Dabu County, Guangdong Province, China.

As  I mentioned earlier, the reason why we visited this place is because I am a Dabu Hakka and my father and my grandparents emigrated to Malaya in the 1920's from this place. Don't expect to see many tourists here. But the trip was interesting in other ways. First, it was interesting because when you walk into a shop, the salesgirl would speak to you in Dabu dialect. I would do the talking while my wife did the choosing. Being a small place, the things were quite cheap, and my wife bought a few things here. However, I was disappointed about the food. I was looking forward to tasting all the Dabu Hakka food but could only find a few types even though we went to the Dabu Gourmet Street.

The Soon Pan Shop

Dabu Gourmet Street

We had the Soon Pan, which consists of bamboo shoots and minced meat wrapped in yam pastry and steamed. And of course the Hakka noodles, served with minced pork. The next day , for breakfast we had Lo Chu Pan again. Unlike in Penang and Malaysia, they seem to have limited variety in their food.

Dabu Street food.

Food shops near the market

They sell Suan Pan Zhi but you have to cook it yourself. The yellow stuff is dried tofu

Yong Tau Foo and beef balls sold in the market.

The lard shop- people buy the lard for cooking. Not worried about high cholesterol!

There were lots of kueh (cakes) on the streets near the market. We bought some to try but didn't quite like the taste.

Where food is concerned, Penang is paradise.
We stayed at Jinfan Hotel. The hotel is a bit old but is clean enough for our comfort.

The location is good as it is walking distance to the gourmet street, market, shopping area. Our driver already took us on a tour of the famous places so we had the whole evening and morning to just shop and eat.
Among the places we visited is the Haw Par Villa near Dabu,

 the Dabu Cultural Village where the home of Cheong Fatt Tse is located.

Incidentally, Cheong Fatt Tse's house in Penang is the Blue Mansion near City Bayview on Leith Street. We also visited the Dabu Museum in town where we saw photos of famous Dabu Hakka people. Lee Kuan Yew is one of them.

There is also a Tai'an Lou right in the heart of town. It is similar to the tulous but is neither earthen nor round shaped. The concept of community living is the same.

The building used to house many families but now we only saw a few old folks around. The building is right next to the West Lake Park.

Our driver asked me whether I want to trace my relatives but I declined. He told me all he needed was my grandparents' names and their village and the descendants can be traced. It seems most villages kept records of the ancestors and descendants. I wonder whether they still have the records. But it didn't matter. The purpose of my visit was just to see the place. If I wanted to visit my relatives, I would have asked my aunt for their addresses or contact.

A relaxing time at a Hakka Hotspring Resort

After a tired day of walking around Hakka tulous in Yongding, it was a relaxing break at the Capital of Hakka (International) Hot Spring Resort in Xiayang. (永定客都国际温泉度假村) Address: No.58, Xianghe Road, Xiayang Town, Yongding Tel: 0597-5209999 5208888  

Surprisingly the room rates were quite cheap. One is at CNY358 and another at CNY198(RM99) no taxes here, unlike in Xiamen. Both room rates comes with breakfast and free usage of the hot-spring facilities. The resort is still quite new. The hotel rooms are spacious, modern and of course very clean because it is almost brand new. The facilities at the hot-spring pools are also good. There is a large swimming pool, a tulou-shaped steam bath and  more than 60 hot-spring pools, all outdoors and of various shapes and sizes. 

The tulou-shaped building houses a steam-bath

There are so many small hot-spring pools to choose

There is a heart shaped one but we chose a covered one instead.

You can have some privacy if you prefer not to share with others. But we needn't have worried because there were hardly any other guests besides the two of us. However, during buffet breakfast the next day, we met a group of tourists from Penang! It's a small world. 

Lo Chu Pan (or Mouse Noodles) is the usual Hakka breakfast.

Those people in the background are from a tour group from Penang

In case you are wondering why there are two room rates, let me explain. Of course I booked the cheaper room. After checking in, I soon found out why the room is cheaper. These rooms are called VIP rooms! (What a joke!) The VIP rooms are located below the building of the hot spring block. To get to the rooms, you have to walk down a flight of stairs and walk to the next block. It is actually very near but if you have heavy luggage it will be a problem using the stairs. Luckily we only had light luggage. Once you get to the room, your annoyance of having to climb down 3 floors will disappear when you see the room.

Large spacious  hotel room

 The shower area is separated from the bedroom by frosted glass so whoever is on the bed can see the other person in the shower and vice versa. Obviously these rooms are couples only. Imagine sharing the room with your boss on a business trip! haha.

The shower area is partially visible from the bed.

Bathrooms are very clean, almost new.

  Tastefully decorated and squeaky clean, there are even mirrors on the ceiling for whatever purpose you can imagine.

Mirrors on the ceiling

There is a sauna in the room but it was closed for maintenance. I think they want to save electricity.

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