My father, Tom, and I traveled to the village where my father and grandmother were born. My father originally wanted to take a boat upstream and then walk to the village. However, that boat service had been discountinued for many years and only existed in my father's mind. We began the trip in Guangzhou at 7 in the morning and took an old bus to Toi San city. The ride took between two to three hours. This city seems to be quite wealthy, and of two reasons I can think of. It is close to Guangzhou, which is supposedly one of the most modern and richest cities. Another reason is because of the money that Chinese emigrants continue to send back. Many people who immigrated to such countries like America are from Toi San so they still send money overseas to relatives. Anyway, after a brief walk around, we took a "farmer" bus to get to a nearby village. We got house keys from our father's cousin and proceeded to my father's village.

The name of our village in Toi San.

Just by walking towards the village and looking around, you can see many people hard at work, tilting the land.

People are drying rice under the sun on the pavement. They do this in front of the houses.

This river is right next to the village. Villagers use it as a means of transportation

The houses are aligned like in rows. This is the space between houses.

Hey, that's our house! No one has lived in it for at least forty years. My grandmother lived here for half her life and my father lived here for his childhood. The door has been locked for years with those wooden poles

Without repairs being made, the sky is clearly visible inside the house. What a skyroof!

This side is directly opposite from the previous picture. The house has an upstairs. The wood carving is really good, even after all these years. That is also a place to pray. There is still some junk upstairs. I believe that that acts as an attic. Downstairs is completely empty, as things were moved out long ago.

Well, at least someone, or something is still living here!

That's a pipe! Running water?

A stove with empty shelves. Farmers keep the ricestems even after removing the rice. They dry it so that they could eventually burn it in the stove as fuel.

People raise ox to do all sorts of work, including plowing the land. People do not use tractors or such equipment. Everything is pretty much low-tech.

That's a road leading away from a village, back to the main road where we originally took the "farmer" bus.

It was early evening by the time we arrived at the main road. Walking back took at least an hour, but it was very enjoyable because of the view. Bus service had already end and we were pondering about how to get to the nearest town. A motorcycle taxi driver came to us offering his service. We agreed and he called two of his fellow motorcycle taxi driver buddies. Each of us rode on the back of a motorcycle, wearing a helmet. It was fun and well worth the 50 Rmb($6US). We took another bus, a "farmer" bus, back to Guangzhou but it was VERY indirect because it kept on picking up and dropping passengers along the way. Also, the path was not straight to Guangzhou, but sort of like a loop. By the time we arrived back to where we were staying, it was midnight.

Visiting the village is perhaps one of the most strangest days of my life because it has a large impact upon me, more than anywhere else in China. Having lived in America and in the cities for most of my life, I feel very different from these villagers. They toil with soil from sunrise to sunset every day. Their lifestyles are just so much different; they are so much poorer than I. I feel uncomfortable being around them because of this, ashamed of living a much more easy life than them. I can not imagine taking a place among them, to live the lives that they do.
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