Kai Ping China and Family Village

On Thursday we took a 5 hour bus trip into mainland China through Shenzhen. Our destination was the city of Kai Ping, the city nearest to the family village of Fung Lok Lai. What a drive. Mainland China have very scenic views!
We just crossed the border of China.

Before I get into the family village pictures, let me explain about my father's history. This is very personal to him, so I am going to keep it very short with only a few details. Basically, my father remember seeing his dad on a couple occasions. My dad was raised by his grandmother, his mother died when he was three years old. His father died before he was 10 years old. He has no real recollection of either parent. He never really wanted to know much about his dad. My mom began searching for my dad's father back in 1992 I would say. She contacted about every possible Chinese family organization possible, looking. Nothing turned up.

Then, in a case of many small miracles, the Lord placed them where they needed to be to learn about his father, eventually meet two of his half siblings, and finally to find his father's home in mainland China. I am more than happy to share more of the details of the miracles the Lord conducted if you are interested, ask! So, while on his mission in Hong Kong, a few more miracles played out and my father was able to locate the family village and the home in Mainland China. This I have to say was the main purpose to our trip, to see where our grandfather came from.
FAMILY VILLAGE
This is Kaiya and I at the entrance to our family village. Every village has a pagoda style gate at the front. We came in the back gate (also pagoda style) and exited the , main gate to get to the original village. Our family moved at some point in time from the original village, just down the street to the new village!


This is me standing in front of a rice field just outside the village (village where the house we still have is).

Kaiya by a shrine in the front of the village.

Distant relatives in the "original" Yee (Yu) village. I have to explain that the villages are all made up of family, thus everyone that lives in the villages my grandfather came from are my relatives, distant, but relatives. This is in front of the original village, where the family home has been turned into a barn by someone. When we arrived there were a few people outside, soon more and more people came out of their homes to see what the commotion was about I am sure. We spent about 30 minutes just having them oooh and aww of the kids. I think they were extremely impressed that my sister in law had 3 children. Remember in China, you are only allowed to have one child. If you have more, you are fined heavily. If I remember correctly, you are fined like 3-6 times your monthly income, basically making it impossible to pay the fine. So, we stood there having them all look at the kids and point to kaiya and then me. Then, the other girls and Natalie. Also, in the village, the homes are only about 3-4 feet apart, seperated by a very narrow alley. This is me on a roof of a newer home (three stories) over looking the village the home we have is in. I am blocking the roof of ours along with the white house. But, you can see what the home looks like because it looks just like the grey older looking homes you can see, except ours was only single story!

This is a picture of direct descendents of Y On Yee, my grandfather. I wonder what he was thinking as his son, grandson, granddaughter, and great granddaughter were standing outside the original family home. I know his is probably amazingly proud of my father for all he has done with his life. I am sure there is great joy also, that we have traced our roots and found part of him in doing so. I can't believe I was there still. I finally felt like I had a real connection to China. This was the original home my grandfather lived in, in the original village. Not being used as a "barn." How amazing!