Sun Kow's son from his second marriage,
when he returned China, is
Sun Gum Phun. He lives in Guangzhou, formerly known as Canton,
about a 90 minute bus ride north of the Sun village, Jo Bu Tau.
Guangzhou is the current pinyin system for writing Canton.
The Sun village is in the Namlong (Nanlong) District of Zhongshan City,
which is more like a county in the U.S. Shiqi (Sekkay) is the
main
town of Zhongshan City, like a county seat in the U.S.
Jo Bu Tau is a 20 minute walk through
the farmland to the Leong
village, Lung Yuet Tau, which is in the Nanlong (Namlong in Cantonese)
district or township. "ZuoBu" is the manderin spelling of "jo bu
tau". Jo Bu Tau means "one step, or one walking step".
The big picture. Guangdong
Province is located in southeast
China, adjacent to Hong Kong and Macau. Guangdong province is an
economic powerhouse, with many foreign enterprises investing in the
region.
Guangdong Province  |
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See map below right for
Zhongshan area; click for larger
image, or MultiMap
navigation to Zhongshan.
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As one travels south from Guangzhou,
one passes through Daliang,
Guizhou, Xiaolan, before reaching Zhongshan (Shiqi in Mandirin,
Shek-kee, Shekki, Sek-kay; also formerly known as Heungshan).
Nanlang (Namlong in Cantonese, or
Nanlong) is about 30 km east of Zhongshan. Both grandma Chong and
Eddie Chan said they originated from Shekki City, which is presently
known as Zhongshan.
The Sun family came from Jo Bu Tau, which is just north and east of Nanlang. D.H. Jow's wife came from Dung Ah, HSD 2/3 miles to the south of Sun Chung (claimed home village for Jow, Chow, Chew, etc.). In one of the Jow family testimonies, it was called Dung AR, where AR the phonetic sound to the interrogator. Both are northwest of Nanlang, on the way to Skekki. Sai Har was just to the north of Sun Chung. The nearest market was Lom Bin, about 3 miles distant; whereas, Shekki city was 10 miles distant. Lom Bin and Skekki city were trading centers, the Shekki being the larger center.
Zhangshan tour map is below right;
click for large image (164 KB).
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The Dung village is on the double line
Expressway just as it exits
the map on the upper left. The red dot is the village. San
Chung village is on the blue side of the Expressway upon leaving
Nanlang town, just as you leave Nanlang County, but not identified
on this map. San Chung means something which knows everything
(i.e. an omnipotent presence that knows all) and the Dung village which
is pronounced as Dung Jick or Gick meaning on the eastern edge, which
is true that it is on the eastern edge on Zhongshan county.
Grandpa Di Hong Jow was from Sun Chung village, his wife from Dung Ar
which is believed to be on the Nanlang County side. The next
village west of Sun Chung on the main highway is Jow Jang Sun, which is
where ancestral records of our Jow family are supposed to be.
Jenny Jow said the Jow family came from Shek-kee (Shek-kei; Shiqi), which was quite a large city and the county seat of Chung Shan. Eddie Chan described Shek-kee as a large modern city, and was the county seat of Chung Shan. In the old days, Shek-Kee was famous for its Joong, i.e. Chinese tamales. Pop. 380,000 currently. Shek-kee is the birthplace of Sun Yat Sen. No wonder there were so many Sun Yat Sen celebrations in Locke, since most of the people from Locke emigrated from his hometown. Wonder what the population of Shek-kee was in 1910?
Shek-kee is not shown on the map since the name has changed from Shek-kee to Chung-shan to where it appears now as Zhongshan . About 20 miles north-northwest of Macao city, according to the Natl Geographics China map. See the map of the Pearl River area
To locate the Jow family village, look
for Zhongshan, about 20 miles
north-northwest of Macau. One Shee's village Dung-Ah is
next
door to Di Hong Jow's village Sun-Chung, which were near
Zhongshan. Dung-Ar means "y-shape branch"
Received the village map from Bill Tom today. It is in Chinese, but with San Chung village identified. I had the village next to it translated by a teacher at the school, and it is the Dung village of Grandma Jow. I will get her to see if she can locate the burial mountains and the Jow ancestral hall. The Dung village (Grandma Jow's) is located within Nanlang town. The Dung village is on the double-line Expressway just as it exits the map on the upper left. The red dot is the village. San Chung village is on the blue side of the Expressway, but not identified on this map. So far no luck at locating Jow ancestral hall or the For Sue Hong mountain burial site.
The Sun Chung village is directly east
of Zhongshan. Sun
Chung means "spring water, spirit".
There is a 227 km mountain to the northeast and a 280 km mountain to
the
southwest. Maybe these are the ones where the ancestors are
buried.
Distances in testimonies are given are in 'li' which is 1/3 mile or .52
km, 30 li = 10 miles (approx)
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 Zhongshan to Hong Kong Ferry |
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Reference
for map below.
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 1878 Map |
See http://www.fallingrain.com/world/CH
for China maps of Guangdong
sheng
___________________
From: William K Tom
Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001
To: ron.chong
Ron:
The original name of our forefather's district was Heong-San which is
related to Heong-Kong (Hong Kong). It meant "Fragrant Mountain",
the city being "Fragrant Harbor". The County is named Joong-San
(Central Mountain), with "Shek-Kee" as the County seat. Dr. Sun
Yet-sen was born in "Chiu-Heng" village in the Heong-San
District.
His dialect name was "Seen Mun" at birth, but most Chinese men adopted
a scholarly name when they grew up. He became Dr. Sun Yet-Sen
when he became a doctor. When he became famous as a rebel, he was
renamed "Seen Joong-San" in honor of his area of birth. Then
"Heong-San" was renamed "Joong-San" in his honor.
Dr. Sun Yet-Sen was born not far from my father's village. He spoke an identical Cantonese dialect that I speak, also what you grandfather spoke, which is the "Joong-Shan" dialect.
... but Zhong-shan or Chung-Shan claims Dr Sun as their son. How far away was his village from the county seat? The only relative who knew about Shekkei was Jack Jowe's wife, but she passed away suddenly in 1999.
Probably in honor of Seen Joong-San, the city of Shek-Kee's was renamed Joong-San City, now Zhong-Shan (Mandarin dialect). Joong-San City has expanded so much that it overran my mother's village of Jeong Ka-Bin, which became a suburb of Joong-San City.
I am sure the above is more than what you ever wanted to know. It was what I was told when I was in Chinese school as a youngster, and I finally found a use for that knowledge. It made sense to me, but I could not justify its accuracy. I went to the same Chinese school with your Uncle Ed Jow. I was a few years older. I served in Europe with the 17th Airborne. Ed was in the 11th Airborne which fought in the Pacifric, but I think the war ended before Ed was ready.
I have a map of the Joong-San district where our folks came from. If you would send me your address, I could enlighten you a bit more as to where your great grandfather came from and how you could be related to me. The villagers always married girls from the surrounding villages. Your family village of "Sun-Chung" is not more than five miles from my "Koon-Fa" village, Cousin Ron.
My wife, son, and I went back to the village in 1998. We allocated only 5 hours for our visit because we did not want to be stranded for the night in the village. People that I knew who co-existed with the natives came back deathly ill. Americans do not have the immunity that was built up from birth by the natives. We timed our exit according to the ferry boat schedule. We made certain that we did not schedule our departure according to the last boat of the day. Chinese people are not fond of keeping a strict schedule. We left on the next to the last boat. The ferry boat left 20 minutes too early. We would have been up the creek had that boat been the last one for the day. We had contacted one of our village cousins that we were coming. We have never met, so she made a sign with my name on it. We contracted a mini-van to take us around. I truly felt sad to learn that my parents had to live so primitively when they were living there, but I was so thankful that they came to America.
I knew your maternal grandfather (Di Hong Jow) by name of Jow IL-Choy or Jow You-Choy. I knew your mother, Annie (Chong), who was much older and was already married when I started noticing girls. I never met your father, but I have heard of him. Your grandma (One Shee) and my mother were good friends.
The Joong-San map is on the way...
Bill Tom
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Zhongshan or Shekki,
town (1994 est. pop. 341,200), S Guangdong prov., SE China, near Macao.
It is situated on Zhongshan island (sometimes called Macao island), and
has sugar refineries. Sun Yat-sen was born there. The name sometimes
appears as Chung-shan. Zhongshan County pictures from GeoImages Project: Road
from Macao to Shiqi City Shiqi
town coal wagon Farmers
rural thatched hut in Zhongshan County Large Nanjing map 747KB Hong Kong to
Zhongshan Ferry Places near Shekki
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