home town visit

Robina and I flew down to Guangzhou last night to join my parents and sister who came over from Singapore to visit our relatives there. we landed amidst a torrential downpour (which reminded us of Singapore instead of dusty Beijing) and the humidity reinforced the similarities. we were told by our relatives that it has been pouring since last week. the sub-tropical flora with lush vegetation was also a refreshing relief from dry and grey Beijing.
Our relatives are still staying in our ancestral home Huadu District (former Hua County), from which my grandparents came from. what used to be farmland and villages during my grandparents' time is now a spanking new township (actually nicer than Beijing or Singapore!) right next to a spanking new Guangzhou International Airport. the surrounding area is part of the Global Factory of China of mostly industrial parks.our relatives: our grandaunt, 3 aunts and cousins. plus two uncles not in picture. our relatives came from my grandfather side of the family. they are my granduncle's (grandfather's younger brother) family. The relationships seems quite complicated when everything is subsumed under "uncles" and "aunties", but the chinese terminology is actually more precise. as relatives go, they are very warm and nice people and kept us very well-fed (stuffed to the gills actually) and showed us around our home town of Huadu.
traditional Southern Chinese architecture
our most illustrious (or infamous) hometown personality Hong Xiuquan (aka God's Chinese Son). He started the Taiping Rebellion which captured half of China including Nanjing and killed an estimated of 20-30 million between 1850-1864