Anyway, cameraman aside, Ms Poon is the branch manager of 1 of Mr Yau's shops in Shunde, so she's tasked to take good care of us. She met my parents before, but this is the first time she's meeting me.
After a good, hearty breakfast (a typical demonstration of the overeating on my trip), we set out to my grandmother's home village of Shui Teng (Mandarin: 水藤村, Cantonese: Sui Tang). We did a stop by her aunt-in-law's place (whom my parents have also met), since they were living in the same village and my dad prepared gifts for them. Following which, we walked around a little and went to see the only landmark that my grandmother could recall, the stone bridge:
The stone bridge
That's the name of the bridge: 玉麟桥
So this is the photo that I'm supposed to show Grandma: That I came here
I thought Dad took a rather comfortable candid shot of me
And this is what you see on the side of the bridge. I hear the water used to be clear... Haha!After this, we went on to my grandfather's home village of Ma Jiao (Mandarin: 马滘村, Cantonese: Mah Kau). Nothing much there except the village signboard, and nothing to confirm too, since Grandfather's no longer around.
That's all 4 of us: (L to R) Me, Dad, Ms Poon, Ah-Mok (our driver for the entire time in China)
After lunch, we then proceeded to Xiqiao Mountain (Mandarin: 西樵山, Cantonese: Sai Chiu San), a nature reserve mountain near Foshan (佛山）. There are a few tourist attractions there, and the ticket basically allows you to see everything.First stop: Wong Fei Hong Lion Dance and Martial Arts Museum (黄飞鸿狮艺武术馆）. This is a martial arts centre set up by the famous martial arts master to take in young delinquents and train them to focus on something that can benefit their lives. There are lion dances and martial arts demonstrations performed daily by the current students, many of them very young.
This is the main entrance, notice the signboard?
Stepping through the main door, a statue of the folk hero greets you
And there's also a memorial to the famous actor, Kwan Tak Hing, who played Wong Fei Hong in the old Hong Kong movies. Here's something interesting: He's an actual disciple of the Master himself!
This is the view of the courtyard. That's the largest lion-dance head in the world!
2 lion dances on both sides of the courtyard, each with different set of poles, and thus different obstaclesAfter a rather good lion dance, we then went to see the 4-sided bamboo (四方竹). It's basically bamboo that is square-shaped, with rather distinct edges, than the round ones we typically see. The edges were rather hard to capture as an image, so you'll have to take my word for it. I did, however, manage to feel them.
Like I said, you're gonna have to take my word for it... Haha!Moving on to another nearby attraction, a 62m-high statue of Guanyin (观音), which is the 16th-tallest statue in the world (as compared to the Statue of Liberty at #24 and Sentosa's Merlion at #36, according to Wikipedia). It's definitely huge and awe-inspiring, and to think that I actually told Dad that it's comparable to the Giant Buddha statue in Hong Kong (which only clocked #41 at 34m high, even below Merlion).
This is actually from quite far away, about a 7-min drive?
To be honest, if you ask me, I think the photo does it injustice
This one does give you a better appreciation of the size and scale of it, but you really have to be there to feel the size for yourself
And this is what the statue is overlooking: a huge plaza and a majestic overview of the mountainFollowing this was a walk around the area, then off to have a "Dirty Chicken" (污泽鸡) dinner back in Daliang (大良), Shunde, where our hotel is, which turned out to be quite tasty! No pictures as we got lost for 2 hours on the road trying to find our way back, not to mention getting stuck in the horrible China traffic.
Photobucket: Xiqiao Mountain (西樵山)
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