Upon clearing the customs in Meilan Airport (25kms from Haikou), we decided to head straight for Qionghai city (where my maternal grandparents came from) via taxi (RMB180 or S$40). The city was used to be known as Jiaji town and the reason for the name change was simply because the town grew bigger and bigger till it was promoted to "city" status. After nearly 90mins on the Eastern Expressway, we reached our destination on a Sunday evening. Minus the Chinese characters on the signboards, the city looked no different from a typical Malaysian town. We checked into Jinri Hotel, a fairly "grand" hotel (by local standards) at RMB118/S$26.22 per night.
Here comes the exciting part. The contact prior to our trip was only a phone number given by my granduncle 4 years ago. If he had changed his number, we probably would not be able to contact him and this would definitely throw our plans into disarray. Mum called after dinner and one can sense tense moments among us before his daughter-in-law picked up the call. It was certainly relief when we "found" him (he was asleep but his wife acknowledged us). We were right on track.
After a "fairly" comfortable night (in quotes because some girl was pressing doorbells at 5.30am!), we had our breakfast of dumpling noodles (along Jinhai Road) and got on a bus (30mins) to Chaoyang town (both cost RMB3.50/S$0.78) at the local station. Although it was not particularly sunny, but we could see agriculture activities almost immediately after we got out of Qionghai.
Chaoyang is just a one-street town consists of several 2/3-storey buildings. Although my granduncle said that he would fetch us once we arrive, my mum asked the first motor-rickshaw driver and he actually knew my granduncle (maybe he is a famous guy here!). As we hop on the vehicle, excitement filled the air as we know we were finally reaching our destination.
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Just a photograph on the unit of my granduncle's house in Yangda 1st Village. There were probably not more than 12 units in that village though when I was there I do not see alot of people.
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My grandaunt brought me around and showed me her Chicken/Goose "farm". As I walked around, I realised that the way they rear animals is very similar to how my grandmother rears hers in Malaysia.
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My uncle (he is only 2 years older than me) brought me to Boao Village (if you enlarge the photograph, you can see the village name on the direction board) with his motorcycle. It was a pretty touristy area though the views (at the intersection between Wanquan River and South China Sea) were great.
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wyattwang.com doing it at Chaoyang, Qionghai, Hainan, China. Chaoyang town consists of just one street with a couple of shops. This is the town nearest to where my maternal grandmother stayed.
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It was probably rude to take pictures of the dead, but if you enlarge the photograph, you can see my great-grandmother's picture just on the left of my great-granduncle. |
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The Chinese likes to paste strips of paper (blessing charms) on the door for safety and prosperity. My granduncle probably needs a "booster" on this. |
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The mandatory photograph taking session just outside my granduncle's house.
(from left: Granduncle 2, Grandauntie 2, Bro, Grandauntie 1, Mum, Great-Grandauntie, Uncle's son, Uncle, Auntie & Granduncle) |
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Mainland Chinese tourists dressing up as if this was Hawaii! It must be a new fashion statement to wear clothes like this. |
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wyattwang.com doing it in front of Wanquan River at Boao, Qionghai, Hainan, China. It was pretty touristy. |
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Views of the Wanquan River leading to the South China Sea taken from Boao Temple (Ten Thousand Guanyin Pagoda). Admission fees was a whopping RMB68/S$15.11 per person but we paid local tickets costing RMB15/S$3.33 each (purchased with the help of my granduncle).
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