We concluded our 9 city tour of China with a 3-day visit to Dad's ancestral village in Taishan. We considered this visit the highlight of our trip, as we finally connected with our ancestral roots, and it was the only part of China where I could carry a conversation in my family's dialect.  We took a hydrofoil ferry boat from Hong Kong, and sailed up the Pearl River, and were met by our distant cousins in Jiangmen, who drove us by van to the home village.  Our cousins had inherited the farm house that Dad grew up in, and had not seen in 50 years.  Chinese villages are organized by clan name, so all of the Tongs in this part of Taishan lived together.  About half of the village's original inhabitants had emigrated overseas.   Because it was difficult for me and my sisters to remember their Chinese names, we gave our cousins English nicknames.

    While Taishan was historically a farming community, the economic boom enjoyed by Guangdong Province (fueled partially by money sent overseas by kinfolk) has created better paying factory jobs.  Nearly all of the Taishan residents work in the factories now, while the farm work and construction projects are now done by migrants from Hunan, a province north of Guangdong.  We paid homage to our ancestors at the family cemetery through a traditional ceremony.  Dad donated money to refurbish the grave markers and help build local construction projects, and threw a party for all of our cousins at a local restaurant before we returned to the United States.

"My old house!"			The back yard view	Cousin "Stephanie"
		Cousin "Mark" and his  children on his motorcycle	Cousins "Dennis", "Stephanie" and "Michael"
			Farm chickens	A rare water buffalo in Taishan
	Cute family dog			Shrine to our family ancestors
		Roast suckling pig	A new road connecting with the highway to Taicheng (county seat)
		Traditional ceremony in  homage to our ancestors	Offerings of food and liquor, burning of  symbolic money
Roast pork for lunch
	Electricity came to Dad's village in 1982.	We stayed at the Taishan Garden Hotel in the town of Taicheng
Cousins "Michael" and "Jimmy"	Opulent home of a retired Chinese-American cost only $25,000 to build	Cousin Bob's family	Cousins "Barbara" and "Bob"	"Barbara", "Bob" and Dad
	Public tai chi practice, paced by an amplified radio broadcast			Fashion show at the hotel during lunch - 6' tall models from Xian
		Giant Buddha statue at  local amusement park
	Cousin "Dennis" enjoying paddleboat ride	Dad with cousin "Megan" who came in from Shenzhen, & cousin "Linda"	Cousins "Nancy" and "Megan" at Shuibu garment factory
Banquet for our cousins in local Shuibu restaurant