2025 Donna & Dana's China Trip : 06/16/25

Tour 2; Day 8

Update: Thanks to Donna, Alex and Amy Jay, a couple of clarifications...

The day's plan:

Grand Yu Ancestral Hall
Baoguosi Temple
Claypot Rice Lunch in Kaiping City
Xinchang Market Place
Shopping Mall
Travel to Taishan

Noteworthy: Our last day on tour bus...

The Grand Yu Ancestral Hall was the largest ancestral hall we've visited to date. It is comprised of at least 9 buildings and is also the site of the Fengcai Middle School. As it is an active school (we saw several kids there) they have restricted entry and we had to have an appointment as a group to tour there. It has an extensive genealogy display filling at least 2 large rooms with Yu/Yee genealogy artifacts. Located on an outcropping along the Tan Jiang River that I believe is man-made (the outcropping that is...). We toured the buildings for about an hour and half.

After the Yu/Yee ancestral hall we took the tour bus to the Kaiping Baoguosi Temple. I think Baoguosi mean Baoguo temple so I'm likely calling it the Baoguo Temple temple... This temple was one of the smallest we visited but it was nicely kept and not crowded. We visited there about an hour or so. Interestingly, we had to walk about a 1/4 mile or so to get there. Although the road went right to the front of the temple there was a small bridge with a short but steep ramp up and on to it. The bus driver said the bus would get "high-centered" and stuck on the bridge if he attempted to drive over...

On to lunch. Today was different. We went to a restaurant that serves each person their lunch in clay pot that contained lap cheong (Chinese sausage), vegetables and rice (thanks Donna) ~~and something. I don't remember what the something was as we didn't choose it but I do recall that I ate it all.~~ The highlight of the dish was the rice which adhered to the pot and was crunchy when you finally got it - it took some effort to get it out of the clay pot. Many folks in the group were delighted as the dish and manner of preparation is considered a delicacy. I thought it was pretty good but found watching them prepare it - on an outdoor oven-fire pit sort of thing - more interesting. This specific restaurant has been in business since the 1800's.

Lunch done, back on the tour bus to make our way to Xinchang Market. This street apparently was once a bustling business area whose primary customers were banquet halls and such. The day we were there it was all but vacant of customers. There were several shops open selling restaurant supplies, costumes (such as the lion head costume we saw in Cangdong), chairs, tables, even drums. There was an eclectic mix of products, just not so many shoppers other than us and as I recall, we didn't purchase much...

Next stop was a shopping mall. It was impressive. At least 5 stories tall it seemed as though you could buy anything there from milkshakes to cars. It appeared that the 5th floor was devoted to entertaining small kids (maybe while the parents shopped, I'm surprised we haven't seen that approach in the states...)

After a full day it was back on the bus and on our way to dinner, which was at the Lingzi Mushroom restaurant where we had a banquet of several mushroom based dishes - it was surprisingly (to me) pretty good.

Dinner done, back on the bus and on our way to the New World Taishan Hotel. My journal note says "Impressive lobby, room is quite nice, maybe nicest of trip so far, hope the breakfast is up to par". We're near the end of the China part of our trip but looking forward to tomorrow when we meet up with our student researchers again and for the next 2 day visit the 4 villages of Donna's grandparents.

The Grand Yu Ancestral Hall with a portion of the Fengcai Middle School running track out front.

This is a picture that was inside the building of the hall/school. As you can see, it is quite a large complex. The ancestral hall we toured was essentially the middle and right side sections.

More of the intricate sculpture work along the roof lines that many of these ancestral halls feature...

... the closer you look, the more the intricacy pops out.

Our group getting ready to go inside...

Through the entryway and into the main courtyard, note the carvings along the roof line...

... here's a closer view of one panel. The intricacy of this work is amazing

I would think that this hall is a Yu/Yee genealogists dream come true. There were several panels like this...

... and this. Of course, being able to read Chinese is helpful (I assume...)

Upstairs and outside you could examine the roof details up close and personal...

Inside the hall there is this huge bronze casting - I believe this is Yu Jing, the revered founding grandfather and government official

The Kaiping Baoguo Temple

Just inside the entrance, the main courtyard

As with the other Buddhist temples we visited, there are several Buddha statues on display...

This temple also had a display of several hundred Buddhas. It turns out that the answer to the question "How many Buddhas are there?" is not a simple one. As I understand it, there is no "one" number of Buddhas. There are a lot here though...

In addition to the Buddhist monks, there were other residents in attendance...

The temple was essentially 4 main structures centered upon the main court.

This building was next door to the temple and the fence was so intimidating (note the embedded glass shards in addition to the the barbed wire) that I felt compelled to raise my camera way up and snap a blind picture. It's not clear to me as to what is so inviting in there...

The Zhong Hui Restaurant (yellow characters) which is described as Clay Pot Rice Cooked by Wood Fire (blue characters(I'm guessing - dt)) - Thanks for the translation Amy. ~~The Clay Pot Restaurant. I suspect it has a real name, but I couldn't find it (although I didn't try too hard...)~~

Lunch being prepared...

The final product... very tasty!

Apparently duck was available... on second glance, that's long neck for a duck, maybe it's a goose...

Walking down the market street. The rooms above the shops were mostly vacant apparently due to some argument as to what city/municipality they were actually part of.

Lots of stuff for sale if you run a restaurant or similar business

One could imagine that this was a thriving business area with merchants living above their stores, once upon a time...

... not on this day though

Still, I don't know where else you'd go if you need a lion head costume (the white hanging things are lion head bases awaiting the colorful decorations)

There was also at least one drum shop. These, drums made of Banyan trees, awaiting final finishing and their drum skins

Typical mall...

... well, almost typical. The shop in back is store filled with those "put your money in and move the claw to get a wonderful toy machines... darn, didn't get it, put in more money and try again".