Weihui

In August 2010 we went to Weihui, located in Henan province. The attraction was the family temple built by Xu Shichang, Hua Lin's great grandfather, who was born there.

The temple was worth the trip. Though off the beaten track, it is clean and well maintained. There were some photos which the family had not seen, and the architecture and decorations were interesting. One thing you can see below is the special seal consisting of ears of wheat awarded to Xu Shichang by Yuan Shikai, a motif which shows up in many different places and materials in the construction.

Weihui itself was also worth the trip. Visiting it was like being in a time machine back to the early 1980s. Living in Beijing it is easy to forget that most of China is not like Beijing or Shanghai, rich, modern, and cosmopolitan. In Weihui the life felt like China 20 years ago. People got together to cool off and pass their time in the parks, there were few cars and lots of bicycles, the town shut down for the noon siesta, and everyone was thin.