Background
Yap Ah Loy was born in the Guangdong Province of southern China on the 14 March 1837. His parents lived in the village of Tamsui (Chinese: 淡水鎮, Pinyin: Dànshǔi Zhèn) in the Kwai Yap district of the Fui Chiu prefecture. He was therefore by descent a Hakka of the Fui Chiu clan. Yap Ah Loy left China via Macau for Malaya in 1854. On his arrival in Malaya, he found that the place was very much different from China. The scenery, with tall coconut and betel palms, and the small Malay houses with atap (nipah thatch) roofs, was a new and fascinating experience to him.
On his arrival at Malacca, Yap Ah Loy was given shelter by one of his clansman called Yap Ket Si. He was then taken to a tin mine in Durian Tunggal, where he stayed for 4 months. At the end of that period he left for Kesang where he found work in the shop of a relative named Yap Ng. He remained there for a year before arrangements were made to send him back to China via Singapore. Misfortune befell him when he lost all his money while waiting for the junk to set sail in Singapore for China. Instead of going back to Malacca he and another of his relatives named Yap Fook traveled on foot to Lukut in Selangor.
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