Quanzhou, China Day 2

22 Nov 2015 (Sun):

The evening before, uncle told us to get ready and down for breakfast by 730am and we would be heading out to Meizhou. He told us to bring jackets as the weather would be cold.

We arrived at the jetty and it was crowded. The locals... were pushing and jumping queues and were yelling and shouting at the staff who were not handling the sale of tickets fast enough for them to get a place onboard the ferry.

One local aunty behind me was nagging at us to be quick and that the ferry was going to leave the jetty soon. I was fed up and told her if she cannot wait, then please go join other queues. That shut her mouth up.

SWK - this fellow asked RMB20 from us when R was done taking pics with him. He wanted to continue but i told him it was enough.

Ma Zhu Temple @ Meizhou.

We went to this village not far from our hotel. This village was the very hometown of hubby's grandfather where he stayed when he was young, followed by hubby's father.

Some houses that you have seen in the pic seems to be more well off than the rest. This is because the villagers worked outside of their province/city and when they earn their salary, they remit the money back to the hometown so that the family members can have a better life. The hard earned money was saved in order to built a better roof over their heads.

Lionel n Rachel standing right in front of the very house that their great grandpa and grandpa once lived.

The house was in ruins and unsafe to walked further in, other than the stove area and the mini courtyard.

Daddy trying to walked in between the houses and to see if the place was accessible through the backdoors. Negative!

Many of the neighbours saw us and wandered out to say hello and even offered us to have a sit in their houses and join them for dinner. We rejected politely as we have a dinner to attend to.

For those who do not understand,  will hanyu pinyin helped?

Anxi " Wu Feng Yan"

Chong Jian Luo Cheng Qing Dian Huan Ying Wan Yan

Hou An Xie Shi Jia Miao Lian Yi Hui

We were invited to attend the dinner at a 5 star hotel in Anxi.

The 12 course dinner, though not all were to my liking. :)

Its almost 11pm and we were off to bed. In another 3 hours, we would be driven up the mountains for the ceremony.

Quanzhou, China Day 1

21 Nov 2015 (Sat):

The family ancestral temple in Anxi, Fujian Province, China was rebuilt and it was ready for the deities to settle in their new home.

As it was a Seah family ( 谢氏 ) kinda event, we were invited to attend the ceremony.

And so on the 21 Nov morning, we set off on board Tiger Airways  to Quanzhou, where upon arrival, we would head to Anxi, approx 1.5-2hrs journey away from Quanzhou.

Star Wars action figurines at T2.

We arrived Quanzhou and immediately hire a cabbie who took us to Anxi for RMB250.00. This cabbie was very nice and helped us to locate our hotel.

Actually we did not booked any hotel. The older folks who flew ahead of us told us to alight at the previous hotel they stayed in the last time they came and they would come and pick us up.

In fact, we were very lost when we arrived at Anxi. The location of the hotel was next to some night club and the staff / guests who walked past us gave us a weird stare. Hubby called a number given to us before we left for Quanzhou and some random uncle picked up the call.

This uncle was in fact the guide who brought us around Anxi for the next 2 days. The old folks and some relatives came in a van and met surprisingly, well at least to me when i saw familiar faces.

There was this couple who would very frequently popped over to my in laws'  shop and chit chat, gossip and coffee. I have always seen them but not knowing they were related to us. So apparently when they saw my surprised look, all of them laughed.

We went up the van and checked into another hotel.The folks have checked into this hotel prior and reserved 1 more room for us. This hotel overlooks the lake and the scenery was beautiful in the night.  Thank goodness it was not the other hotel located next to the nightclub. My uncle said it was very noisy at night and there were cases of drunkards fighting. 

We went for dinner altogether and thereafter, the older folks retired for the night and the 4 of us went shopping. The weather in Anxi was warm and i could not understand the need for thick winter jackets most of the local folks were wearing.

Talked about shopping, the underground departmental stalls were stuffy and small. There was no air-conditioning at all. Everywhere were selling thick winter clothings and boots and there was nothing practical to buy.

We passed by a store selling winter clothings and this lady stopped us and said: " 明天的天气会比今天还要冷， 你们还穿得这样薄， 不怕生病吗？"

I felt like telling her: " 你倒不如说明天的天气会比今天还要热？"