2025 Donna & Dana's China Trip : Day 20; Kaiping (Thur; 17 Apr)

Tour 2; Day 7

Today's plan:

Liyuan Garden
Baihe Town and Pier
Return to Cangdong

This morning was atypical in that after the buffet breakfast we skipped the first group activity, which was a return session/tour at the Cangdong village. The group had spent a lot of time there the day before and we decided we'd rather walk around the area surrounding the hotel then meet up with the group later. The hotel is situated on an island bordered by two rivers, the Zhenahi Shui and the Tan Jiang. The island was the site of Sun Yat-sen's Whampoa Military Academy (recall that Yat-sen is thought of the George Washington of China). The island itself was kind of a sleeper as there didn't seem to be a town or shopping area near the hotel, at least within the distance we walked.

After our hotel grounds walk we ate lunch then used China's version of Uber, called Didi, for a ride to the Liyuan Garden where we rejoined the group. The Liyuan Garden was a private garden of the late Mr. Xie Weili, an Overseas Chinese in the United States. After he made his fortune in the United States he returned to China in 1926 and constructed what became the Liyuan Garden. Composed of gardens replete with Chinese redbud, kapok, cypress, and other types of flora, there are bridges, archways, pavilions, an aviary, and walkways that connect the three primary areas - the Villa Zone, Grand Garden and Little Garden. Six yellow villas with green tile roofs housed different branches of the clan. A four-story communal watchtower provided refuge from bandits during raids. The villas all have south-facing balconies and they were built largely of imported materials that incorporated many features that were a rarity in the Chinese countryside at the time. For example, water pumps and pipes were imported from the United States to provide indoor plumbing - even on the upper floors. Wall heaters were another luxury. There were hanging gas lamps, wall frescoes, intricately carved wooden panels, and decorative frescoes. Expensive rosewood furniture - in the Chinese style - was set with silver services imported from abroad. The entire complex took 10 years to complete.

Fun fact: Xie Weili's American name is Jay W. Rapp. He was married to Donna's mother's aunt (Jennie Soo Hoo) and they had nine children, one of which was Oak Ton ~~Chin~~*, who's American name was Larry Jay. Larry's children, one of whom is Alex Jay, are Donna's 2nd cousins. Put another way, Donna's second cousin Alex Jay's grandfather is Xie Weili, aka Jay W. Rapp . Although they've never met in person, Donna has been working with Alex for several years trying to straighten out that branch of the family tree. There were several pictures of Larry and Alex Jay amongst those displayed in various places throughout the garden. This relationship clicked in Donna's mind as she was looking at one of the pictures (shown below). While she knew there was an exquisite garden that Alex had recommended we should visit, she had no idea it was this garden. Lastly, we learned that Alex has been working with Prof. Selia Tan, our Overseas Chinese expert/guide/consultant, for several years on the Xie/Jay aspects of the Cangdong village restoration project. Is this a "small world" or "six degrees of separation" thing... you be the judge. (*corrected per Alex Jay)

A giant sign just inside the garden's entrance presents a brief description and history, paraphrased* here...

Liyuan Garden initially covered an area of 119,00 square meters. It is a collection of traditional gardening, western style construction and distinguishing features of the rivers and lakes in South China. It is unique in the Chinese gardens in its special construction style featuring the combination of Chinese and western styles. The construction began in 1926 and it took about 10 years to finish all of the buildings. Liyuan Garden is divided into three parts: Villa Zone, Grand Garden and Little Garden. They are separated by water or walls, but are connected by pavilion bridges or winding corridors. There are six villas and one watchtower in the garden as well as several well preserved works of art including large scale color frescoes of folk art in the late Qing Dynasty, gold lacquer wooden carvings, mortar carvings, ceramics, statues, ancient furniture and an advanced electric lighting and water supply system imported from the U.S.A. Liyuan Garden was on the verge of destruction for about 50 years prior to 1999 however, in October, 1999 Mrs. Xie Yu Yaoqiong and the owners of the Genghua and Languili Villages wrote a letter to entrust the People's Government of Kaiping City to administer the garden. Consequently Kaiping City invested heavily to repair and protect the garden. Today Liyuan Garden is 199,000 square meters (49 acres) and was opened to the public in October, 2000. (* paraphrased, as used here, could also be interpreted as plagiarized...).

This, an addendum/correction from Alex Jay (Thank you Alex!) ...

At Liyuan my grandfather's house was occupied by the Japanese during WWII. After they retreated,

all the furniture was stolen. Over the years imposters tried to claim our house.

Regarding the history of the village, the land was purchased in 1926 and, over the years, prepared

for construction. My grandfather brought his family to China in 1931 and they lived in Hong Kong

while he had a house built in Guangzhou. Once his family was settled, he turned his sights to Kaiping and started planning his house and garden. I'm told construction ended in 1936. His family would spend holidays and summer at Liyuan. By the kitchen are stairs leading to the "pond" which was stocked with fish for meals.

The Kaiping government had the foresight to see the value in tourism. The first phase was to repair

Liyuan Garden and the houses. Liyuan Garden opened in 2000 to tourists. This happened with my

grandfather's third wife who held the deed to the property. The contract was a 25-year lease with an

option to renew for another 25 years. The third wife's daughter renewed the contract this year.

The second phase of the tourism project was applying and getting the 2007 World Heritage designation for the villages with outstanding diaolou. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1112/

A few years ago saw the completion of the latest phase. A large section of Chikan was acquired by a

Beiljing real estate company. The Kaiping government had a minority share of the project. Selia Tan

told me her parents were among many families forced to move after they refused the company's offer

to leave. The company turned off the utilities and started tearing up the roads. Here are pictures of the new development that's like a theme park. https://www.trip.com/travel-guide/attraction/kaiping/chikan-ancient-town-97460/

The latest I've heard is that the real estate company sold its share to the Kaiping government.

I suspect the company needed to raise cash.

We spent a couple of hours touring the garden and once again, our pictures can't begin to convey how truly exceptional the Liyuan Garden is. It's title is understated as it is a grand estate by any measure. In any event, or by any name, the Liyuan Garden tour was a highlight of the entire trip.

Our next stop was the city of Baihe. Located along a large river, one specific pier in Baihe received the remains (bones) of Overseas Chinese who passed while away from their homeland. This was the custom of the time in the mid 1900's, it may still be today. To get to the actual pier itself we had to walk through a small neighborhood then essentially trespass between two small riverfront homes. The remnants of the pier were all that remained as it hasn't been utilized for several years but, when it was it was only used for remains, all other cargo was off-loaded at a different pier. Apparently there were several of these "bones only" piers along the river at one time. The town of Baihe was much like several of the other small towns/villages we visited.

After Baihe it was back to the Cangdong village where we saw the first house of the Xie (Jay) ancestors, received a nice calligraphy poster and a clay bowl, and had dinner.

Walking out the front entrance off the Pan Tower International Hotel - they doubled down on the International part...

An entrance to a home (or estate) immediately outside the hotel grounds. We saw many trees with white painted tree trunk bases - apparently for protection from sunscald and pests..

Entrance to the Liyuan Garden


The 49 acre garden is quite extensive. While the Villa Zone is obvious, I couldn't really differentiate the Grand Garden from the Little Garden, it all looked grand to me...

This picture, in the entrance building of the Liyuan Garden, specifically the sign "Jay W. Rapp & Co" in the picture, is what cued Donna's recollection of the garden Alex Jay was telling her about.

Jay W. Rapp, aka Xie Weili

Donna's great aunt, Jennie Jay (Jennie Soo Hoo), Xie Weili's first wife. Oak Jay (Oak Chin), bottom, 4th from the right, Donna's first cousin once removed

On the left, Oak Chin aka Larry Jay


Alex Jay's visit displayed at the Liyuan Garden

The explanatory "giant sign" I referred to (and stole liberally from) above...

Entrance to the Villa Zone

Villas and diaolou

There were several villas, this is the Panli Lou built in 1926 by Xie Weili and his father Xie Shengpan. We were allowed to tour the inside of this one...

... which was exquisitely furnished...

Here are some views of the grounds from the Panli Lou villa

Walking along the channel that bordered the Villa Zone

Some of the structures behind the villas

There were several unique structures in the Villa Zone, many, if not all, of them were built especially for one of Xie's four wives. I believe this was called the "Bird Cage"...

There's a story to go along with this, I believe it goes along the lines of a building to shelter one of his wives from the sun as she tended to a flower garden...

There was a fascinating miniature diaolou garden

On to Baihe city...

The entrance to Baihe Village

We walked along the main street towards the riverfront...

... and passed several businesses like this, a door with a workroom and people working...

The streets got much more narrow as we approached the "bones" pier...

... until we came to here - the remnants of the bones pier. We walked out on someone's property to take a look. Our guide implied the owners were used to it.