xiamen and chao zhou trip- 2nd posting

Dunno why I can't post even more pictures in the previous post but heck, I am continuing it here. Here goes the rest of the photos from my ancestral hometown...

- Looking pretty aren't they... oink oink

- the temple for SIM family

- the guardian dog of the SIM family temple

- one of the house left behind in the ancestral hometown

my 2nd post for 2009 - the china trip

Finally, a time for me to blog about my visit to China as to go back to my ancestral hometown. In the trip I went down to 2 cities, Xiamen and ChaoZhou where ChaoZhou is my ancestral hometown and Xiamen is one of the earliest port city opened up to the foreigners after the opium War.

Places to visit in Xiamen will be Gu Lang Yu, Nan Pu Tuo, Hu Li Shan Fortress and for the night market, please do visit Zhong Shan Lu (Zhong Shan Road). To go Gu Lang Yu, just simply take either a bus or a taxi to the ferry port and the ferry will ferry you to Gu Lang Yu. Do not worry about which bus to take as at every bus stop there will be a notice board for the travellers to check the bus number againts their route and suprisingly enough, the bus fare is only RMB 1 yuan on board. No matter how far is your distance, you need to pay only 1 yuan to get on board and wala, you will be at your destination in no time. A truly budget saving tip for all the back packers.

-the entrance of the Gu Lang Yu

- The archway at the entrance of Xu family (Gu Lang Yu)

-the art piece on the gate (Gu Lang Yu)

- Some real old building of British architecture (Gu Lang Yu)

- A British building turned into some sort of museum (Gu Lang Yu)

- the bronze sculpture of General KoXingGa (Gu Lang Yu)

-the helmet and sword believed to be KoXingGa's (Gu Lang Yu)

Ok Ok, time for some Chinese History class. Ko Xing Ga (Guo Xing Yeh or Zhen Cheng Gong) is the military leader during Ming dynasty that strongly opposed the invasion from the Manchurian and after Manchurian controls the mainland, Ko Xing Ga sailed up to Taiwan and settled down as an opposition force against the Qing dynasty.

-the whole view of Xiamen city from the top of Nan Pu Tuo (Xiamen)

-Inside of Nan Pu Tuo (Xiamen)

- the map of Hu Li Shan Fortress (Xiamen)

-the meeting room for the military officers (Xiamen)

- the krupp cannon in the Hu Li Shan fortress (Xiamen)

Half of my trip was focused on the place where my ancestors came from Chao Zhou. In Chao Zhou, places of interest will be the memorial park of Han Yu (Han Wen Gong), the Xiang Zi bridge, the Guang Ji gateway, the Xi Hu, and the Kai Yuan temple.


- the gateway of Guang Ji (Chao Zhou)

- the defensive tower for archers and patrol soldiers on top of the Guang Ji gateway (Chao Zhou)

- the Xiang Zi bridge (Chao Zhou)

What amazed me is the structure of the bridge. Did you see at the center of the bridge where there is a line of boat sitting in between the bridge instead of concrete. In every evening, the line of boat will open up a pathway for the other boats to sail down the river.

- boats sailing down the river through Xiang Zi bridge (Chao Zhou)

- Han Yu Memorial Park (Chao Zhou)

- Han Yu seeing off his friend (Chao Zhou)

- Kai Yuan temple (Chao Zhou)

- Inner part of Kai Yuan temple (Chao Zhou)

My ancestral hometown is in Chao Zhou city, Chao An district in the village called Hua Mei.

- the old house of the SIM family (Chao Zhou)

happy new year/ sad new year???

Hey guys and girls... time flies by and without realizing it's 2009 this year.. Geez, after 12 days of the new year, a lot of things happened around me and I do not know which to blog first. Well, it always better to start off with the bad things first then the good things right? Off it goes....

For the first time ever, I borrowed my dad's car for 3 weeks usage in UTP (according to Jason, it's universiti tiada perempuan) and I got it into accident. When I was reversing the car, a car was coming into the way and bonk!, my car rear bumper went into the car side. In the end, I settled the fella without needing to lodge a police report but my wallet bleeds seriously. 450 for the fella's car and 385 for my dad's car repairing cost. 1 big big ang pau for the mechanics, so you guys better thank me for that. Hmph!!!! 

The good stuff will be shared in next post as I getting lazy d... adios............