China Travel
- Thread starter SteelBird
- Start date
SteelBird
Colonel
Does that newspaper have any special meaning to you? My wife used to work at The Commercial News, and they do keep history newspaper. Even 10 years later, we can still find a specific newspaper as long as you know the exact date and have a proper reason to do so. The Commercial News does not have an electronic version because it is almost closed down as of today. Its electronic version is 柬中时报 which you can read it on website or its Facebook channel. Another major Chinese news in Cambodia is 柬华日报 .
Your suggestion regarding my grandfather's hometown makes me think that 揽(lan)水埳乡 is actually 淡(dan)水埳乡, is it possible? Further, this 波罗勉省近知名县 is my mom's birthplace. It's not related to my grandfather's hometown. After the Pol Pot regime, everyone has move out from Prey Veng province（波罗勉省）. We no longer have any relative there.
SteelBird
Colonel
My total trip time is one week but I plan to shorten it due high price air ticket during the Khmer new year (April 13 to April 15). I will try to balance my time in both Guangzhou and Beijing.
My time is too limited so I will only traval between Guangzhou and Beijing. I may drop by Shanghai if time allows.
I was trying in the beginning to check where that newspaper was distributed and sold, and it might be helpful in finding that one location. Of course, if the photo was taken by you or a family member, my action would be redundant.
If it's “淡水埳乡”, I didn't find the exact name of the place directly, but there is indeed a place called “淡水街道Danshui Street” in Huiyang, which used to be called “淡水镇Danshui Town”.
Here is a wiki：
a local website describing its history:
and satellite map of the place:
Personally, I don't really think this is the correct location, it doesn't seem to match the location of 约场村. I'm still more inclined to look for it in 约场村.
Incidentally, I found a map of 约场村:
I see. It seems that “本生” refers to mother's hometown and “祖籍” refers to father's.
Lies. Zhenjiang vinegar is better.
Image test paste first..somwhere in 汕头市. Only manage to finished 1/4 of those shown...and they keep loading in new dishes non stop. haiz
Bring an umbrella, there's going to be rain this week.
Don’t forget to try the local delicacy — Fujianese people.
SteelBird
Colonel
Hi guys, I’m back home. So, it’s time to write a report about my trip to China.
1. Purposes of the trip
I took a flight to Guangzhou Baiyun airport on April 15 and arrive there on the same day at around 4pm. Took a metro to the accommodation and had a diner with a friend that evening. My friend didn’t think that I could find my grandfather’s hometown because I had too few information about it. However, she told me how to get there.
4. The way to my grandfather’s hometown
In the early morning of April 16, took the metro to Guangzhou South Railway Station, and then took a HSR to Huizhou. I arrived at Huizhou railway station at around 8am. This is a completely alien area to me. No friend, no guide, everything is on my own.
I tried to take a bus to Xinxu town (新圩鎮) but could not wait for the right bus, so I turned to a taxi. The driver was rather friendly, he was a father of three from Jiangxi. I told him about my purpose, and he suggested me to go directly to Yuechang village (约场村) because the village is still there. So, we went to the village committee of Yuechang asking for information. People there were, again, so friendly. After listening to my story and seeing the photos of the tombstones. They suggested that the place I was looking for was no longer in Yuechang village because the premise of Yuechang village had been changed compared to the old one. The place Shiwu township (石屋围) should be in the current Hongwei village (红卫村).
We once again came to Hongwei village committee. Here we met a young guy. He served me with nice tea and told me that the reason my friends and I could not locate the area on the web is that we didn’t speak Hakha. We read the tombstone in Mandarin. The correct location should be 榄树坑(on the tombstone was 榄水臼) 石屋围. He said there is a Xiao clan ancestor hall (萧氏宗) in Shiwu group, then he called the chairman of the Xiao clan association. Here I finally found my grandfather’s hometown and the ancestor hall of my clan. Standing in front of the ancestor hall, I was so agitated and speak in my mind “Ancestors, I’m back!”.
1. Purposes of the trip
- My main purpose is to find the hometown of my grandfather who migrated to Cambodia about a century ago.
- Beyond of that, my secondary purpose is to visit Beijing. If one hasn’t been to Beijing, he’s not considered as being to China.
- How to find the hometown: All my grandparents and parents have pass away. The only clue I have is the address on their tombstone. But the address carved on the tomb stone are addresses of a century ago and were written based on memories of my father. They might not be correct or have been changed. To compare ancient and current address, I have talked to my Chinese friends, searching on the web and using DeepSeek, talking to you guys on this forum. The final answer which I’ve got before departure is: 惠州市新圩鎮 (Huizhou city, Xinxu town).
- Money: No money, no go. You might have heard that cash is not popular in China. Instead, people use WeChat and Alipay for payments. WeChat has even more functions for all types of pre-booking. So, I download both WeChat and Alipay on my phone, activate and charge it. I even get some cash to prevent case that phone doesn’t work.
- SIM card: Google, Facebook… aren’t accessible in China. To access those websites, you’d need to climb the wall. I bought a roaming data SIM card in Cambodia. All gates are open, so, no wall-climber needed. But data SIM card doesn’t call. I will need to buy another SIM card for phone call upon arrival at the Chinese airport.
- Accommodation in China: It’s time of Canton Fair, so hotels are extremely expensive and full. Via friend’s recommendation, I book a small apartment room in 市二宫area. Very cheap but the size was just about a van’s size.
I took a flight to Guangzhou Baiyun airport on April 15 and arrive there on the same day at around 4pm. Took a metro to the accommodation and had a diner with a friend that evening. My friend didn’t think that I could find my grandfather’s hometown because I had too few information about it. However, she told me how to get there.
4. The way to my grandfather’s hometown
In the early morning of April 16, took the metro to Guangzhou South Railway Station, and then took a HSR to Huizhou. I arrived at Huizhou railway station at around 8am. This is a completely alien area to me. No friend, no guide, everything is on my own.
I tried to take a bus to Xinxu town (新圩鎮) but could not wait for the right bus, so I turned to a taxi. The driver was rather friendly, he was a father of three from Jiangxi. I told him about my purpose, and he suggested me to go directly to Yuechang village (约场村) because the village is still there. So, we went to the village committee of Yuechang asking for information. People there were, again, so friendly. After listening to my story and seeing the photos of the tombstones. They suggested that the place I was looking for was no longer in Yuechang village because the premise of Yuechang village had been changed compared to the old one. The place Shiwu township (石屋围) should be in the current Hongwei village (红卫村).
We once again came to Hongwei village committee. Here we met a young guy. He served me with nice tea and told me that the reason my friends and I could not locate the area on the web is that we didn’t speak Hakha. We read the tombstone in Mandarin. The correct location should be 榄树坑(on the tombstone was 榄水臼) 石屋围. He said there is a Xiao clan ancestor hall (萧氏宗) in Shiwu group, then he called the chairman of the Xiao clan association. Here I finally found my grandfather’s hometown and the ancestor hall of my clan. Standing in front of the ancestor hall, I was so agitated and speak in my mind “Ancestors, I’m back!”.