My partner and I were in China as part of a holiday which included visiting China. One of the things on my bucket list was to visit my family's old village in Guangdong Province, China. My great grandparents emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1900s, when my paternal grandfather (my mum's dad) was 4 years old. He and his brothers still own the original family house in the little rural village in Guangdong Province. Our mission was to find an English-speaking guide (although I'm Chinese, I can't speak Chinese) and private car with driver, which brought us to Cherry. We booked Cherry and her driver at the last minute (a day or two before I think) - she seemed personable and likeable through her communication. Compared to other guides we had contacted, she wasn't all about business, she actually made an effort to be friendly and made banter during our communication, which we really liked - it meant that our day trip with her would be enjoyable too!
We had limited information which gave us most of the address of the house, but not the exact address of the house. However, even with such limited information, Cherry and her driver (Mr Leung I think?) were brilliant and, with the help of a number of local people, managed to find the exact house! I was ecstatic!
From Guangzhou, we drove to the town (about two hours drive away) and a guy on the street had a chat with our driver and guide for a while, then he took us to the community office, then the community office guy took us to a woodcarving shop and spoke with the woodcarver and they tried to figure out where the house was for ages. They couldn't figure it out BUT it turned out that the woodcarver is one of my distant relatives!
Next, we followed the community office guy to the local government office, but on the way, he picked up the local government office guy and took us to the local government office which was closed because it was a Sunday. But the local government office guy opened the local government office building for us (only in a small town - that would never happen in the city!) He looked up the address details on the computer and found the right address (because they couldn't read the copy that I had, which is what was puzzling everyone), then we went to the village! It's still just a block of original little old houses :)
Once we got to the village we met the village manager and we found the house! Throughout the whole day, Cherry and Mr Leung were absolutely brilliant - they did all the talking and discussing with the local people to help us find the Wong family house. As a thank you, we shouted everyone (including the locals who helped us) lunch at a local restaurant and ate some super yummy local dishes.
Finding the Wong family village was definitely the highlight of my trip to China - even better than visiting the Great Wall of China and the Army of Terracotta Warriors. We couldn't have done this without Cherry and Mr Leung - they were absolutely brilliant and such lovely people. Cherry is so nice and Mr Leung, although he can't speak English, was a great person to spend the day with also. They both made our day so enjoyable and we think they really enjoyed talking to all the people in the village to find the house too!
Thank you Cherry and Mr Leung for the best private tour guide service we could have asked for! We will definitely recommend you to any of our friends or family if they plan to visit Guangzhou :)
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