4. First Time in Taiping

Alighting at the Taiping railway station, the group of Chan clan members made their way straight to the clan's Qing Yuan Association located on Market Road which was about a 30-minute walk from the railway station. The provincial North Perak Guangdong Association was a short distance away and situated along Temple Road.

These clan associations were the first places immigrants would go to as they provide assistance to new arrivals to settle down and find a job.

This early part of our family history is vague. Did they stayed together as a group or did they dispersed to seek their own fortunes? When did Pak Lam and Say San went back to China? When did Thin Yang a.k.a. Kee Ray settled down in Kamunting and started his family there? The only event our father Chung Chow could recalled was that, when he was a little boy, they had stayed in one of the houses along Market Road near the Qing Yuan Association.

A year after their arrival in Taiping, our father Chung Chow a.k.a Chung Keng Chow was born on Wednesday, September 22, 1915 which correspond to the Chinese 8th lunar month, 14th day, Year of the Rabbit. When the Japanese occupied Malaya in 1942, his year of his birth was deliberately changed to 1914 so as to add an extra year to his age (to avoid conscription into the Japanese Army). His full name shortened to two words, Chung Chow, omitting the middle name Keng.