felly.china.pan

Day 42

2008-10-13T21:31:00.007+08:00

Day 42-6th Oct 08

It's the day that we will return home back to Singapore. Through this wonderful 42 days immersion trip, I have really truly enjoy and learnt alot!

Some things that I feel were really great is that some of the people were really friendly and earnest in making us feel comfortable. It is really heart-warming:) Even though there were many great people, there were still some con mans which infuriate me. Some taxi drivers purposely took a long detour cheating us of our taxi fare. =_=. Singapore once had this too but it has been made against the law to cheat passengers of their fare. Good to Singapore and I hope that China will impose the law to this as well.

One thing which I hope Singapore could learn from China is that, they are less selfish in the sense that on the bus, they will go all the way to the back to stand rather than blocking the passage way to walk up. I need to learn this too as sometimes I can be quite selfish=X.

If China's air would clear of the heavy pollution, I believe it would be 10 times more attractive to tourists. It would be a great place to tour around as you get to see the many marverlous places, rivers and sceneries!

It will be a really bonus if China could ban spitting and even ban littering!!! For starters, they could have more dustbins rather than dumping ground which stinks and is unhygenic! I believe China is improving rapidly in its economy and I hope that it will become more and more civilised.

It would not be very nice to see a pretty lady, all dressed up and spitting with an awful sound right?

I like china alot! The wonderful delicacy, lovely sceneries everywhere, great warm people and the prices of goods! HAH. I will miss China alot though probably I will not be returning to Wuhan again.

It is the end of my 42 days journey in Wuhan and I greatly recommend more students from NP to take up this exciting, fun and learning experience! It is like nothing you have ever experienced okay! Wuhanhuanyingni!!

Day 41

2008-10-13T21:31:00.006+08:00

We had the closing ceremony in the afternoons. Once again, it was quite a formal event. We were all presented with certificates of participation:) After the ceremony, there was a photo taking session at the library entrance. Aww...

We rushed off the the Mac behind our school after the event ended just to walk the area once more. :(

Day 40

2008-10-13T21:30:00.006+08:00

Counting down... we left 2 more days:(

Time passed so quickly eh. We have made great friends and adapted to the life in Wuhan. We were familiar with the routes to Carrefour and once again, today, we will be going to step in there. It felt like just ytd that we were there on our 1st grocery trip. Sigghhh...

We ate ate ate and walk walk walk.....................

Day 39

2008-10-13T21:25:00.003+08:00

Day 39- 3rd October 2008

Today, there was a tour agency catered for us for a day trip. In total, we visited 4 areas. A Buddhist temple, Jiang tan, the zoo and a place which was very random. Actually it was weird because for that particular place, the tourguide just told us to go down for 15 mins to take the exterior of the place which we could not enter=_=?

The zoo was pathetic!!! Poor animals locked in the tiny cage with little space to roam. They all look so sickly and sad. The people were truly bad. They threw food at the animals and in the course of it, I believe they hurt them. Sigh…. It is no wonder singapore’s zoo could flourish. Anyway, plenty of the cages were empty as we walked and they looked deserted. There was no zoo keeper in sight throughout the entire walk in the zoo. I suspect that the animals which were once in the deserted cage have already all die. The serious lack of the zookeeper makes the cages look filthy and the animals sickly. Sigh.. Poor things!

Compare the 2 pics

Let me tell you. The top picture is a fake 1, it is off the wall. It is a far cry compared to this poor panda at the bottom picture. It seems as though it wants to get out of its cage. Poor Panda

Look at the bears. soo sad. See that poor bear drinking off the polluted waters. Thats all the rubbish in the enclosure without any zoo keeper intervening. sighh.

Day 38

2008-10-13T21:23:00.001+08:00

Day 38- 2nd oct 2008

It’s a fine day today! No rain yet the weather is not so hot.:) Just nice! Anyway, 2day, we went out with Shi Ding Le on a field trip excursion. We met her at our hostel’s gate at 8.30am. I went out without having breakfast and was grumbling all the way. HA! She brought us to see the huang he lo which was at the top of the snake mountain(she shan). Actually, it can only be considered as a hill. It is even smaller than bukit timah’s mountain. In Shi Ding Le’s lesson, she once mentioned about the snake and tortoise mountain story. It is called the snake mountain as the pathway uphill is long and narrow. What a morning walk!

We went to the 1911 revolution red house. Cool. Do you know that the 1911 revolution was sparked from WUHAN-wuchang(the place I reside in for this entire trip). Cool eh… There were so many stuffs which the red house tour guide said and I cannot really remember.

We went to the Taoist temple too. I have seen enough of the temples at wudang but I wondered why the status at wudang were not as big as the one I saw today. Some 1 replied to my question and said that it was because wudang mountain’s status were of the past. Hmmm…

After that, we went to the mei shi jie for lunch! The air had bad ventilation in the large enclosed area and I was gasping for clean air. Poor indoor air quality (tsk, tsk, tsk!!! – haha, what to do… I learnt before ma…). The place was fully packed with people squeezing everywhere. All kind of well-known food from tang paos, popiah, wanton, beggar chicken, zhu chang fen, seafood(lala, scallop..), dou pi(beancurd skin?)… can be found there. People tend to just throw their rubbish on the ground and the amount of rubbish collected by the sweeper was amazing! HAH!

Day 37

2008-10-13T21:08:00.005+08:00

Day 37-1st oct 08

HAPPY CHINESE NATIONAL DAY!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUN WEI-DEY!

Today is the official start of the 1 week holiday for the Chinese people as it is their national day. Many students from our school has already left the hostel for home during this long break. Our Chinese friend, Shao lin left even earlier, Saturday afternoon! Me, Dina and Mak decided to meet up with Ya Ping for a photo-taking session at Carrefour. It was a different experience compared to Sg though.
Ate lunch which was treated by Ya Ping. We told her that we will be treating her the next time as she insisted on treating us this time. :) I will miss my Chinese friends. It may be the last time that I will step into wu han ever again. Treasure this moments.

Day 34-36 28-30th Sept 2008

2008-10-09T14:22:00.020+08:00

Day 34-36 28-30th Sept 2008

WUDANG SHAN

Day 34

Pre-trip morning

In the mornings, we went to have breakfast with our Chinese friends from China at 7.30am as their lessons(taking note that it is a Sunday) at 8am! Wah! Even though our trip meeting time was to be at 10am, we wanted to take this few rare opportunities left to meet thus we woke up a little earlier to have breakfast from 7.30-8am.

We went to their canteen to eat. It is only the 2nd time that I have ever been to their canteen for meals. Their breakfast served are as I have heard, quite standard. Everyday it is the same. They use a system like the ezlink card for payment to save time. I did not have the card so Ya Ping paid for me.

Xiao Yan Zi chatting away with Mak

LOOK at the Crowd in the canteen!

We went back to prepare to set off to WUDANG. I brought minimum clothes and stuffs despite hearing that it would be cold up there=X

OFF TO WUDANG!

We set off at 10am and I slept throughout the ride until the point where we were about to reach the pit stop. The scenery was nice, it was of huge lands with many many acres of farms, rivers and ponds. It goes to show that Agriculture is quite a huge part of the economy in China.

We finally reached the Wudang’s ban shan yao at 4pm+!

After checking into the cool motel( we were quite shocked at the accomodation. For starters, we felt it was quite unsafe as the rooms had lousy window grills and it was worse as a few of us stayed on the ground floor.) It is my 1st time sleeping at a motel. Woa...
The pic by the left is where me, dina, maurice, ivy and Mr Low resides nearby! Our motel room is just beside this dirt track! So dangerous....

After placing down our stuffs which and taking our valuables, we went to explore around the area. There were loads of street hawkers and nice food.
The above pictures show the street hawkers at work!

At the left, you can see me practicising my QINGGONG. See how I can balance on the roof soo well while striking a pose at the camera:) COOL right! HA! Nah.. Just joking, the roof is actually at the level of the pathway! HA!

One interesting thing happened, the gate to our motel could not be opened after shutting it!
WHAT! The door was stuck!

For the rest of the night, it was super cold! Imagine the room to be soo cold even without the air condition! Too cold to bath and so I din't! HAHA! I wore jeans to slp dint bath.

Day 35- To Wudang's peak!
External outlook of Wudang Shan at the ban shan yao.

Wudang Shan- the land of Taoism

Look at the beautiful clouds. It is freezing okay! HA

They call the buses huan bao ce, environmental friendly buses. Why?

ARHHH! I HATE THE CABLE CAR RIDE. Not only do we have to pay 95rmb, I am also scared of heights:( Was not prepared for this!

See the red streamers from the tree? Those are wishes from the many superstitious people who have believed that the tree is magical. It is like a wishing tree.

Set off 7am to the peak, tour guide said it would be a 1min walk ended up walking for bout 10-15mins
The weather was freezing! We decided to take the cable car up!:(
I’m scared of heights! Have to pay money-50rmb up- We weren’t informed before that.
We went up to the peak of wudang and we were promised to be brought to see the wudang sect but it wasn’t fulfilled.

The peak was seriously painfully cold. Bought tea eggs to warm up.

Ronald hans and wei heng did a divination- bad luck, normal and good luck
Really tempted to try.
Took the photo of the Taoist priest. I was told b4 that we should not take photos of the priests as they believe that their health or years of cultivation to become immortals will be sucked into the camera or smth like that.
Opps I forgot=X

The weather was really great even though it was biting cold at the peak. It did not rain like it did the previous days.

There were great scenic view everywhere. The winding roads and dangerous curves of the road paved along the mountain side made the environmental bus rides scary!!! The lanes are narrow and it is hard to see the other side of the curve when you are turning. I feel that we are fortunate to not have met up with any accidents. 3 huge dangers. 1. There is a open drain at the inner side of the road and the bus may fall in when turning. 2. The outer side of the roads is the cliff and if the bus happens to swerve, we may all say hello to the 1way roller coaster ride to hell. Lastly, if the bus in the opp direction happens to not stop in time and both buses collide(highly likely), it may go down in the above 2 cases.

The food were considerably expensive! At least 20rmb per meal.

I tried Wudang’s tea. There was a lady pouring the tea for us:) It was refreshing and I witness the basics of tea pouring and learnt a little of tea tasting.:) The aftertaste leaves a sweet feeling. Xian ku hou tian. :)
Dina took a video of the tea pouring session. See below:)

We slept at a better hotel! 3stars worth according to china tourism plague on the wall.
Din’t bath. Even colder!! The hot water actually has a time frame from 7.30pm-9pm. Sigh. It seems as though it makes no difference.
The tourguide was wonderful!

Day 36- 30th sept 08
We decided to return back to our hostel as early as possible. 8am we gathered and headed home. Reached at 4pm. In between we slept on the bus which was quite small. Missed the food nearby the hostel. Cheap and good.:)
Rested in the hostel the rest of the day! Took a nice warm bath!!!

Day 33- Sat 27th sept 2008

2008-09-28T01:20:00.002+08:00

Day 33- Sat 27th sept 2008

Weee… Today was really relaxing. All the tests and lessons are over but we are still learning in an amazing way. Immersing in the culture way :). The weather has already turned cool and I have decided to wear my only pair of jeans wherever from this day forth. HA! Bo bian lei… I have altered my other pair of jeans to become shorts=X. Din’t anticipate the change in weather all of a sudden.

My day started from me lazily waking up at 12noon feeling soooo energetic. My first time in Wuhan that I slept soo long! Anyway, the actual day only begun at 5pm where I finally got to eat my lunch! WHAT! Dey-Jun Wei, cook of the day, cooked creamy pasta for all of us today! Greatly appreciate it and I wished there were more of this cooking from him. Haha. Thanks Man! (we all paid for the ingredients, no free lunch in the world okay!)

The 2 chinese girls(xiao yan zi, Ya ping), whom me, dina and mak got more close too during the discussion day were invited as guest to our mini party. Following them came Shao Lin( whose name was given by his brother who was six at the time!- Like SMART!, btw, he do not know how any martial arts. HA!) and a few other girls. The atmosphere was really great. We spoke and one of them said that my Chinese was quite good, my accent was similar to theirs. WAHA! See, in china, speaking Chinese is not enough, you have to learn their accent too. (Apparently, their accent varies from different parts of China due to their dialect ba.) It was an enjoyable group chatter:)

After awhile, we all went down to play some “yan huo”, the sticks burn out very quickly and we switched to playing the “bomb cracker”(When you light the stick, you have to throw it further away and after 3 secs, it will explode and create a loud BOOM.) It was really fun but the sound was really very loud and I was always startled by it. I tried lighting one and it was both scary but exciting. Travis was super playful; he lighted one and threw at the ground, in the middle of our crowd of ppl. Everyone ran like startled chickens! HAHA!

We then went out to the “Wu hui” (Dance meet?). Wah! It’s awesome! It is at the big courtyard where there were a lot of ppl gathering around an area (a stage?) where there were some dancing performances. All the dances were spontaneous and it was like a clubbing area except that it was in the open and the main dancer was on the so-called mini stage. The rest of the people down stage was quite high and they jumped up and down:) The dancers danced very freely and there was blinking man-held spot lights on them. HA:) I have only seen this on TV though.

After the performances, the DJ, changed the mood of the atmosphere. He played ballroom dancing songs and slowly, couples went up to dance. Wah! In Sg, ppl always act shy when it comes to such slow song dancing. Sigh… Its kinda romantic and I kinda like this kind of dancing.

After that song, he played line dancing songs where individuals followed a set of dance steps. (It is similar to what I learnt in secondary, where ours are folk dance songs which is a must to learn for the folkdance night-LOADS OF FUN). Imagine they have this every thurs and sat during school term. Sooo fun. It is also because they can’t travel out far and they have curfews to be back by 10.30pm in the hostel. They spend their time with friends only. I tried my best to learn the dance steps but failed quite badly. HAHA! It was really really fun and when we parted our ways as it was nearing 10.30pm, I had a moment that I felt like crying. What! Felt quite “bu she de”. The fun had to end. All fun have to end.

Day 32- Fri- 26th sept 2008

2008-09-28T01:19:00.007+08:00

Day 32- Fri- 26th sept 2008

SPORTS MEET+ HANKOU TRIP

In the morning at around 8.30am, we gathered to go down to the track field where the guys were supposed to be participating in the sports meet. I wore shorts and had on a jacket. It was super cold! Man, our supposed timing for even the earliest run was at 10plus but we went down to have a look. Travis was our 1st runner:) Our runners included: Travis, Maurice(grew fat here le!, dunno can run ma. Hah!), Mak and Hans.

At around 9am+, Frederick finally persuaded Dina to see the doc. Her ankle had been twisted real badly and it was swollen=_=. Ouch! I accompanied her to the medical centre where she paid for the medical fees 1st. She went through 2 rooms, one for just to look at the prob and the 2nd one where she was treated by a Chinese Sensei.:) woa! I took photos of her squirming. She screamed a lot. LOL! =X. The room was quite packed with Chinese basketball girl players who represented WIT. LOL! All with different injuries to be treated!(hand sprained & leg twisted) Their girls basketball team is like fierce man! The Chinese doc was named “hua tuo”(a well known legendary Chinese doc) on a award hanged on the wall. Tsk tsk tsk. Pro female doc!
Her sprain was treated with 4 needles and a suction cup. She enjoyed the suction cup part but totally went crazy with the 4 needles. HA! It seemed loads better after the treatment and she was told to come again 2mrw.

Diagnosis in process

Travis ran during the time when I accompanied dina to see the doc. He did well clinching 2nd placing in the heats. Apparently, there were no finals for the run and they clock the placing by the timings of all the runners.

kua kua kua.... see the flags all up already? It is the closing ceremony...=_=

A screw up was made as we were told to head down for the final relay run at 12.30pm. The entire sports meet had ended when we reached the track. What?! Like how come we weren’t informed. We were quite disappointed and Mak was worried for nothing. HA!

Went for a final trip down to HanKou!

Everywhere the stuffs has already changed season. Especially clothes. Oh man. Intended on doing some shopping but in the end, it was just looking through the many coats.
We tasted the renowned Si Zi Mei Tang Bao:) I really loveee tang baos! The juice just squirts out as u take a bite. Waa… Sigh, I’m gonna miss the tang baos!!!

The trip back to the hostel was a long journey. Heavy jam again and it will probably be the last time that I will experience the jam from Han Kou back to Wu Chang ba. I will miss Han Kou too.

Day 31

2008-09-28T01:18:00.001+08:00

Day 31-Thursday, 25th Sept 2008 (Exactly 1 month in china!)
Weather: Chilly!

Oh no! It’s the day of our final test for International Business. I really have to do well for this as my SUDD paper really sucked. Just hope that I will at least get a B. Today we have gotten a tight schedule. Early in the mornings about 8.30am, we gathered to watch the military training of the freshies in WIT. They have trained for 15days and today is where they display the fruits of their training. It was quite spectacular except that they were a bit “nua”(jellyish). Ha!
Most of us had our study notes for the test at 10am with us while watching the military marching. HAHA!

After the test (what a relief!), we(me and dina), walked to the back of our school where the Tang Bao laid as Dina has sprained her ankle(long story) and would prefer walking less. I craved for tang bao for a few days already and I’m sure I am gonna miss it when I’m back in Sg. Sigh.. Quite loving the freedom in China and with the many friends I made, it is all made up of FUN.

We had 2hrs break before our final lesson of this entire Immersion program. Oh! How I will miss climbing up the 7 storey to school every day. (nah, maybe not! HA!). On our way back to our classroom building, we decided to take some photos for remembrance sake. Only after dina said that it struck me that it would be our last time walking the path to school! WAH. Time passes so quickly eh.

Lessons were on the history of China(yawn)… and it was finally time to go Carrefour:). We met up the 2 chinese girls from ytd’s discussion meeting (they got along very well with us, the guy could not make it as he had matches) for dinner and treated them. They treated us ytd and we felt bad about it. They weather has really turned chilly and I’m enjoying the entire cooling feeling, it gives me the romantic feeling. Anyway, we changed our plans from going to “HU QUAN” to staying at the Carrefour area as the 2 girls had curfews of having to be back at 10.30pm and it was already quite late when we were done with dinner.

Day 30

2008-09-28T01:17:00.001+08:00

Day 30- Wed, 24th Sept 2008

Today, we had an early day. Not studying but it was supposedly a discussion regarding building and environment btw the Chinese students and us. Oh dear, that sounded already so awful. I was thinking that if we were allowed to speak in English, which would have been an easier task than to try and translate the terms in Chinese and think of things that should be said.

As we walked to their built environment building, I dreaded and hoped that it would be over soon as it was an arduous task. When we entered the classroom, it was awkward. They clapped for us and sat at a row at the back of the “meeting table”. It was like a conference meeting. Die. The tone of it was so serious and brave dina did the most speaking on behalf of our NP group. Ha! They were surprised with our “good” Chinese but there was 1 Chinese female student whom I felt was very condescending towards us, Singaporeans. Probably she was curious but she spoke in a rude manner? She gave comments that made me feel that we are a rude bunch of people who do not have any manners. Thanks ar.=_=. Towards her, we remained quite polite and the teacher from them explained clearly that we are not like what she thought. Anyway, I believe there was some sort of language barrier which still existed as our Chinese were not as fluent and if we were able to communicate with them in English, there will not be such misunderstandings and we could fend for ourselves better.

One of them asked a dumb question, “Is the Chang e(mid-autumn folk legend character) of Singapore’s legend a male or female?” – Supposedly, in this story, the maiden (chang e) after eating some elixir, she flew to the sky and away from a man. Like duh, how can the chang e be a man. =_=.

We finally ended up having our own chatter groups which has a good mix of both the Chinese students and us. My group has 2 girls and a guy who stays at Hei Long Jiang (he says the journey back home takes 30 hrs by train=_=). Poor thing. Anyway, it was such a waste that we had not met with them earlier as they knew the place better. We ate together for lunch and visited each other’s hostels. It was a far cry comparing our hostels and theirs. WAH! We are fortunate man!

Day 26

2008-09-23T19:01:00.006+08:00

Day 26- 19th Sept 2008, Friday

Yay! We are finally free from exams. Today, we decided to go Si Men Kou as recommended by Shi Ding Le. She said the place was renowned for having the tailor street and the big chinese medical centre where all kinds of herbs can be found there. I am bent on buying the Pearl Powder which you can't find it in Sg. I have always heard about the effects of Pearl powder and I will like to try it:)

When we first reached, the place looked awfully familiar to Dina. After walking a little, we realised it was near Hu Bu Xiang. A place that we went before already! It was just given a different name. Chay.... Anyway, we walked a little and the group of them went for the "Haunted house". It is something similar to the one at KL where they have people scaring you as you walked through. (They do all sorts of things like touching u on the shoulder, grabbing ur foot and stuff). Me and Dina met them late and it was a good thing. Phew~! Kai Xin came out earlier then them and she cried. I guess it was really scary. It scared us too, I mean scared us from wanting to have a go. HA!

Jia Min, Chai Kee, Yvonne and Rebecca was conned!
They went into a so-called FREE facial treatment. It was not free after all. They paid a small price for it as it was not that expensive.

After that, we headed for HU BU XIANG- FOODIES HEAVEN!
Lots of tantalising gourmet. wahhh. I want to try all except the seafood. HA! Me and dina tried the wanton which was filled to the brim of the bowl with miny wanton. It was small yet was tasty! We even tried the Black Smelly beancurd. It looked gross seriously but it tasted the same as the white ones. Some other food I tried included Dou Pi, chewy fried tang yuan, their zhu chang fen etc. Aww.. I like the place:)

DOU PI- one of wuhan's specialty(fried nou mi fan)

Day 25

2008-09-23T18:07:00.003+08:00

Day 25- Thurs 18th Sept 2008

Lessons as usual today with Frederick:) WAH! Nothing much regarding it except that test is coming real soon! As in, its on Monday and thurs!

After lessons, we headed down to Hu Quan which Shi Ding Le said that it was an interesting place to go:) Maurice and Ivy went there b4 and they said that there were lots of things to see and it was a double confirmation so it got me excited. (especially that it was nearby and we havent got to explore it) :)

Upon reaching the place which i imagined to be crowded with lots of stalls on either side of the road like a pasar malam, I was wrong. None of this at all. We were all in a shock and thought that we were brought to the wrong place. Dina even wanted to call and scold Maurice already. HA! Kaixin and Ameris wanted to leave the area and was waiting for a cab when I spotted an alley! WAH! Luckily, me and dina went in to check it out. It was this huge Pasar Malam! weeee...

It got crowded nearing the evenings and on the outsides of the "pasar malam", there was this mini 'pasar malam'. HA! People placed mats on the ground and place their goods on the mat to sell.

Buy of the day: Chinese engraved stamps! (128Rmb for 4)- even though i was some what cheated by the uncle who told me that the stamps were at 7rmb. I happily took 3 initially, thinking that I would make for my family, bf and all but... in the end, for each word carved, its 7rmb per word! Thanks ar uncle. Nv mentioned a single word about it till the end where the amount was shocking. I forgive that uncle though, his engraving skills were gd and its still worth the value. :)

Oh man... I spent another 500rmb=_=. Sigh. I'm left with 1000rmb and I hope it will last.(it will definitely last if I dont do any shopping)

For our dinner, we went to one of the roadside stalls which had noodles and soup.:) Lovely Zha Jiang Mian. :) Best so far. See dina with her hat, it was a nice one which was bought from the large Pasar Malam:)- try getting such a hat at Sg, it will cost a bomb!

day 24

2008-09-22T12:25:00.008+08:00

Day 24- Wed, 17 Sept 2008

Economics! Sigh... It seems a little overlapping with our International Buisness module at China. *yawn*. Its the last of Andy Xi's lesson today! To be honest, if Shi Ding Le were to taught this instead of Andy, I believe I will be attentive 100% times more=X.

After econs, the entire group of us (me, dina, maurice, hans, wee heng, ronald) went to the salon for the China haircut experience. *faint!* Initially mine only costed 15Rmb(3sgd) for the hair cut and wash but........... they psychoed me=_=. I ended up dyeing my hair and the total cost amounted to 100RMB(20Sgd). Even though it was cheap, I quite regretted it. Was budgetting okay~!

Btw, the haircut was... regretfully cheena. LOL! =_=. Wee heng said I looked like a ball when I was done with blowing my hair. Thanks man. I bet he said it to spike me. Ha! Cause I laughed at him the moment they took the curlers off him. (He was the only daring one who dared to perm his hair here- respect man). I did not expected such curls either and it was shocking. Sorry man!

Anyway, I even did manicure today. I like did a total makeover can. From head to fingers. I feel that it all doesn't suit my character. Black nails, blackish red hair? Whatever man. I'm gonna have my nails re-manicured b4 going back sg. It is like freaking CHEAP! (25rmb with studs can!-5sgd)

I'm hoping my hair would grow longer in this remaining 2 weeks before i head back to sg. Luckily, I did not cut my hair during the last week. Phew. Btw, the hairstylist who did my hair had stayed in Wuhan all his life w/o going overseas at all. He is only 23? with a 6years of hairstyling experience. How fortunate am I...

Wee heng

Maurice and wee heng.

My manicure( my 1st time having my nails set black! OMGosh~)

Day 22

2008-09-19T00:15:00.008+08:00

Day 22- Monday 15th Sept 08
There was no class today as it was a public holiday:)

We decided to take a walk to HanKou's vibrant "orchard road"- Min Zhong le yuan. So far, we had taken the bus and taxi to that area. The bus ride was definitely not enjoyable especially if the windows were opened and it was worse that it took at least 1 and half hours to reach. It was out of the question that we would take the bus to hankou again.

For the taxi, their maximum capacity is 4 just like singapore's therefore it was hard to go out in large groups therefore, today is the day that we have got to try out their illegal minivan sevices. The minivans would be parked at the roadside and you will have to go up to the van and negotiate a price. (You can bargain).

In the end, the van ride was priced at 105rmb as we did not bargain much. It was worth the price though as he was a very hospitable and friendly guy. He told us stories of his family, answer our questions on wuhan and even acted as a tour guide by telling us the landmarks around and pointing it to us. He told us that time has changed and comparing to the past, famous places that has once attracted a long queue of customers, was now like any other stalls due to the technology change that took place. An example would be the tang bao near by my school.

I bought lots of tea leaves!! Pu er, Long Jing, Tie Guan Yin, Rose bud, Dried lemon and a kind of flower tea which will open up beautifully in hot water(that's what dina said). HA~! It was considered really cheap as I only spent 120rmb(24sgd) in total on it. Yay! I loveeee tea:) Got soo excited upon spotting the shop. hah!

(You can find these kind of tea houses in alot of places.)

We had a fruitful day at the night market and we found a foodies heaven where all sorts of great food in wuhan can be found there. Just like my favourite- TANG BAO!
On our way to the night market in the evening, we witnessed a few youths who looked around 15-16 quarreling with a stall owner. It was really fierce and the girl and lady involved were shouting at each other with a slang I could not catch. Anyway, it gave me the impression that the people in wuhan were fierce and straightforward. HA. Sometimes I get irritated by their occasional rudeness such as the feeling that you owe them when you enter a shop without buying stuff and other times when they elbow their way through you without any courtesy.

On the way home, there was a serious traffic jam. The cab driver could even get out of the cab for a break. One hero went out to where the jam was at and directed the traffic. Apparently, there was this idiot who just allowed the buses to cut into our lane and therefore making us stuck in the traffic for at least 1/2 an hour and luckily the hero decided to help out.

The pollution is really bad getting stuck in this traffic and worse still, the windows are all winded down. Dina ended up using a tissue to cover her face and she coughed alot too.

Day 23

2008-09-19T00:15:00.007+08:00

Day 23- Tuesday 16th Sept 08
Lesson schedule for today is with Shi Ding Le.

I find that her lessons are really interesting and the fact that she speaks good english is very admirable even though there are occasional spelling errors.

Today, we learnt about the symbols of auspiciousness. There are 4 main things which are really important to the chinese. They are always found in many of their items and they 4 things are as follows:

Longevity

Symbols: Crane & Pine tree

In China, there is a religion that is very wide spread and that is Taoism. It's main aim is to achieve longevity and thus since that is being treated as important to the Chinese, Taoism continues to flourish and is one of the more accepted religion in China.

The symbols of longevity can be usually found in the interior rooms of elderly and it is advised that the symbols are not placed in the kids room as it is said that they are not able to withstand the symbols.

Happines

Symbols:

Harvest

Symbol: Fish

Usually in large festivals/ocassions, there should be fishes in dishes. Harvest is mostly celebrated by the people farming. It is just like a thanks giving celebration.

There is a superstition involving the eating of fish in such ocassions that the fish should only be eaten on one side and it should not be overturned so that there is always more than you need in every harvest. 年年有余 as the chinese says it.

Noble Character

TBC.......

Day 21

2008-09-15T01:26:00.004+08:00

Day 21-14 sept 2008

Woa!
Happy Mid Autumn Festival! The moon is soooooo round today:) So romantic. It is also the chinese valentine's day. IT's 'THE DAY'. The performance day! We chose to dance to the tune of Lian Ai ING and all the steps were quite babyish-simple. HA! (but i messed it up majorly during the actual). Anyway, we started off practicing early in the mornings at around 10am and we had a rehearsal at the school hall's stage at 2pm.

The rehearsal at the stage was badly done and though there were only a few onlookers, I was somewhat mentally unprepared and had a little stage fright.

At 6pm: we proceeded to the field track where the stage was set up only today. It was not really as huge as i expected but the crowd was in THOUSANDS. Parents, teachers and students in their army attire(they had army training for this entire 2 weeks). Woaa.. I felt my legs going wobbly and it felt that my energy was drained~! OH NO!

I do not understand why I always have stage fright even no matter how many times I have been up. I have been on stages for SOOOOO many times. :S Man, I would like to curb it! I talked myself into concentrating on enjoying rather than worry( fel u can do this, you know the dance steps and dont worry!). I went up stage an enthu little girl. Our entire group was hyped up and I felt the enjoyment in the dance even though at a point, my brain perhaps was slightly entangled, I stood and dance and stun while I was supposed to squat. =_=. Sigh.

That segment ended with everyone feeling relieved and pleased. We watched on at the performances lined up. There was even a drama show which was funny:)

The normal mooncake in the red box finally taste like the normal one in Sg:)
The snow-skinned however, erm, doesnt taste like the normal snow-skin in sg but... heck! as long as it is snow-skin, who cares:)

20

2008-09-13T23:53:00.002+08:00

Day 20- 13 Sept 2008

Today, we went Hua Zhong Uni to look at the building structures and history. OMG! Their one building alone beat Ngee Ann Poly's entire capacity hands down!! 18,000 capacity for the 1st building we went. Btw, its the 3rd largest schooling building in the world and the 1st in the world also came from that school. Tsk Tsk Tsk. Actually their sch facilities are not that at all bad. (Even though they still used chalk boards), they had a electronic board which flashes the time table of all the classes at the main entrance of the school.

There was even a lecturer who came down to bring us around the school. He told us the history of the buildings and he was very welcoming. He wanted to bring us to many of the places in the school but as the weather was terrible, we declined politely.

In the evenings at 4, Me, Dina and Hans went to the place our IS lecturer brought us too. Dina did not had a look at that place and we decided to go there for a walk. It is a place similar to the Far East Plaza of Sg yet the mall is only 2 storeys high yet it took us around 2 and a half hours to comb the entire area. 1 Floor was for clothes and the other was for accessories and bags. The difference btw Sg and China is that you get to bargain even in shops.:):)

After leaving the place, we were greeted by an old fashion big screen movie playing machine. It was as if we were back in the 60s? Cool!

We had to cross the night market area to get back to our hostel. It was really crowded and lively and there were more roadside stalls during the weekends. We saw people selling off mini crabs which were reddish, hamsters, fishes and even puppies! Poor puppies, 3 of them were enclosed in one tiny cage. It all seems normal to the people there though.

Me and Dina decided to eat by the roadside. We had soup noodles. Me with the tomato and egg combination while dina with the seaweed and meat combi. Our wok had lots of vege and it was tasty. That particular stall had lots of customers and the "dine-in" sits were really awkward. Many of the customers ordered take-aways instead.

YAWNN! I'm tired already.. tommorow will be the day of performance! Happy mid-autumn festival! Nighty night~!

2008-09-12T23:16:00.003+08:00

Day 19- Fri 12 Sept

Today, we went for industrial visits. It means that we did not had classes today! Yeppy:) Firstly, it was the laser industry which had a lady rep who went through all the products that the company came up with. (chay, i thought they would bring us into the work area.) Anyway, the lady demostrated one of the beauty series machine. Look at the video below. Btw, its taken side ways, =X dint realise that it could not be rotated. Opps=X. Btw, this industry was just a stone throw away from WIT's back gate.

The next site was at the telecommunication and electronics industry which had us changing into PJs and cook hats. DUMB! We had to go through a room which was meant to dust the dirt off us and after which we proceeded to the work area. Many of those workers looked my age. I guess that they are doing part time. Anyway, I would love to try it for a day but any more than that and I will condemn it. HA! We saw the people putting chips and doing quality check...

Lastly, we went to the numerical industry. It was really boring as all we did was to hear the rep talk about what awards they won, what some of the machines did and went to a seriously dusty empty workplace which I had no interest in at all.

After these trips, we went eat! I was already hungry from the start of the trip (8.30am). Btw, we took a bus which dropped us off at 2 bus stops away. We happened to always past by but not go there to eat. It had always looked nice but as it always goes, do not judge a book by its cover. The exterior was classy yet the service, food and hygiene was all in the drain! SERIOUSLY! We waited for 1hr near 2 hrs for our course. (I ordered beef steak-28rmb). I got a little mixed up with saying how I want the steak to be done in CHINESE. I thought it had a link with the discounts which when u say 七折，it means 30% off.

Even the soup they serve was wierd! It was sweet and milky. YUCK! One thing to add. The waitress who serve it, had her curly hair dipped in it=_=. OMG!!! sigh.

It was a lesson learnt and remembered for life. Poor Hans did not even get to start on it while everyone had ended their meal. In the end we all went to a claypot restaurant which was 10000 better in comparison=_=.

We went back to the hostel and went straight for dance practice. (Mid Autumn Fest we were asked to come up with an item =_=). It ended off well as everyone could do it in a way or another! Mark was super hilarious! He did his actions awkwardly when especially it came to lifting his hands up. He said he wore a singlet so he was shy... =X

I am feeling really tired now! 2mrw is another day of outing. :) Gtg sleep now. I miss everyone at home! i miss chewy too:(

18

2008-09-12T17:43:00.003+08:00

Day 18- 11 Sept.

Today, we had lessons with SHI DING LE regarding the culture of China. Dina was ill and stayed in bed. Probably, the weather and the heatiness got to her.

In class, we learnt that the Pre-Qin era(770BC-221BC) was the golden period for China as ppl had freedom of speech. Just as long as people would lend you their ears, you will be able to say what you feel. That time, China was divided into many small countries and people wanted to expand their trade to other country so it resulted in many wars. That period was also called the Zhan Guo Period. With such wars came chinese philosophers who question that existence. Cool..

Another thing that was taught was the difference in culture between the europeans who supports individualism and Chinese who supports group identities varied in a survey conducted by my teacher. She drew a picture of a group of fishes with 1 stray fish. She then asked her chinese class what do they feel. Out of 38 students, only 3 felt that the stray fish was happy being independent while the rest said the fish was an outcast.
The test was done on her other group of european students and their responses were all about the fish being happy. This goes to show that chinese believe that if you are alone, you are an outcast which means that you are bad.

She also says that the culture in WuHan is restricted and there is no religion in Wuhan as strictly speaking, the Hans clan does not hold up for any religion due to the worship of the king and the ancestors in the past. Taoism is barely counted as a religion as it is accepted as the main aim for it is to achieve longevity.

After class, she then brought a group of us to somewhere near which usually sells the unique works of students. On the way, she told us about why there had to be soldiers training for all schools at the start of the semesters, irregardless of female or male. It was linked to the strike which happened in China by the students around. They were very involve in politics and they tried to overthrow the government at that time(1989). It ended up in a bloody mess of students and to prevent this. "brainwashing" training were carried out since.

17

2008-09-11T13:48:00.009+08:00

Day 17- 10 Sept 2008 wed

Once again we have presentation!! Its a 4 person to a group presentation regarding culture and Business Etiquette:) Me, Dina, Maurice and Ivy chose USA and it was quite fun with this presentation. Btw, Dina lost her voice!! Even teddy bear says that she is more wen rou. HA!

Actually USA's business etiquette is closer to Sg's business etiquette so its quite ez.

During lunch break, I ate the so called "zinger burger". Im getting hooked on it! Really nice, its less spicy with a little butter smell, you can get it at 3 burgers for 12 RMB( 2.40SGD?!). WHAT! its super worth it.

See my burger! Xiang Cui Ji Tui Han Bao!! (theres even prawn burger, drumsticks, wraps...)

This is the view of from my 7 storey high class room, See the badly polluted air? Btw, it also seemed like it was about to rain heavily as the wind howled...

You see the rubbish dump which is in the open! Utterly gross. When the litters piles up, they would burn them (incineration), that happened on my way to school and it is really bad for the health.

Btw, see this poor dead squirrel... (R.I.P).

Maurice and Wei Heng bought it last sunday while on the overhead bridge. The squirrel when I last saw it alive was struggling and trying its best to bite free from the cage. I even heard that the squirrel tried to run up the pipes but was caught again. Poor little thing. It was meant for the wild and it was illegal for the man who sold it without a license. Anyway, what do you expect. Its not like Sg.

In the evenings, i accompanied Dina to the night market. WOA! The wind was super strong. We wore jackets but our legs were still exposed. My hair was blown back like in those kind of Shampoo Ad. HA! Many stallowners were packing their stuffs probably due to the wind. Anyway, the waft of the foodstalls by the sideways were making us drip saliva. There were paos, tang baos(soup buns), fried vege cake, french fries, fried chicken, burgers, ma la noodles etc. we bought a kind of bao that they call qi shui bao(soft drink bun) and a burger which had a crispy outerlayer which stores the egg, ham and meat in it.

After that, we quickly went home as it was freezing. I predicted that the next day would rain. HAH! Btw, we saw a very antique kind of cotton candy trolley. It was manually operated by an old man and the cotton candy was delicious unlike sg's kind.

15

2008-09-10T12:59:00.002+08:00

Day15- Tue 9th Sept, Weather: Unbearably hot

Today, we have our lessons with Andy Xi. He is a soft-spoken man I must say! Economics is what he teaches and it is very dry and some of the technical terms are really hard to understand.

I learnt that the middle class people (2nd tier) are unsatisfied on their living conditions as they are caught in an awkward position of neither being one of the richest(1st tier) nor being the poorest(3rd tier).

There is a link between the culture and the way they spend their money too. Such that they tend to focus all energy and money on their kids.

There is also a different pursue in the wants of the different tiers.

After that lesson, we headed back home where I slept from 12-5pm! I guess I was really tired. Haha! Shiok ar!

Tomorrow will be another day of presentation and I ate Maggie mee for dinner again like yesterday. Sad man. I’m getting bored of the oily fried rice and noodles here! I want my spaghetti!!!

14

2008-09-10T12:57:00.001+08:00

Day 14- 8th Sept 08

Presentation for SUDD!!!

We are getting slacker.=X

Today, teacher went through Indoor Air Quality (I learnt before as a module) and after that was presentation!

This module seems much simpler than International business as I am quite a business idiot. =X It’s a totally new module which I find the terms quite hard to understand.

Anyway, our lecturer, “Teddy Bear” got in the mood of wanting to take a “candid” class photo. HAHA! Really lor, the camera was placed in front and set to timer. We had to pretend to do something. LOL! Cute ar.

Our presentation was short and sweet due to the reduction of half the part which Maurice negotiated with Teddy that it is quite redundant that everyone repeats the same part. Yay!

After class which ended at 2pm, we went to try the “fastfood” nearby. They had something like the Zinger burger from KFC. It’s really nice though I will refrain from eating too much of it. :)

I spend the rest of the day hibernating in the hostel cooling and comfy environment. Somewhat feeling homesick:( I want my MOONCAKE! (here’s mooncake is like gold- expensive!)

13

2008-09-10T12:36:00.000+08:00

Day13- 7th sept 08 sunday

Time passes so quickly~! It’s Sunday again already! Another day of 7 storeys climbing tomorrow :S

Today, Dina and I went to explore! We took a bus to the ferry terminal and we then took a ferry to Wuhan-HanKou. We were cheated of 7rmb by the taxi driver who acted very friendly with us. Unknowingly, we went through lots of small alleys and make lots of unnecessary turns. I even thought he was good and tipped him with about 2rmb. Hah! Dumbo. Anyway, the ferry trip was cool and as I looked out into the chang jiang river, it felt kinda scary. It is so wide and deep. If ever a ship were to capsize there, it’s the last time I guess anyone would see the people in it.

The weather today was really scorching hot! Just by standing on by the roadside, my legs felt the heat and pain from all the sun. Dina could just lie on the ground and have her wonderful tanning session. HA! Except that you will confirm die with all the ‘no-rule’ vehicles=_=.
We met my friend, Jeremy, from FMS as he said he would bring us around. Btw, it felt safer having a guy around. All around were shops! They were split and segmented! All the clothes were in one area, the spices were in another and the shoes were in another area too. Cool ain’t it! But!! We were greeted by the deserted sight when we went to the youngster clothing area=_=. WHAT?! It’s Sunday man… It’s their off day? Sighh.. Disappointed, we took the ferry back.

As you know, whenever people asked where we are from, we would reply Guang dong thus when Dina and I went to a shop and the shopkeeper asked and we replied that. She then went on to say that we 说话很好听(spoke nicely), as she stayed there for a month b4 and she felt that they spoke with a really strong accent which she could not understand. HAHA! J You see, they understand our Chinese hor.

We went to Hu Bu Xiang!! A great place for food! A foodies heaven where all kinds of snacks, noodles, seafood and rice were sold! Dina immediately lighted up with all the food. We saw some weird gourmet like boiled turtle which has the head, shell and body still intact (it seemed to be frozen in its steps- so cruelL ) and some kind of weird mini lobster which I once saw on the internet that it was toxic.

Dina bought oysters and scallops back to the hostel for all to try. The garlic was overpowering but the taste was superb. Even our lecturer enjoyed the oysters. J Guess we will be going there again! :D

12

2008-09-10T12:32:00.001+08:00

Day 12- 6th September 08

Yea~! It’s great today as it is a SaturdayJ. We got ready and met the guys at 12pm. They are like worse than girls can… So dilly-dally and we always have to wait for them. Even I am faster than them lo. HAH! Anyway, today we went to explore the places that we have never been too, further down of Carrefour. We all seem to be attracted to the branded sports shops e.g. Adidas & Nike.

Anyway, we( me,dina, ivy, the guys) went to eat first at a Chinese dining restaurant. As we were in a big group, there seem to be no choice but to eat zhi cha (ordering a few dishes and sharing them). Sigh.. I want to eat my Zha Jiang Mian! (so far, I have not seen any roadside places which sells thatL). Their gyoza was really special. They are all joined together by a crispy stuff like koropok. 1 thing really bad is the amount of oil found in them. We came to a conclusion that the soup dumplings were better and we ended up ordering more. They give their soup dumplings per serving is in LIANG which is equivalent to 6 dumplings. It’s a shame that Dina missed out on the those.

I bought a drink in the shopping centre and the taste was really unique. My combination was papaya milk with pudding. The papaya milk even had foam and it is so different from Sg’s. Probably it is due to the powdery papaya form? It does not taste powdery though.
As we explored, we had to walk on the roadsides due to the heavy construction work being done. There were so many bamboo sticks being placed up and some had even pointed edges. SO DANGEROUS! We were warned at a point to not stand under it. The pathways for people to walk even became the road for vehicles to travel. You really have to open your eyes in the midst of all the pollution (black fumes of vehicle exhaust and smoke from cigarettes=_=). Don’t like it a single bit!

We came upon a lost dog who apparently was not stray as it had a collar. I have never came across a dog which looks like this. It’s mouth area was black and it forehead has a white mark straight. Cute dog though. Maurice who showed his animal loving spirit, decided to help it look for its owner. He went all the way into the residential estates to look for the owner. Awww.. How sweet. Such a touching scene. Ha! After a futile search, we fed it with water. We decided to walk and decide what to do with it and at that moment, a lady who looked very upset, snatched the rope from Maurice. I heard her mumbling, 找了一整天拉! Ivy heard her maligning Maurice of taking the dog away. LOL. Poor him.

Btw, Maurice and Wei Heng bought a squirrel on the overhead bridge. It is like so unhygienic as you do not know where the squirrel came from. =_= sigh…. They plan to set it free when we head back to Sg but in the mean while, it has to stay in the minute cageL. Poor squirrel. The cage is just enough to cover its tiny frame.

I am so glad that sg placed a ban on spitting on the floor because in China, people spit everywhere and anywhere, even in the bus. That’s awfully gross!

11

2008-09-10T12:30:00.002+08:00

Day 11- 5th September 08

Oh no! Woke up late for classes today. HA! I did not set my alarm and relied on my roomies to wake me up! Anyway, we were able to make it in time for class and we were super exhausted after rushing up the SEVEN storey! Without breakfast too!S Next time, I shall put my alarm:D. Have to be more independent.=X

Today is the day of my first presentation. Oh man, so nervous. I really am not prepared for this as I am not truly sure of the information that I have placed in the presentation for my part. TOO CHIM. Not enough time! That’s a disadvantage when it comes to this overseas “crash course” program. Sigh. After seeing some of my classmates presentation, I got more worried but luckily my group (me and Dina), are the last to go. Dina was freaking upset with the arrangement but I silently heave a sigh of relief as that meant that I could have more time familiarizing with my slides. At the end of the day, I got too engross in reading from the notes that I have written in my lappy and rarely looked up at the crowd. HA! At least one project is down… another one to go…

We learnt about the Design of Green buildings today. The aerodynamic grills allow sunlight to brighten the area while blocking heat from entering the building is one of the designs created by architects. To think that we have to consider so many building elements when constructing a building. I did not realize this and could only complain about the outlook of our buildings which looks so boring as mostly are just rectangular shaped. Hehex. Even so, I would like to see more of the ‘durians’ unique features in Sg.

Oh! One more thing, as we walked to school today, there were students dressed in army uniform and learning how to march! HA! Heard that from the teacher when we first entered the school. Cool ba! Even girls have to be dressed in the uniform and do the same thing. The entire first week of school is dedicated to serving army and the students do not have any lessons. This is their way of propaganda?=X Anyway, it is so different from Sg’s system which has men serving 2 years worth of army. Probably the diff is due to the lack of man power in sg and the too-many-to count people in China! Just the population alone can surround sg many folds over! Hah!

10

2008-09-10T12:28:00.001+08:00

Day 10- 4th Sept 08, Thurs

SIGH~! The weather today was terrible! Wasn’t it supposed to be hot and dry? The global warming has caused the erratic behavior of the weather =_=. Poured and poured. The walk to school was disgusting as our feet were covered in dirt :S No breakfast today L

Today’s time table

当代中国经济体制综述 (China’s Economics) - 8.15-10.00am

We learnt that the economy of China for the past 30 years has grown rapidly and now, it is beginning to slowdown. In the year 2006, the general prices of land per m2 is 2000RMB but it shot up to 5000 RMB in the year 2007. This huge leap may be due to inflation. China’s market is of a mixed economy as there are many different kinds. Some parts of China is still in the natural economy. This means that the income of that area is highly due to agriculture farming. Our lecture, Mr Andy Xi also said that the economy of countries which have just held the Olympics would drop.

Hmm… that explains the currency rate fluctuation from before the Beijing Olympics to during the Olympics and after the Olympics. The currency was strong during the Olympics and weak before and after.

He also told us about the average income of Chinese. 400-2000RMB per month. It was really little compared to Sg and this in turn causes the lower goods and services rate of China. Chinese have to turn to cheaper goods and services like food, transportation and education. It is all interlinked and one factor affects the other.

It continued to pour even after class(2hrs) ended. We had to walk through it once more. The freezing wind made it worse. We ended up entering the soup restaurant where the soups are really effective in warming us up. Shiok feeling….. until it was time to leave for home=_=.
In the evening we went to eat zhi char again. Actually, their food is mainly spicy in Wu Han! I cannot really take the spiciness! Tend to end up full even before finishing my rice=_=. Haha!

After dinner, we took a walk through the back alley nearby. WAH! Lots of food:). The fried rice’s aroma was blowing me away…. I feel hungry again already! We explored more of the other routes and ended up at a toy shop. Dina was really interested in buying transformers for her brother who was an avid fan of it. I ended up looking through it too as I found POKEMON toys! Bought 2 for my sissy and it is 40 cents SGD only! The shop was one of those old kind of small mama shop and a old lady tended to it.

At night, something shocking happened!! The water supply cut off!!! OH NO! I realized the importance of water at that moment as I needed it to wash my face after an entire day out in the polluted dusty air. SIGH~ Everyone was very upset and apparently there were some maintenance work going on with the pipes:S (Dina says it is an excuse for the lack of water supply. We paid 90 SGD per person for the utilities bill de hor!! Sigh.. Have to sleep without washing face! (Luckily I had wet tissues)

9

2008-09-10T12:11:00.004+08:00

Day 9- Wed, 3rd Sept 08

Woa… I’m super shag now! We just returned home from all the shopping at Han Kou. It rained again!:( Damn irritating as the rain kept falling into my eyes and I kept stepping into the puddles of dirty water:(. It was really cold throughout as well. It made shopping hard but as we were determined ppl, nth could deter us away from shopping! HAHA.

We went to eat at 必胜客(Pizza Hut) for lunch. We realized that all the fast foods in Wuhan were among the more expensive places to dine in. Sigh…. Pizza hut was even without all the service charge and taxes. Probably if you convert the price to SGD, it is a little less but considering that the daily expenses of Wuhan is really not high, it is expensive!

Yu Xuan then brought us to the whole sales area. I expected a “pasar malam” style where owners are only divided by the stuffs they sell.( that was what I saw when I was in Thailand) I was greeted by a shopping centre instead:S Hmmm.. it was not our cup of tea to be honest. Anyway, the indoor air quality there is really bad as we could smell the strong smell of paint as we walk. We left the area very quickly after scanning through the 1-3rd floors. So far, I have yet to see an elevator in a shopping mall:S WHY?

I bought an Adidas Jacket which was really cheap! 184RMB! (36 SGD) It is at the Adidas discount shop where the goods are probably a little defective or old. Mine is nice still k! Love it though I cannot wear it since they only have the L size:(.

I don’t understand why they have to do commercials for hospitals. They have the advertisements on the buses as well. Some of female’s health and some of diseases. They are quite open about it eh? But it doesn’t feels comfortable seeing all this advertisements to me.
I miss my family, boyfriend and friends!! :O Now it’s the 11th day already! Left with 34 days:)

Looking forward to seeing all of them.

8

2008-09-10T12:08:00.003+08:00

Me enjoying the soup- (free rice along with the soup that u order (4-6rmb))

My rose buds! Nice smelling

The many flower teas and tea leaves sold along the roadside
ay 8- 2nd Sept 08

Another day of school! Luckily it is later today:) On the way to school, we decided to explore a little nearby the classroom building. There were street hawkers already selling different items by the roadside. A lady selling 花茶(flower tea) including wild chrysanthemum, rose buds, dried lemon etc… Bags and shoes were up for sale too. There were less people seen around and it wasn’t as bubbly as yesterday. You can hardly see any food peddlers around. Sigh… I wanna eat!! In the end, I bought rose buds which was supposedly good for the skin for 50g for 5rmb？I’m not too sure myself as the boss uses an antique weighing method to weigh the roses. :S Anyway, it is still cheap and hard to find!:D

Both lessons today were with Frederick. SUDD! Woa… just the second day and we have accumulated 2 projects =_=. Sigh~! I hope I do not get too distracted from trying to enjoy immersing in the Chinese culture! HA!

Lessons ended early and after lunch at another location which sells great soup, we retired back to our apartment. We wanted to hibernate:) The stark contrast of the warm weather to the cooling comfy apartment made us want to just laze in bed and use the lappy. =X Sheer Laziness, that’s the life. HA! I caught an hour nap too!

In the evenings, we decided on having the famous hotpot and we went to the street near our
classroom building. We dint noticed before but due to our explorative nature, we ventured out and found another piece of HEAVEN a few days ago. That day we went was in the afternoons and in the night, it is a foodie heaven. LOVE IT! Anyway, the hotpot we ate had 3 different kinds, Qing tang, Yuan yang and ma la! We chose yuan yangJ Mixture of both! It is out in the opens and it was really nice. For every stick it costs 0.30 yuan. OMGosh. I was stunned as we only checked out the price after eating for more than 50 sticks. I dint expected it to be this cheap:) Ya man!

Hot pot! In the open:) - YUAN YANG

There was this cute little boy who sat at the table behind us who used the satay stick to poke dina. HAHA! So cute… and you know what, he shitted on the ground as we were eating! LOL! His wonderful “holey” shorts which covers his legs but not his butt and front=X This made it easy for him to do his business as and when without dirtying his shorts!! (btw, this kind of shorts are commonly seen in young kids of China)好妙哦！

I was also scalded by a really hot red bean paste desert:(. It is shaped in a ice-cream cone shape. Nice! My first time trying it and it is really delicious except for the fact that it was burning hot!

After eating the hotpot=X It's spicy yet nice~! hah! Im flushing red=X Btw, the cone im holding is some kind of hot red bean dessert. Nice

Slacking at the sofa

7

2008-09-10T11:12:00.003+08:00

Day 7-1st September 08

It’s the start of lessons!!!

Today’s lesson time plan is as follows:

8.15-10.00am- History, Geography and Culture (Lecturer Shi Ding Le)
10.20-12.00pm- International Business (Lecturer Frederick Low)

To play on the safe side on not wanting to be late for class, we got ready by 7am! I woke up a little later than them as I have packed my stuffs (laptop, cable, paper…) for class yesterday. As mentioned before, I felt that the road towards school was really tedious yet, as we walked in the cool breeze of the mornings, it was all quite refreshing. On the way to school, there were peddlers by the side selling all sorts of breakfast. Weee!J It’s so different from what we see at Singapore. Perhaps we can only see this in the “Pasar Malams” of Singapore and even so, it is not opened in the mornings at such a time. I enjoy this very much! All the foooood….

I wanted to eat the ‘油条’ but today, that peddler was not there thus I bought soy bean and some buns (包) only. Wanted to have the typical Chinese fare- “Dou jiang you tiao”. I shall have it another day then. Btw, their pao is a little different from Sg’s too. They have less filling, more skin and it is more salty but they are all freshly made!

As we walked nearer to the building, there were ladies who were doing their morning exercise out in the open space. It is still so early in the morning and the entire street was already bustling with students, peddlers, and elderly. I remember this saying “ 早起的鸟儿有虫吃 “- the early bird catches the worm. I wonder do all of them follows this or only in the early generations as in my family, my grandparents still follows this while we, as the later generation bunch, sleeps late and wake up late. HA!

Classes begun with our China lecturer (Shi Ding Le), she gave us some insights which I have never noticed before. Such as the Chinese culture’s core is one of a collective cluster. In efforts to maintain this, group identities are created. It is best to go with the flow. Example in a class, students are encouraged to not raise any questions. ‘个人主义’与‘团体主义 ’(individualism vs collectivism). Collective cluster is labeled as good while individual clusters are labeled as bad. We also learnt about the taboo terms in Wuhan. Such as when quoting prices, ‘二百五’(250) is a taboo no. as it means dumb. By quoting this price, you are directly calling the seller dumb! =X
One really classic area we found was the toilet at the school building!!! WAHHH! There was no flushing system and no doors for each cubicle. It is just a long hole across the 3 cubicles for people to squat and urine/shit. 太经典啦！ It means that when you urine/ shit, it will stay there until u wash with water or remove it manually.=_=. Quite unhygienic eh… Imagine that the toilet is packed and all the shit are piling. Luckily, everywhere else do not have this anymore!!! PHEW! But it is a real eye-opener! Imagine the people of the past, they have to endure this…

Fortunate us.

We went to a soup restaurant for lunch. The herbal soups all have different health benefits. I drank the red date black chicken soup which was good for blood circulation and good for skin! I LOVE IT! I felt my face feeling hot soon after drinking. I believe it works! YAY:)

6

2008-09-10T10:21:00.002+08:00

Day 6- 31st Aug

We woke up at 11am for more shopping!! HA! I can’t get enough of it:) Feels more wealthy in China as their food is usually 1-2SGD and thus I have more money to spend.

We went to eat at a western restaurant which serves buffet at a price of 38rmb(approx 8dollars). WHAT! Buffet okay… and it is so cheap. They have waiters walking around holding sticks of meat (sotong, prawn, chicke, pork, sausages and even chicken heart). Sighh.. I unknowingly ate the chicken heartL gross! I still thought it was satay:S.

The Carrefour was really packed but we had to buy our necessities such as Maggie mee, mugs and etc. All of these cost us 280+ RMB.( will be split among the 3 of us- ivy, dina & me).
Kai Xin and Amaris was almost rob of their purse which was placed in the trolley. Actually they have lockers for people to place their bags and stuffs for free. Dina and I had experienced trouble with the locker before and we almost could not retrieve our stuffs. Phew. After shopping, we rushed back by the taxi(starting price of 3rmb) and it only cost us 8.20RMB. Jun Wei was cooking for everyone and he was a former cook in Fish & co. Yay. His spaghetti was great though it was not enough to go around :(.

5

2008-09-10T10:20:00.004+08:00

Day 5- 30th Aug 08 (Free and Easy Day:) )

Most taxis have "barriers" to prevent robbery. The view from the taxi. Sigh.. raining:(

@ the "ORCHARD ROAD"

We woke up at 10am and met up to eat at 11am:) We decided to try the Zhi Cha nearby which was opposite our hostel. It was quite run down but the food was nice but oily though.

We met Yu Xuan who was a local of Wu han who studies at NP. He brought us to their ‘orchard road’ at Hankou, another part of Wuhan. We are situated at Wu Chang.

There was a night market as well and we were told to safekeep our belongings well as the theft rate there was higher. Bing Quan was given a counterfeit note of 20RMB(4dollars) as he did not check for its authenticity. Poor him.. That made me alert as I realized that counterfeits were aplenty as whenever we pay for any stuffs, it was noted that the cashers would check the money.

As I still could not really understand their slang, I got ripped of 42rmb(8+ sgd) in buying sweets. =_=. Was utterly unhappy with the attendant as when paying, I said I wanted less as it was too expensive. She fiercely did not wanted to reduce it and I stupidly paid them. (Should have just refused to buy and walk away).

As we walk along, I realized that wuhan’s night is cooler than Sg’s night but wuhan’s day is hotter than sg’s day.

I have to learn the art of bargaining as in China, everything is yours if you can bargain well.

Sadly, we have a curfew and we have to be back on any day by 11pm. :(

4

2008-09-10T10:18:00.004+08:00

DAY 4- 28th AUGUST 2008Day 4- 28th Aug 08

On board the 4stars cruise ( we were actually promised of a 5 stars cruise)

DAY 2 of SAN XIA

We woke up at around 6 to wash up and 6.30am to eat breakfast. They gave announcements for all the major programs. At the breakfast table, there were plain porridge, small side dishes, hard boiled eggs, sugar solution and pao.

We were cruising in the san xia so we were told to go up to the deck for sight-seeing. It was raining heavily and it was really cold. They sold umbrellas and ponchos at quite an expensive price. There were 2 professional photographers too who offered phototaking services.

Some cool things that were noted:
· There were coffin burials in between cavities of mountains. It was one of their age-old tradition and the coffins were hanging in mid air and they were only supported by 2 wooden planks. =X( how they could carry up there remained a mystery)

· There was a huge bird nest cave. :)

birdnest cave!

We went down the cruise to smaller boats which were rowed by men staying around the mountainous area. In total, there were 6 men, 4 at the front and 2 at the back. 1 of the front men played an important role in the later stages. He was slacking until the water got really choppy. We witnessed 拉纤， which was rarely seen in the world anymore and it was their hometown tradition.

As we passed by the mountains, there was a guy who was sitting at the bank, blowing a tune to welcome us. Aww. Such friendliness coming for a village folk.

The great scenery!- Usually, in Chinese paintings, you get to see mountains & rivers. Yup! We are seeing this all right in front of our eyes!

The entire day was really wet and we had to walk in the rain when we alighted to visit the temple. There were ancient artifacts from the three kingdoms time. There were statues of all kinds and one was headless. The main focus was on Liu Bei, Zhu Ge Liang, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. It was quite eerie though.

The steps leading to the temple of Liu Bei, Zhu Ge Liang, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

Me and dina is sitting on are sedans. There will be folks carrying us to the place we want, of course you have to pay.

Ancient Chinese writings

Some of the famous status of the well known 3 kingdom heroes.

A tour guide explained about the difference in tomb wood and linked to the wooden comb which the people there sold. It was supposed to have health benefits… Really? After we went back onboard, we were invited to the Dinner and Dance which was the cruise activity at the Karaoke room.

All of us enjoyed the crazy fun night with rounds of Singing. Initially, some (who I will not name), were so reluctant to sing ar! HAHA. In the end... you can guess it yourself!

Chinese people seemed to like folk dancing as they waltz to the tune which they chose. There were a few couples that danced. We just looked on. Every where on the streets in the nights, there will be music playing and many couples waltzing. This is probably one of their fav past times!

3

2008-09-09T22:23:00.007+08:00

The nice chinese restaurant that we ate at

The streets of China (one of the more developed rural area)
h aug 08

We set off at 11.40am!! There was the tour guide which accompanied us along. She told us to call her xiao wu and she is really young. Just a few years our senior. She knew all her facts and told us about the history of the tunnels that we passed through. There were 5 major tunnels built for the route which passes through the mountains. The longest one is 3.6km. I was forfeited for guessing the number too far away from the actual length (16km=X). Anyway, she sang us her folk town song. Cool. We were told to echo after her and it was quite entertaining.

We were told not to expose our identities for safety purposes. This is because even though we do not have a slang, we could easily pass off as a China native. This also prevent us from getting ripped off. *lesson learnt~

We ate at a typical Chinese restaurant and there were really many dishes which were nice but are oily. After dinner, we took a walk and we went past many run down shophouses. Nothing much but as we walk along, there were people sitting in the open and playing mahjong~! COOL.

A form of relaxation which is commonly seen on the streets.

There were even condom vending machines too. HA! Guess they are quite open when promoting with safe sex. Btw, we also saw a run down sex shop. I actually thought that Chinese were very conservative but this goes to show that the world is becoming more open.

One of the few condom vending machines along the street (one of the guys (hans) got curious and he bought 1)

We went back to the bus and the bus travelled for a distance before reaching a pitstop where there was a minimart which sold rabbit meat and jerkys. Not those kind of entire rabbit but those in packet form per piece. Like the ba kwa in Sg which has change to suit the consumers' taste.

When we reached our cruise, it was not as magnificent as we expected. As it looked quite old and there were nothing much except for a mahjong room, massage room(told not to go there as they are a rip offs) and a Karaoke room. We realized that the mahjong table were automated (COOL).Yup, they shuffle your cards and help you arrange them:). )

I did not sleep a wink at all! Spent the night chatting away....

2

2008-09-08T22:34:00.003+08:00

My hostel!

Day 2- 26 aug 08 (tue)

Early in the morning at about 8am, we went to have breakfast at the school’s canteen. There were nothing much left for breakfast as they usually open at a really early timing of 6am. The habits of China people are of an early bird kind, they wake up really early.

After breakfast was a tour around the school. It was H-U-mongous! Like a few times of Ngee Ann Polytechnic as their various divisions seem to be very far away from one another. The buildings ranged from really old and dingy to newly built ones. The differences between the new and old ones were really big. There were like 30 basketball courts in the area. I guess the school is just too big! HA! Anyway, the school stretches to over the other side of the road and we used the underpass constructed for the students as the traffic was unbecoming. We took at least 20-30minutes to walk to my soon-to-be classroom. Mine was located at the 7-storey!!

NO LIFTS!

The school was really empty as the students have yet to report to school as it was their holiday still. There were lots of hawkers by the sidewalk and even in the back alley. All the fooood. Fried rice, Noodles and soup. All the Chinese cuisine... Gotta try them!
After the long and tiring walk, we went to Carrefour, which was in their shopping mall. Quite a cool shopping mall though! It’s like sg’s but bigger. The place was quite empty and we tried the Zha Jiang Mian:). There were carrots and cucumber slices for 10rmb (2SGD). We took the bus back to the hostel to wash up for the welcome ceremony. (grand eh?).

Btw, the bus system was quite weird. For non-airconditioned buses with farecards, it is more expensive by 20cent RMB compared to paying by cash and for airconditioned buses with farecards, it is cheaper with the farecard. :S weird.

We felt very welcomed by the Chinese teachers who held a conference style welcoming session for us. The vice principal gave a welcoming speech followed by the various teachers and more importantly, our lecturer and our representative-IVY. Ivy was really very compost and her Chinese speech was awesome. We expected students to be there but there were only the teachers and VP.

Tomorrow we are setting off for the san xia tour. 3days away from the hostel!

Hopefully, the internet connection will be up by the time we are back. :)

My school campus

1

2008-09-08T22:16:00.004+08:00

DAY 1- 25th August 08

From today onward, I have to learnt how to be independent and learn how to do my own laundry… Truly anticipating the future yet I have part of my heart left at home. It’s the start of something new! How will China be like? Is the accommodation going to be like a shared dorm with a common toilet? Is it really as dirty as people say it will be? Does the toilet even have doors?

Early in the morning, my entire family sent me to the airport along with Maurice and Ivy. We reached in less than a hour and since there was still time, we went to Burger King to have a quick breakfast. We bade farewell and soon, we were on the plane. I could not believe that I was on my own to a foreign land faraway for the 1st time! Perplexed!

We reached the transit area at canton. There were some screw-ups already! We seemed to have a language barrier with the person at the counter who was supposed to check in our luggage for the next flight even though we spoke the same language=X Sigh. What made it worse was the miscommunication between our group and some of them went missing. In the end, Dina (geraldina) and Frederick (Lecturer) found them out of the check-in area.

After this episode, we went to eat. The entire airport was huge! We ended up at a café where people smoked=_=. It is not like Sg where smoking was banned in an indoor environment. Sigh.

We were running late when we went for the next flight as we overshot the boarding area and took quite awhile to head back. By the way, the airport attendants who checked our belongings and us before we went into the boarding area were very thorough.

We alighted at the Wuhan Airport and had to get off the plane to the ground where there were 2 shutter buses who brought us to the immigration counter. I actually found a crack in my luggage and did not know what to do. So ‘gong’ lo. We could actually claim the losses from the airport.

Leaving the place, I realized that the air was SOOO POLLUTED. The air was dense with dust and my throat feels uncomfortable already. I don’t wanna get use to this… This place seems quite backward and it feels so different from the glamorous Beijing where the Olympic was just held. All around were haphazard buildings and the place so big that even the bus driver got lost! Supposedly it only took 1hr, we ended up taking 3 hrs to reach! The wide big roads without road signs were intimidating as there seem to be a lack of LAW on the roads! Like vehicles and motorists would speed from all directions without waiting for the pedestrians. They ‘U-turn’ without a warning too!

I heard the driver calling out to fellow drivers and he calls the “shifu”(师父)-master. Sounds very polite and though some drivers help to direct him, others scolded him to go away”滚开”. Poor guy!

There was something very cool which happened, the female teacher from china who accompanied us related us to the different parts of China. She said that I look like I’m from Wuhan while dina- Northern part of Beifang, like from Fujian too as she was tall and straightforward. Ivy-looked like she as from Fujian.

The school was inconvenient yet unexpectedly welcoming. All the facilities were there such as the toilet, washing machine, tv, kitchen with fridge and microwave. :)

All the ideas of it being under standard for living dissipated. :) YAY! I wanna go explore!

Prologue

2008-09-08T20:36:00.002+08:00

PROLOGUE

This blog is for my IS module which requires me to blog about the things I learn, see and everything. :) Yup! It will replace my fellyfryingpan blog for the entire trip so... Check me out here! I miss Singapore! HA!