'Panama Villages' witness booming bilateral ties

GUANGZHOU -- The two-story Western-style buildings along a country road give Rulin village in South China's Guangdong province an exotic taste.

Its nickname, "Panama Village," exemplifies the ties between it and the Latin American country oceans away.

Rulin, along with several other villages in Huadu District of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, has been the major source of Chinese laborers sent to Panama to work on railroad and canal construction projects since the mid-1850s.

Today, around 7 percent of Panama's population of 4.3 million has Chinese ancestry, and many can trace their origin to villages in southern China.

With diplomatic ties between China and Panama established in June 2017, and a free trade agreement (FTA) currently under negotiation, exchanges are continuing to grow between Chinese Panamanians and their ancestral homes.

"Ask anyone here, it's almost certain they'll tell you they have relatives in Panama," said Liao Yundong, former head of Rulin village, "Both my daughters went to Panama after graduating high school and have settled down there."

Enrique Lau Cortes, whose father arrived in Panama more than a century ago when the Panama Canal started operation, set foot on his ancestral home in Huadu District in September for the first time.

"The Chinese cultural values taught by my father and the Panamanian characteristics inherited from my mother both run in my blood," said Cortes, who is president of the International Affairs Research Association of Panama.

"Traditions are never lost, and cultural connections bring us closer together," said Cortes during a tour of his ancestral temple in the district.

Some Chinese couples in Panama choose to send their children back to study in their home villages.