Trip to Lufeng

After a good night's sleep in Shenzhen we were up and running again this morning at around 10 to leave for Lufeng by car. Yue's dad insisted on driving there in Jessie's car, because she has a spankin' new Peugeot 206 1.6 automatic. The last one is really required, since Jessie's driving is like someone's who got there drivers' license for free with more than RMB1000 spent on tea.
We set of through trafic in the city, always a nerve-wracking experience for me so I was glad I didn't have to drive myself. The highway was a piece of cake though and we drove for three hours through south-german landscapes; mountains, little lakes and forests. The roads are all new, two-lane asphalt toll highways. Not very cheap to drive on (300 km for about RMB70) but safe and fast. The "little" town of Lufeng is located near the seashore, but far enough away to not see the sea all the time. Think of it like Den Haag, but then with 2 million inhabitants! And they call that a "village"! What they mean though is not the size of the town but more the mentality of the people. Yue was amazed at how tall the town had grown, new buildings, relatively good roads and even a main street which didn't look too shabby. Turn one corner though and real life hits you in the face in all its colors. Very smelly colors. Apart from having never seen someone from out of town, let alone a Western blond boy like me, they have no sense of western standards of hygiene. There's trash on the streets, dogs, cats and lots of kids. At least they are now concrete streets, it used to be a mudpool with trash on both sides where you'd have to find your way through the labyrinth of filth. Yue's parents apartment, a 4-room 100 square meters for around 12.000 euros all renovated was located on the better side of town. Still trash in the inner courtyard of course, but very nice place for a second house. Some modern convienences are missing, like central gas and an elevator (it's on the sixth floor) but alltogher really nice. Except of course of the decoration, with hard wooden seats, tiger print cushions and TL lighting. So much for atmosphere!
First visit we did when we arrived was at the son of the late brother of Yue's dad. They had I think 7 kids, him being the youngest. Actually he doesn't even know how old he is because no one took the trouble of writing that down. He figures he was born somewhere between '39 and '42 but he doesn't even have a birthdate! The oldest one of the family still alive is his late brother's wife, who is around 78 years old. A tiny lady (i guess 1.40m at max) but definetely the head of the family. She lives with one of her sons (I think she has about 5 kids herself) who again has 5 kids himself. They are in the picture and they look like their dad. The focus however in this whole comunity is on the boys, so the girls have to do all the housework, while the boys play or sit around. Not a very emancipated way of doing things, again something of a village mentality.
We came here to pay respect to the ancestors and talking to auntie-grandma it was decided to do all the ceremonies the next day. We set out again for the next family, which was another son of hers, who was supposedly ill. We walked through narrow streets and finally found the house because of the direction from some boy on the street. He turned out to be one of the sons and we entered a high courtyard and house. In there were about 10 kids running around, one woman who didn't look that old. The oldest boys being 19 and 17, we tried to talk English to them, but they were very shy and obviously not used to speaking in a foreign language. Yue remembered the oldest boy from an earlier age, because the whole family was at one time or another staying over at her parents' place in Shenzhen. This is the way a family works: everybody is helped by the siblings that do best and you have a responsibility to take care of them. Yue told me that her parents were the ones who accomplished the most and consequently got parts of the family to stay over all the time. Multiply that with all the kids spouses and other relatives they have and you have one big chaotic group of people that in one way or another depend on you. Fortunately some of them did well also. For instance the niece of Yue's dad who lives across the apartment that they have. I first thought it was the neighbor he shouted at through the window, but it was, again, family. We had dinner there at night, after a stroll through the neighborhood looking for a tea ceremony for me.

---

---