The coastal towns of Huilai and Shantou are a few hours south by bus from Xiamen, but years behind in development. Western visitors are few and far between here, and attract much pointing and inquisitive, fascinated stares from the locals. Neither town has any tourist attractions of note but we had a particular reason to visit Huilai. In the mid 1800s many tens of thousands of Chinese people emigrated from southern China to South East Asia, Australia or the Americas. One of them was Lee Tuan’s great grandfather who moved to Penang, Malaysia. Little is known of the event or whether he travelled alone. All we know is that he hailed from Huilai in Guangdong province, so we decided to go there for a look. We found the town on a map and caught a bus there from Xiamen, with an overnight stop on the way in the larger city of Shantou.Both places have modern town centres, but a walk just a few blocks back turns the clock decades back. Modern town centres anywhere are just variations on a theme, so we struck out to see the older parts of Huilai. There are no car taxis here, just three-wheeled motor trikes whose drivers charge 5 Yuan for a ride anywhere in town. Although old and decaying in parts, the tree-lined winding streets and alleys were pleasant to walk along. We wandered around some very old, small cottages outside of which happy children were playing, and stopped briefly to discreetly watch and listen to a musical Teo Chew funeral procession underway outside a house.
Late in the morning on our second day here we caught a motor trike to the modern Huilai Hotel opposite the bus station in the town centre where we had roast goose with pickled mustard, and whole steamed sea mullet for lunch. Then it was time to collect our bags and board a bus to continue our journey down the Guangdong coast.
