23 May 2024 - RuiAn Day 5: YuHaiLou (玉海楼)

Ruian (瑞安) is a county-level city within Wenzhou (温州) prefecture in Zhejiang (浙江) province.  It's not a popular city for tourism but it is brimming with history and cultural intrigue.  Our cousins brought us to a beautiful historical building in Zhejiang Province, with over 100 years of history, called Yu Hai Lou or Jade Sea Tower (玉海楼)!

Built in the Qing Dynasty (光绪年间) around 1888 by Sun Yiyan and Sun Yiran, it is considered one of the four famous collections in Zhejiang Province.

With the admission, we were allowed to explore the front hall, backyard, library, and courtyards. The name Yu Hai Lou itself holds historical significance. The Sun family, deeply inspired by the scholarly work titled "Jade Sea" by Wang Yinglin, a prominent figure from the Southern Song Dynasty, christened their masterpiece with this evocative title.

In terms of architecture, it integrates the design of a library, a southern Zhejiang residential building, and a private garden. It faces south and is surrounded by water on three sides.

Yu Hai Lou stands as a beacon of cultural heritage in Ruian.  Any visitor to RuiAn should visit Yu Hai Lou as it would be a great way to experience Chinese history and architecture!

Back to Itin        Next

23 Mar 2024 - RuiAn Day 5: Another Sumptuous Lunch

After visiting our "Old House" (老家), our cousins drove us to a restaurant for lunch.  The moment we entered the private dining room, we saw how elaborate the decoration was and once again, we thought the appetizers were the main dishes.

Following was some of the appetizers.

Then came the main dishes.

There was an area on the first floor of the building where we saw quite a number of huge tanks full of live sea creatures such as lobsters, crabs, prawns, shellfish etc.

Back to Itin        Next

23 May 2024 - RuiAn Day 5: Finding our roots (寻根) in RuiAn (瑞安)

The key reason why our whole family came to RuiAn (瑞安) was to "find roots (寻根)".  We hope to be able to trace our ancestry back to our earliest known relatives.  It's about understanding where our family originated from.  So after our breakfast at the hotel, our cousins once again came and picked us up.  They drove us to where our old house (老家) was located.

Our grandfather used to stay in a village where his house was facing the below river.  He later left China and came to Malaysia/Singapore to live and work.  His brothers and family continued to stay in China.  That's why we have cousins both in China and Malaysia.  Those old houses were no longer there and the whole place has been urbanized.

Taking a group photo with our cousins in China.

We then visited some older buildings in the area.  A bit like in Malaysia.  :-)

Our cousins own a few properties here and they brought us to one of them.

They are also the owner of a shop space (below) which they rent out to a locally popular brand, Li-Ning Sportswear.

Back to Itin        Next

22 Mar 2024 - RuiAn Day 4: What a Sumptuous Dinner!

At 5:30pm, we met up with our cousins who brought us to a restaurant next to the hotel.  The big round dining table was already nicely setup when we arrived at the private room.

Note that the following dishes were just appetizers.  They looked good and taste good, so much so that initially we thought these were the main dishes.  We ate so much that we were half full even before the main dishes were served.

And now, below were some highlights of the main dishes

This was the most sumptuous meal that I ever had so far.  However, it seems pretty common for the locals.

We had a group photo after the dinner.  Nice shot, everyone!

We went back to the shopping mall next door to explore further before returning to our room and rest for the day.

Back to Itin        Next