My Ancestral HOME!

Yongchun's morning market!
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Yongchun, Fujian is my ancestral home!

I still remember when I was little and following my father back to his hometown – Jementah on Ching Ming Festival to do grave sweeping, he showed me the two Chinese words ‘Yongchun’ carved on my grandfather’s grave and told me that grandfather was actually come from this place, a town situated in Fujian Province of China. When grandfather came to Malaysia about 60 plus years ago, couldn’t remember why… he left his eldest daughter (my aunt) alone in Yongchun to stay with other relatives. Till today, my aunt was still there and she had even got her own family with four daughters and one son. Despite staying far away, there was a close bond between her and other siblings in Malaysia including my father, and I did always look forward to visiting them. Year after year, the chance finally came…mixed emotions of happiness and eagerness welled up inside me!!

Me, cousin sister, aunty, Mummy and eldest aunt..
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Departing from Xiamen city, it was about 3 hours drive to get us to Yongchun. The way to Yongchun was not a scenic route as it was flanked mainly with big factories and plains. As the day gave way to night at about 6pm, the road appeared relatively dark because there were no streetlights yet except lights of vehicles. The road condition was good all the way, but certain areas were really bumpy… When we reached Yongchun, it was already 7pm and we had our dinner at ‘Qing Hai’ restaurant. Here, I got to taste one of the best local dishes called ‘yu tou mian xian’ (thin noodles cooked with yam), which was really really YUMMY;p After that, we headed to my aunt and cousin sister’s house and we were given a welcome hug. We had a long chat that night and slept quite late.

My aunty's house - the pink one!
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Since it was spring season, the weather in Yongchun was pretty cool all day (about 18-22ºC) and it’s a must for us to wear windbreaker whenever we were out for strolling or shopping. The mother tongue of Yongchun people was hokkien and they would know you were not local people if you spoke mandarin with them. This was not a good thing as they might sell things at higher price to you. So, we were very lucky to have relatives there to help us in bargaining and slashing down the price as much as we could with the hawkers…hehee! Anyways, things over there were pretty cheap and I had bought many clothes, shoes, CDs and even some daily goods;)

People in Yongchun were having a simple and relaxing life. Whenever free, they would sit down in a group of 3-4 people to chitchat or play cards. Due to the cool weather, they also loved to drink a variety of hot Chinese tea rather than water and it’s common to see many of them have their own complete set of Chinese teapot and cups.