u guys know your root?

[chrisyen]

today a fren visited to my house, we chat about history in malaysia, about chin peng.... a great guy who fought so hard with the japanese while the british ran away... but because of he has chinese blood, so now he cant go back to his home!

later we talk about hakka in malaysia.... nowadays ppl may not even know who is yap ah loy... thanks to our malaysian government.... who never pay tribute to this great man who develop the KUALA LUMPUR! so how many of us still pray the 'sin si ye'? i bet most of us do not even know who r we praying in the sin si ye temple also...

then we talk bout our root.... from where hakka ( the real han people from north) come from... from where myself come from....

my grandfather was from Dapu, guangdong china... but then he never tell me his story... he was poor here... gambling and drinking everyday... he past away 16 yrs ago... be frank, i never even miss him... he never treated family well... but after all he is my grandfather....

till last yr... my father saw a trip to Dapu, china organized by the chinese Dapu (Cha young)association. so he left his name and contact to see my family still have relative there in china...

2 weeks later he receive a contact number from the assocation. he called and found he has a brother (adopted by my grandfather from his brother). so he start to dream of travel back to his father house... to make my 60 yrs old father come true and afraid of my father will con by chinaman... i decided to bring him there myself...

after i book the flight, contacted my relatives there... i start to do m homework... google, surf net.... i kinda eagle to know where i come from...

day 1 reached Guangzhou china
this is my father's bro house...
guangzhou, hugh populated.... cars, building, peoples.... everywhere is crowded... things being arranged well by my cousin...

window view from hotel in haizhu area

that night i took a cab to travel 1 hour to visit my fren in the other part of guong zhou...

day 2 driving back to Dapu city
7 hours plus...
passing huizhou and this meizhou city

here i am... this is so close where from grandfather come from... the hu liao xian chen (district city)

view from hotel window


day 3 walking through the valley back to my grandfather village from the city... 2 hours plus journey... a pleasant one... nice view nice weather... but pity my uncle... already 70s, he insisted to walk with us...



stop for a prayers mid way...


here we are... village is in my eyeside


these kids also my relative...


is this a war machine?


this is where my grandfather live before he came to malaysia in 30s



this is my family belongings...

i was told this is his land


day 4 pray my grand grand mother



lunch here... nice fresh water fish.... expensive actually...
but its really traditional way of cooking...


found this little cuttie next door!

after lunch we go for some sight seeing, the historical side of Dapu...

this is where all the Dapu man begin to travel to south east asia
the "han jiang' big river forming from 3 by merging of 3 rivers up stream



this monument paying tribute to those women who carrying their kids waiting their husband who went to south east at the jetty!


day 5 walking around dapu city

the delicacies
the dog meat specialist

the street food and market






the square


the old gov office, abandoned after flooded by the river

day 6 driving 8 hours back to guangzhou and then chengde


day 7 pay a visit to zhu hai to visit my mum's sister
the mini forbidden city

i love this modern, infra well planned and built city



hv some fun at one of the hill park




back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with alot of sweet memories!

i love the food i had in Dapu....
for those who like 'lou shu fun'... its originated from dapu... they call it lao chu barn (hakka)
the best soup i ever had.... its the chicken soup cooked by my cousin... when i asked what is the recipe?
she said just chicken and salt !
this chicken was only feed with organic vege (cabbage)


and the hakka we had here.... its also originated from dapu....
i saw many ppl selling raw hand made fresh noodle and sell on the street...
then ppl will buy home to cook with mince pork, fish sauce and spring onion!
i ate 3 bowls when my cousin sister cook it for us....
the yong tau fu...
the hakka mui choy....

and i miss my real home town....

mayb next GTG we should organize it at Restaurant Hakka!

[Scott C.]

Wow!!!! Breath taking journey 

Thank for sharing your history with us

[terrenceterrence]

  great insightful post.

Dun think my family have much ties with the mainland anymore. after all i am a 5th generation straits chinese.

heck! even if i go back to xiamen it would be akin to duck and chicken talk. our local hokkien patois is so different from the one spoken anywhere else.

it would be fun to trace my roots ...and read my family tree. sigh.....

[chrisyen]

i know nothing bout my grandfather till this trip actually...
never bother all these year actually... my initial intention for the trip is to look after mt father...
but end up i enjoy more than him....
our ancestor takes months by boat to reach malaysia....
most malaysian chinese are from hokkien and guang dong... so its not difficult to trace....

and now with internet... you will surprise.... i just type my 'kampung name', i found so many info...... even there association been set up willing to help u to find your root....
and now china is well developing... they live better.... i always thought they will cheat us when we go there....
i'm so embarrassed when i'm there, because my relatives treat me so well.... few occasions if not because i insisted to pay... then they almost pay for my whole expenses there....

[David_cheong]

Good adventure. Thanks for sharing. It really reminds me of my vacation to Beijing - last year. Spend nearly a month there and try to learn Pua tong hua.

In the big part of the city, people there 'live to eat'. When they ordered food, it was always plentiful. Not able to finish, never mind. You can always ta-pau the left over. Unfortunately, still many smaller parts of the city, people still 'eat to live'

No matter which part of china you in, the scene looks pictorial. Great vacation.

DC

[chrisyen]

i regret i never shoot my 70s uncle china made watch, (he is a high rank government officer... went through the communist era....
he control every water base food / drink import to china... he shared us his story how he stopped coca cola going in to china in the old days.... ) he treated his watch very well.... it was given by the government.... its shang hai brand... he said running accurate since 20 yrs ago....

[danny]

i regret i never shoot my 70s uncle china made watch, ....

That's a perfect excuse for you to make another trip there. Great article Chris. 

 

[silverstan]

Thanks for sharing, like National Geographic, very detail. 

[Alvin-8880]

Great sharing of history & photos, Chris.

This is a great experience for u to go back to search ur root in China. In fact I missed the chance of doing so with my late father when he went back Hubei province (my dialec) few years ago bofore he passed away. I shall do it next time when Hubei Association organized one.

Can't wait to see my ancestor memorial & kampung which is 400 years old (!) according to my late father.

[chrisyen]

i made search online even after i came back....
my surname is Yen ?? from ?

so i knew my root better... but not very sure n the end..
?got this surname since very long time... some source even said it was originated from ? ?
this is what i copied from baidu pedia
?
??1??——??11?"?"??" "??6???"""?"??"?"?"?"??""??" ?"??
??2??"??"?"?"??""??
??3???·???"?……?"??(?)?"??·???·???"""??"?"??"""?""?"??"?"??"""""??"??"??"?"??
[?]
?
??
???38??

general history bout the hakka....
hakka is original HAN ???they travel from north through river since very old days... they are everywhere.... thats why been called 'visitor'
and to maintain the culture of eating dumpling... so they invented 'yong tao fu' in southern part....

and my ancestor also from north.... settle in the above mentioned village... then my grandfather travel through river to shantou
from there take boat to nanyang??

so frens.... pls keep digging... its easy....

[terrenceterrence]

my roots?......it's here....Nanyang.

my father was born here, my grandfather was born here and his father was born here.... our customs, dialect is uniquely here.

if i were to step in fujian..they would look at me strangely ...my hokkien patois is of hokkien + malay.

Proud to be a peranakan...whahahha

[Gerry]

I just read this for the first time. great thread! I almost felt as if I was there!

[chrisyen]

I just read this for the first time. great thread! I almost felt as if I was there!

 
i wrote this to encourage ppl to find their roots.... with your watch....
mayb one day u found your root, you also found your family inherited some vintage  watches for u

[pexus]

wahhhhh yen ko...

Ngi heh hakka ngin ah? 

an yong ngai tung ngi heh chi kah ngin lo...

[chrisyen]

wahhhhh yen ko...

Ngi heh hakka ngin ah? 

an yong ngai tung ngi heh chi kah ngin lo...

Ngau hair tai bu hak, ngi hair Ng hair piao hak? Lol

[pexus]

ngai heh Sabah loi keh hakka ngin..hahaha

whatever, we are chi kah ngin..

anyway, nice post....really cause me to think about the struggles of my ancestors to enable me to have what i have today...

[chrisyen]

ngai heh Sabah loi keh hakka ngin..hahaha

whatever, we are chi kah ngin..

anyway, nice post....really cause me to think about the struggles of my ancestors to enable me to have what i have today...

kk alot of hakka.... ask your ancestors... trace their route to malaysia.... very interesting

[sur3tato]

ngai to heh hak nin leh.

from KL but i think 5/6th generation already.

[chrisyen]

ngai to heh hak nin leh.

from KL but i think 5/6th generation already.

6th generation? that is interesting... not many kl hakka hv such a long history.... or your ancestor all very 'hums**', make bb early... kiddin !

in klang valley, u can find a lot of hakka.... especially those near mining area... from lukut where they started mining then they move to.... seremban rasah, rahang, mantin, semenyih, kajang, ampang, kepong..... KL....

for those who know, seremban rasah, semenyih, kl near central market.... got the ' sen shi yeah ' temples... these temple actually pray the 3+1 hakka taiko... including Yap Ah Loy who later add in....

[sur3tato]

yea.. mum side from rawang.. dad side from pudu.. now staying in cheras.. work place in beranang (inbetween semenyih and mantin)..

when i was a kid, nobody in my school heard of hakka.. so they thought it was hokkien :S

[chrisyen]

We r very near... I work at KAJANG now...

[dennis.T]

yea.. mum side from rawang.. dad side from pudu.. now staying in cheras.. work place in beranang (inbetween semenyih and mantin)..

when i was a kid, nobody in my school heard of hakka.. so they thought it was hokkien :S

i work in Mantin before...nice place but quite bored during weekend, little bit regret never been to Broga to see the Stone Datuk..   before i work in Mantin i was work in Kajang... office located near the Ah Hui Hot Sup there....Yen , have u try the Kajang Hot/Spicy Sup?

[chrisyen]

yea.. mum side from rawang.. dad side from pudu.. now staying in cheras.. work place in beranang (inbetween semenyih and mantin)..

when i was a kid, nobody in my school heard of hakka.. so they thought it was hokkien :S

i work in Mantin before...nice place but quite bored during weekend, little bit regret never been to Broga to see the Stone Datuk..   before i work in Mantin i was work in Kajang... office located near the Ah Hui Hot Sup there....Yen , have u try the Kajang Hot/Spicy Sup?

i hv tried all the hot soup in kajang.... i like the 'xiao ga' (xiao family)... from Jln semenyih near the mosque and a branch in sg chua.... not only the hot soup n 'fa diao' chicken is good, the 'yao wat fei chao' is damn good. i think they used semenyih sand pond rare fei zhou, cook in low heat oil, then add good soy sauce and homemade rice wine + fried ginger... simple and nice.... (other places never add rice wine)

Stone dato area got few restaurant.... one of it famous with fe zhou fish... their pond is beside the restaurant.... coook in many many ways....
should try....

semenyih town towards bangi got famous 'nai sha fe zhou' u try that?

btw, what is your profession?

[sur3tato]

working in factory here. plastic recycling.

i think i've tried all the food around mantin to broga to semenyih.

the jln. semenyih hot soup is one of the best hot soup in klang valley. other restaurants i frequent is 52 (is a house converted to restaurant; along the road towards Nirvana Cemetary).

what's your profession?

[chrisyen]

working in factory here. plastic recycling.

i think i've tried all the food around mantin to broga to semenyih.

the jln. semenyih hot soup is one of the best hot soup in klang valley. other restaurants i frequent is 52 (is a house converted to restaurant; along the road towards Nirvana Cemetary).

what's your profession?

yes. lot 52 is good.... i used to eat there 5-6 yrs ago.... but never been there for more than 2 yrs now....

mantin town got few restaurant very good.... i still remembered a yr ago, my bro recommended me the restaurant not far from petronas...
the hot plate lamb is finger licking good!

i'm with metro kajang now.... a property developer....