My late grandfather, Pak Chow Seng, was a descendant of the Pak clan of Tangtou Village in Nan Hai county, Guangdong Province, China. He migrated to Penang (then a British colony) when he was young to start a tannery business.
In his twilight years, he returned to his ancestral village, purchased land and built a house, intending it to be a future home for his offsprings.
The house has a main living and dining area, five bedrooms, a spacious air-well, a kitchen and a storage room. The bedrooms were meant to accommodate his five sons. Unfortunately, all his sons (including my late father) had earlier migrated to Hong Kong and Penang. My grandfather passed away in Tangtou in 1933.
It has therefore been on my bucket list to visit the house. When my cousins in Hong Kong toyed with idea of making the trip recently, my wife and I joined them.
We flew to Hong Kong to meet them first, then got a tour agency to customise a package for the 10 of us. The package includes transport to the house in Tangtou, which is about 25 minutes from Foshan, a prefecture-level city in Nan Hai.
Our first stop after crossing the Hong Kong-China border at Shenzhen Bay Port was Foshan, which is synonymous with Chinese martial arts. It is the birthplace of legendary kung fu icons such as Wong Fei-Hung, Ip Man and Bruce Lee.
We stopped at Guangdong Romance Park, essentially a theme park to showcase Chinese kung fu, lion dance, traditional Cantonese street delicacies and culture.
We were also entertained by a live concert featuring the history of the Guangdong people. This includes the dark period of the Japanese occupation and how the cities of Guangzhou and Foshan were rebuilt after World War II, using donations by overseas Chinese based in South-East Asia.
The next morning, we went to Tangtou Village.
On hand to welcome us were the husband-and-wife caretakers. They led us to our grandfather’s modest house, where my favourite spot was the water well in the courtyard, which served as the only source of water.
Vital, considering that there was no piped water or electricity in the house, and no one has stayed overnight there for 92 years.
To our astonishment, the underground water looked clean and clear without visible sediments.
We captured photos of the various sections in the house and lit firecrackers to signify our arrival. We then strolled around the village and casually exchanged greetings with the elderly villagers. To our surprise, most of them shared our surname of “Pak”.
We also visited the village community building that was constructed in 2002, mainly through donations from overseas descendants of the pioneer villagers.
To mark the joyful occasion, we invited several villagers for lunch in a restaurant in a nearby town.
The visit was a humbling and moving experience for me. In my 65th year of existence, I finally got to set foot inside my late grandfather’s house for the first time; some 92 years after his demise.
After lunch, we proceeded to the Foshan Zumiao, a Taoist ancestral temple. It is a must-visit venue in Foshan and is a national AAAA rated tourist attraction covering some 25,000sq m.
The next morning, we headed to Shunde. Located at the heart of the Pearl River Delta, Shunde is famous globally as the Unesco City of Gastronomy for being the birthplace of fine Cantonese cuisine. Many master chefs in Hong Kong, Britain, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore were nurtured in Shunde.
Our first stop in Shunde was Shun Feng Mountain Park. It was open to the public in 2004. The entrance welcomes visitors through an 88m-wide stone gateway with three arches.
With its lush greenery, temples, gazebos and serene atmosphere, this park is a must-visit for photography enthusiasts. For casual walkers and serious runners, there is a 21km-long jogging path.
We also did not miss the golden opportunity to sample the famous and mouth-watering dessert of double-skin milk at a nostalgic cafe that has been operating since 1925.
In the evening, our bus returned to Hong Kong through the China-Hong Kong border town of Loh Wu. We boarded the train back to Hong Kong for our eventual flight back to Penang the following afternoon.
The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.
