Reuniting a forgotten foreign community

At the end of this evocative path stands the recently unveiled Kuliang Family Stories Museum.

Inside the museum, one of the most touching displays is the friendship between Li Yiying, a local woman, and Gail Harris, granddaughter of the American missionary Harry Caldwell. Born in 1941, the sisters' childhoods were intertwined. They spoke and played in the Fuzhou dialect, journeyed up the mountain together, and spent countless summers at the Harris family's villa in Kuliang.

A 1944 photograph freezes a moment in which the 3-year-old girls are nestled in their parents' arms.

Then, the tides of history swept them apart. It wasn't until 2017, when the two women were in their 70s, that they finally reunited in Fuzhou. They met again in June 2023.

To the surprise of everyone present, what escaped their lips was the deep-rooted Fuzhou dialect.

For Jiang, who has witnessed many such returns in recent years, this moment is a powerful testament to Kuliang's enduring pull.

Jiang still vividly recalls how Harris exclaimed "zhuan cuo!" (I'm home! in Fuzhou dialect) while Li, in turn, eagerly introduced her family to her old friend.

He felt that time seemed to flow backward when the two elderly women tightly clasped hands on their way back to Kuliang.

The story is just one heartfelt page in the volume of history presented at the Kuliang Families Stories Museum, which opened in June 2024.