finally met Sister Chiu and her friend Serene who came as a translator. They are both so cute! Sister Chiu is the Area family search consultant and Serene is the Ward family search consultant.

 Sister Chiu helped the Yees with their family history research and met us in Taishan to show them around. She arranged transportation for all of us for the next two and a half days. The cost was about $720 for two large vehicles for 2.5 days (incl. transport back to Hong Kong). The convenience made it well worth it.

 The first stop was the Taishan museum:

The Taishan Museum serves as a repository for family letters, documents, and other historical records donated by descendants. Sister Chiu had arranged for the staff to welcome us and show us letters written by the Yee family's ancestors, making the visit especially meaningful.

 We had some lively discussions as we pieced together who wrote the letters and to whom they were addressed.

Some helpful tools we had: Sarah’s Apple scanner pro to scan with her phone all the letters. Josh's recording device to capture the conversations and create a summary and translation of it.

We all had a great time, exploring the Yees' past: 

Our next stop was the Taishan Overseas Chinese Museum, where we had just one hour to visit.

The building was enormous, five stories high and dedicated to the history of Taishan emigrants around the world. We were fascinated to learn how many sent money home to support their families. Those remittances had a profound impact on the region, helping fund more than 100 schools and numerous community projects.

Since much of the exhibits were in Chinese and only partly translated into English, an hour turned out to be enough for our visit. 

The day ended with a Chinese dinner at the mall next to our hotel, costing only about $3 per person. Janette especially enjoyed visiting with Sister Chiu and Serene as they discussed Chinese genealogy.

Friday, July 3

The next day started again with an amazing breakfast. There was so much to choose from:

After breakfast, we went our separate ways. The Yees visited their ancestral village, while we headed to ours on my mother's side of the family. Our driver took us south of Taishan to a village called Tonglouzhu.

At this point, we left the main road and turned right toward the village.

At the next fork we took the left road and soon reached the village. 

Sister Chiu was incredibly kind and reached out to a member of her ward who was originally from a neighboring village. That member, in turn, asked someone from his village to visit our village and inquire about our family. As a result, we were greeted by Ms. Chen, who was exceptionally welcoming and helpful. She told us that approximately 50 people currently live in the village.

Ms. Chen led us through these narrow walkways to the house where my grandfather once lived.

It was so exciting to see where my grandpa lived. My great-grandmother built this house after my great-grandfather passed away in his thirties. She lived there for only a few years before moving to Malaysia to be near her daughter in Kuala Lumpur. My grandfather likely moved with her, although one of his sisters remained in Taishan.

My grandfather married his first wife at age 21. They had three children before she passed away in Malaysia just six years later. It appears that he later returned to Taishan, where he met my grandmother as she was walking through town. She was 18 and he was 28. He decided he wanted to marry her, and soon afterward brought her to Malaysia. Together they had eleven children, the oldest of whom was my mother.

This house is now uninhabited. Ms. Chen asked a lady from our village who spoke a dialect that we couldn’t understand if she could help us open the door to my grandpa’s house. We were so excited to enter the house:

One of the first rooms we explored still contained a surprising amount of furniture, making it easy to imagine the family living there.

Ms. Chen told us that this beautiful wooden bed was built by my great-uncle, my grandfather’s younger brother:

He must have been quite a craftsman. Here's a detailed view of the bedframe: 

The house is very large for this village. The family must have been fairly prosperous because the house was exceptionally well built. The ladies pointed out the quality brickwork and reinforced concrete floors.

The stairs to the upper floor were damaged, but we were still able to use them and go upstairs:

In one of the upstairs rooms, a tree had fallen onto the house, causing significant damage. The home is now in need of extensive repairs:

Afterward, one of the ladies from the village invited us into their home, and Ms. Chen connected us via WhatsApp with a relative by marriage living in the United States. Although she was happy to speak with us, she had little information about our family history.

After that Ms. Chen showed us the village town hall. Often, these town halls have copies of their jiapou (their genealogy book). Unfortunately, they did not have a jiapou.

The hall was used for various purposes. They used it for activities:

and storing and sorting peanuts that they grow nearby:

Then we went to Ms. Chen's village just next door. Here is their watch tower:

We also visited their village hall. In contrast to our village hall, they did have a jiapu, and Ms. Chen was kind enough to give us a copy. The families in that village share the surname Chin, the same as my mother's family. Unsurprisingly, Janette discovered that we are distantly related to them, although we still need to determine exactly how.

After that we walked around the village and we ran into the lady who opened the door for us. 

Here she is by her home: 

Other pictures of the village: 

After spending about 2 hours in the 2 villages, we said goodbye and returned to the hotel with our driver. 

Around 3:00 p.m., he took us to the Chikan Resort, about 30 minutes away. The resort was developed from a historic town that had been built largely with funds sent home by overseas Chinese. While the restoration has preserved much of the area's unique architecture and history, it also came at a cost, as approximately 4,000 residents were relocated to make way for the resort.

Walking through Chikan at night was prettier than during the day:

The main attraction of the resort was its live performances. It was especially amusing to watch Chinese performers portray Westerners, complete with blond wigs and costumes. They even danced to songs like the Macarena and YMCA though the dance moves were not quite what we were used to seeing, which made it even more fun to watch!

The final show was our favorite. It told the story of a young man who left his village and sweetheart to seek a new life in San Francisco. Although he wrote letters and sent money home, he never returned to be with her. Even though the performance was entirely in Mandarin, the story was easy enough to follow. It rained throughout much of the 45-minute show, but thanks to our ponchos, we still thoroughly enjoyed it. We left the resort impressed by the quality of the performances and amazed by the effort that had gone into them.

Saturday, July 4

The next morning, we enjoyed an early breakfast before it was time to say goodbye to Sister Chiu and Serene. They were returning to Hong Kong with the Yees, and we knew we would not see them again on this trip. We were grateful for their kindness, friendship, and help during our time in Taishan. After sharing a few final conversations and taking some last photos together, we parted ways.

While the Yees returned to Hong Kong to attend the temple, our driver took us to Zhongshan, where Josh's grandfather lived. This turned out to be another one of the most memorable days of our trip.

Armed with an address provided by Josh's second cousin, Bonnie, and a few old photographs showing where his grandfather had lived, we set out with modest expectations. We had been told that the original house had been demolished and replaced by shops, so we did not expect to find much.

After driving with our driver to Zhongshan and navigating around some construction, we eventually located the address. To our surprise, the house had not been torn down after all. Instead, it had been changed into a shop, but it was clearly the same place shown in the old photographs:

This is the back of the house:

The surrounding street:

The front of the house today, now operating as a clothing shop:

Josh visited with the shopkeeper in Cantonese:

After learning that our grandpa used to live here, 

she let us see the whole shop, including the bathroom: 

and the attic: 

The shopkeeper called her sister and asked her to come meet us. About 15 minutes later, she arrived with her husband, and they were thrilled to talk with us. They shared the history of the property and explained how they had purchased it from Josh’s great-uncle.

Here's a picture of all of us by the shop:

Then they invited us for lunch! First, we walked over to their house, 15 min. away. 

 Here is their house:

At the house they looked for the contract that they signed with Josh's great uncle (Wong Yuk Sang) to purchase the house. They didn't find it till later (they sent us a picture of it), but they found the great uncle’s glasses! They gave them to Josh. In turns out that the great uncle stayed/lived with them occasionally, over the years, after he moved to Hong Kong. The sales contract stated that when ever he or his relatives would visit they would have a place to stay. He came back about 3-4 times and each time stayed with them. They had a little guest house, and that’s where he would stay, sometimes for 2 months! And since we are relatives, they invited us to stay with them too! They said their daughter has a pretty nice big house, and we could stay with her too! And they would show us around, take us on a tour, etc. We were simply amazed at their kindness and generosity.

Afterward, they invited us to a nearby restaurant, where we enjoyed one of the best lunches of our trip. They ordered at least twice as much food as we could possibly eat, mostly dim sum, and dish after dish kept arriving at the table.  The meal was delicious, and we were once again amazed by their generosity and hospitality.

Interestingly, in China and Hong Kong, it is customary to briefly rinse the bowls, and utensils with hot water before using them. Restaurants often provide a bowl or pot of hot tea specifically for this purpose, and diners use it to give their tableware a quick rinse before the meal begins.

Here we are enjoying the feast: 

The outside of the restaurant:

After lunch, we hurried downstairs to meet our driver, who was waiting for us. The drive from Zhongshan to Hong Kong took about two hours. When we reached the border near Lantau Island, our driver took us to an underground parking area where we transferred to another car and driver, as he was not permitted to cross into Hong Kong. The transition was smooth and straightforward, and before long we were on our way to our hotel in Hong Kong.

Saying good bye to our very nice China driver:

With our new driver, we continued to Lantau Island and crossed into Hong Kong. He dropped us off at the Nathan Hotel, where we quickly checked in and left our luggage. We had just enough time to do that before heading out on the subway to Wan Chai to meet Uncle Andrew.

Uncle Andrew is my father's half-brother, the second child of my third grandmother. He divides his time between California and Canada, so it was a special opportunity to meet up with him while we were in Hong Kong.

He showed us the spot where my dad grew up. Before the pink high-rise that stands there today, there was a modest three-story building where my father spent his childhood. My grandfather, Fung Pang, lived there with his first wife, my dad, and an older son who sadly passed away as a child. Later, the three-story building was demolished and replaced by the pink high-rise that stands there today. My grandfather (Yeh Yeh), and his family eventually moved back to the site and into the new building, but into two different apartments (since he had 3 wives). By that time, however, my father had already left for Germany to study civil engineering, so he never lived there with the family in the high-rise.

The market where my grandpa sold fish was just across the street nearby the first house. But he also had some other stores near the Blue House. 

The entrance to the pink high rise:

After that, we walked about 15 minutes to the Blue House, where my second and third grandmothers once lived. Today, the Blue House is a preserved historic building, complete with exhibits, a gift shop, and souvenirs that help visitors understand how people lived there in the past. Uncle Andrew and Uncle Dennis were both born in the house and lived there from about 1950 to 1954. Uncle Andrew told us that their father, Yeh Yeh, visited them there every day.

On the way to the Blue House

The Blue House:

A photo of the building before it was renovated and painted blue:

Uncle Andrew and me by the entrance of the Blue House: 

Souvenir shop in the Blue House:

A bit of history of the Blue House:

Nearby market where my grandpa sold fish. He owned several stalls in several markets:

Afterwards we took the subway to the Sun Moon restaurant where we met Uncle Dennis, uncle Andrew's brother and my dad's half brother: 

Here we had one of the yummiest dinners in Hong Kong: 

Time to say good bye to Uncle Andrew and Uncle Dennis: 

Sunday, July 5

The next day, we took a taxi to the Tsing Yi Lantau Ward to attend sacrament meeting. Derek Au arranged with the bishop to have sister Yee meet with a few sisters in that ward: 

During that time, Josh met with his old missionary friends who served with him in Hong Kong - Elder Lai and Elder Au: 

Sister Yee shared her testimony in the Sacrament Meeting. She told the congregation the miraculous story of how she found her jiapou: 

With our time in Hong Kong coming to an end, we headed to the airport. The Yees flew back to Salt Lake City, while we continued our journey to Malaysia (see next blog).

To be continued...