My ‘balik kampung‘ trip to China was one hell of an experience. Mom, Nic and I went there to visit my great ancestor’s grave.

Heard they had to rebuilt the whole grave thing.

Flight to Xiamen is about 5.5 hours from KLIA. Upon arriving the airport, we had to go by land to some suburban village in Fujian Province, passed numerous mountains and rivers to reach our destination. I last counted, was about 3.5 hours drive.

We arrived at the village late in the evening. Had our dinner and went to bed.

I don’t think I can adapt to the lifestyle here.

Our long lost ‘chinese relatives’ were courteous enough all the way through.

The next morning our courteous ‘chinese relatives’ were busy preparing the food and other materials for the ceremony.

It took over an hour for them to get ready.

They even hired a local ‘band’ to play. It’s nothing near modern music.

It seems funny to me because when I asked how far is my ancestor’s grave from the house, they said it’s very near, just on top of the mountain behind the house. The fastest walk is only about 30 minutes.

HUH ?

30 minutes walk ?

I can reach KLCC from my house in less than 30 minutes drive …

The local villages are damn good at walking. They can walk for hours non-stop.

Along the way, I spotted their local village primary school. For such it’s nothing as good looking as our schools in Malaysia.

And their students rate is decreasing every year. Currently there are about 20 students here in the local village school.

That’s very sad because the locals can’t afford to give they children proper education.

In the Fujian Province, ‘tulou‘ is a very popular traditional residential architectural structure. It can accommodate up to over 20 families in one average sized ‘tulou‘ itself with average of 4-5 members in one family.

Amazingly, it could last over hundreds of years.

History has it. They were mostly built between 12th and 20th centuries.

Because ‘tulou‘ were built of a composite of earth, sand, and lime, therefore mostly couldn’t withstand heavy rains and floods.

A better view of the village can be seen on the way up to the mountain top.

Villagers mostly rely on paddy plantations for survival. This village in particular is famous for persimmon plantation in Fujian Province.

Lifestyle in the village is very ordinary. One can expect no form of entertainment or such here.

Even the buffaloes looked bored …

Unrelated, Shan said waxing is still an unknown concept to the people in China.

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• BROWSE / IN Travel
• « Xiamen is in China
• » KL boy in Xiamen : part 2