Fujian, Xiamen - finding my roots - 认祖归宗

Due to civil war, my grandfather escaped his hometown with his mum....They sailed to Singapore via a junk boat and this was where they called home for the rest of their lives.
He met my grandmother through a matchmaker, the second meeting for them was the wedding.. Together .. they had 6boys & 2girls, rearing vegetables, chicken & ducks to raise up these 8 kids.
Since young, my grandmother told me I am a Hokkien, Zhao An dialect group. She told me many stories about WW2 & her life being Mrs Lee.


 Til I became an adult, I still do not know where & what exactly is Zhao An.
Gradually I lost both grandparents due to old age, my sister & I very much wanted to know our roots... who we are actually ? Moreover my dad is reaching his olden years soon, we are sure he want to know as well.

right a the bottom is Zhao An

 

Thus, after much homework done, I am aware now where is Zhao An.. A trip to search for our roots was decided. We are lucky to have some clues as while my grandfather was still alive, he ever made a trip back with my uncle and aunt. He was already in late 70s when he went back, half a century afterhe left home. My dad hope that we are able to locate our ancestor, all the way fro my great grandfather onwards... a wishful part of me hoping we are connected to 李世民。

Base the limited clues we have and the information I collected We decided to make this trip as a find our roots trip + a family holiday. By the way, the clues we had are 羊坑村， 四都， 诏安， 福建， 厦门。。。

 

I book the trip with a local China travel agent who link me up with Fujian agent. A van and a Fujian background driver was assigned to us on Summer 2016.


With me as the tour leader, I lead my dad, my mum, my sister, my hubby and my son on this adventure cause we are still clueless of this trip.
We landed Xiamen international airport on a raining day. My dad was commenting "got water" this is going to be a fruitful trip. My son liked the driver as he look like a rocker, his hair was waist length, neatly tied up. He is a typical hokkien, his accent was very thick, that why we can clicked with me very well.
It was a near 3hrs journey of ride from Xiamen airport to Zhao An.
The roads there are very wide, buiding are low, the highest are hotels which is about 15 storey high, they built very far apart from one another. Hubby commented that the feel here was similar to Malaysia.  

Our hotel room here is neat and clean, though it was rather spacious but the design were simple. Comfy is most important.

Dinner was at the nearby family run kind of restaurant like 大排档.

Very simple Hokkien dishes that similar to what we have here in Singapore. We finished that pot of rice.. That rice is fantastic as after they steamed it, the stir fried again with  garlic.













After filling up our tummies, our search for roots start, driver brought us to local police station.
The Chinese government placed a very serious view to help we overseas Chinese to search our roots, as our information on hand is very limited, they refer us to their compound caretaker who is an old man whom they believed more or less able to help us.

The caretaker is trying to arrange a meeting for us with the clan head.
Saw that pony-tailed guy ? That is our driver.









The next morning after our breakfast, we set off to meet the clan head.

That old man in white facing the camera is the clan head of 诏安. After hearing our information, he suggested to meet the town head of 四都.

That is the town head of 四都 seated in the centre.
He verified that our information are correct and will get the village head of 羊坑村 come to pick us.
We are so excited that even the driver was very happy for us, he even commented that “祖先保佑”. At this point, we are all getting emotional.

Very soon, we are on the way home.

























This is 羊坑村!

 

One of the house belong to the village head, we are going to 认祖归宗 now.

 

This is where all our ancestor tablets are.
Currently the new ancestral hall is in the midst of building thus our 认祖归宗 ceremony was a very simple one.

This is the site of the future ancestral hall.
Hopefully we will come back again after it is ready.




































After see see look look the place, we went to chill at the home of the village head. My dad told him that my grandfather visited this place few years back, he said yes, he came with a son and a daughter. We did not mentioned who came along with grandfather. My father's eyes is teary now as the place he is sitting was once his father sat with his brother and sister.

This is the 族谱， our names are given for update.

Our mission is never completed without this 大合照

It's always hard to say goodbye... before we set on our journey to the next stop. Finally our holiday starts.

Simple meal to end the day

World heritage : 华安土楼

Next destination : MT. Wuyi (武夷山) - another cultural & scenic world heritage.

1st meal at MT. Wuyi, one of the dish is rabbit meat.

















Scenic bamboo raft ride along the river called Nine-Bend Stream... the water is super cooling...

 

This is our lunch, one of them is wild boar meat.

 

 

 

Back to Xiamen for our last night..  1st meal here include quail dish.

 

This is our supper without our parents : original Chongqing chicken pot

I think if we could afford longer leave from work, this trip will much fun.
Of course holiday itself is a bonus, the most important is our mission is completed we know who we are, where we are from... no regrets...