Profile
Daniel Tay Yan Meng
Logistics Management
Ngee Ann Polytechnic
In Wuhan, China - 1st Sept to 12th October 2009


Messages


Alliances

Adrian

Alvin

AnYu

Chin Kuang

Chong Sian

Edy

Erwin

Eshlyn

Gloria

Jarold

Jun Ru

Ming Yu

Polim

Rebecca

Roy Tan

Shun Qing

Siti

Xanier

Yoke May

Zhong Rong



History
August 2009 September 2009 October 2009

Daily Rewind

Day 42 - 武汉 后会有期!| 我们回家了!The time has arrived for ...
Day 41 - 光谷, 后会有期!We visited 光谷 for the last time ...
Day 40 - 首义路We decided to visit a place near 黄鹤楼 (...
Day 39 – 最后一课Our last lesson at Room 407, Foreign ...
Day 38 – 生病记之二Good news: Our bedsheets has been ch...
Day 37 – 生病记之一It was a stay-in day for us to do ou...
Day 36 – 光谷, 我来了!Another of our countless visits t...
Day 35 – 再次重逢, 汉口We had our local tour guide bring...
Day 34 – 宅男The whole day I was in my bunk finishin...
Day 33 – 老鼠街We visited a new place today named as ...

Credits
Designer: Vianzx
References:
dA
doughnutcrazy
GuyWithNoName



Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Day 30 - 演讲

We did practically nothing much today except for presentation of our assignment 2. No pictures for today, but I am quite sure I screwed up my presentation.

11:13 PM

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Day 29 - 庆祝晚会

It's another free morning for us to sleep in late and complete assignments. Had our lunch at canteen 3 before proceeding on to our class at 2pm. Being a lazy bunch of students, we decided to proceed straight on to the quiz without the last lecture, chapter 10. I completed the quiz swiftly and waited for the others before going back to our hostel for a little rest and prepare for the
activities at night.


Our last quiz in Wuhan!


Coincidentally, it's the last day of the military training for the students here!

It's definitely a night to remember. The China students organised a very fun activity for us and I shall name it Get Together Night. Main activites are games and performances. Some games included are guessing who is drinking or eating the unique drink or food, balloon stepping, crossing the pole and balancing the ping pong ball.


Our function hall!

MDE can be considered either lucky or unlucky depending on how you analyse the situation. About 3/4 of our MDE peeps went up on stage to play the games they organised. When the event is coming to an end, they announced that there will be an extra game added which is balancing the ping pong ball while doing squats, turning around a bottle and bouncing it 3 times on the bat. For some reasons, I was being pointed our by the MDE peeps but I managed to pull my 2 roommates along. Haha, what a nice work for Room 319!


We are the 3 chosen ones!


Getting ready..


Awaiting our turn!


Me with Lyric and Liu Li, two of the organisers!

After the activites, we went back to our bunks to prepare for the next activity which is surprising Gloria for her birthday, which is today! We decided to keep her in suspense by not celebrating for her last night at 12am sharp but today. Although an impromptu decision, it came out well. After singing the birthday song, we smashed the cream on her face and off we ran back to our rooms!
Being very kiasu, we sprinted back to our rooms and locked the doors with the extra safety lock that was rarely used. By using that, the door cannot be opened even if you have the key, something like what we have in Singapore.

The other peeps outside came in about 30 minutes later with all white faces but fortunately they have peaced out so we did not get any "bullets" on our face. Overall, it's another successful birthday celebration!

11:44 PM

Monday, September 28, 2009
Day 28 - 医药园

We had lessons at 10am today instead of the usual 9am so we get an extra hour of rest. As the days pass by, our workload is getting smaller. Agenda for the day was to complete chapter 8 lecture and quiz and off we go.

Proceeded on for lunch at the students' cafe again. Their 香菇滑鸡煲仔饭 is nice but a bit too oily for me. Gathered at 2pm for a site visit. A short 10 minutes bus ride to a nearby pharmaneutical factory and we only stayed on for 30 minutes or so before going off. Guess what time did we reach school? The answer is 3pm. Furthermore, I do not find the need for MDE to visit this factory as it is totally out of what we are studying and we do not get to see anything except listening to the talks outside in the hot sun. I hope the next visit will be better (if there is still any).


What's a buffalo doing here? I'm interested to know too!


The place where the goods enter


Random picture :D


Some beautiful plants


Apparently, we did not follow the rules by taking a photo!

Had our dinner at a nearby restaurant which I did not want to go in the first place as the exterior does not really appeal to me. However, the food there was one of the best in our neighbourhood!
This has taught me not to judge a book by its cover.

9:50 PM

Sunday, September 27, 2009
Day 26 & 27 - 璀璨的武当山

Our last trip in Wuhan to 武当山. This trip marks the end of our overnight trips that we are having. Gathered at 6.30am and boarded the bus heading for our destination. The bus we had was slightly smaller but still acceptable for China standards. The whole journey took 7 hours which was the longest ever but I managed to catch a few winks.


Here we go!


We've reached 武当山!

Had our lunch which was the worst lunch I had in China and proceeded on to the tour. It was raining so some of us bought ponchos for 5 RMB each. The first place we visited was 太子坡. It consists of a temple and a tower known as the 5 Cloud Tower. It also has a place where we can taste the different kinds of tea. I still love Chinese Tea. They have the unique taste that other drinks cannot provide.


The bus of 武当山


Our first destination!


Beautiful clouds around a mountain


Preparing the tea


Washing the cups


Adrian, me, Chin Kuang and Zhong Rong


Another view of clouds


Me with the mountains!

Next we went on to 紫霄宫 which was another temple. The view out of here is almost the same therefore I took lesser pictures. After that, we went on to our hotels for check-in. As there were not enough rooms, a few of us volunteered to move to another hotel nearby. This is the worst hotel I ever experienced but thankfully it is still livable.


Group photo without the leader


A small river


Group B jump shot


Our hotel room

The next day, we woke up early to prepare ourselves for the 武当山 expedition. As we were told the previous day, it takes about 2.5 hours to ascend to the top of the mountain and we have to climb about 6500 steps in total. As the climb started, I was feeling tired after about 500 steps but my determination along with my friends' support pushed me along to the top. If I was climbing alone, I would have given up halfway. The great sense of satisfaction after ascending to the top is something I will never forget in my entire life.


Beautiful flowers along the way


Climbing up the mountain with endless flights of stairs


AnYu and myself


We've reached the top!


Group photo on top of 武当山

The "peak" that we reached is not actually the real peak. We have to climb for another 20 more minutes to reach the peak which is also known as 金顶 (Golden Roof) at 1612ft. This journey was very tough as the steps were very steep and our legs were already very tired. However, we still managed to climb all the way to the top and not forgetting to take pictures with the wonderful scenery we were rewarded with up there!


Adrian and myself posing at the peak


Yoke May and myself


The 4 Thais from Chiangmai YEP 2008!


Beautiful view down the mountain

It's finally time to go down the mountain. Instead of going our original route of climbing down the mountain, we decided to take the cable car instead. They do not call the cable car 缆车 here but instead 索道 is a more common name. The cable car here is also slightly different from what we usually see as only 2 people are allowed in one car. With the steep slopes and maneuvers, it makes it a fun journey for 2.


Adrian and myself in the cable car


Look at the long row of cable cars!

After reaching the foot of the mountain, we had our lunch and finally had the 7 hour journey back to school again, reaching at 9pm.




Reflection

As the saying goes, 有志者,事竟成 (When there's a will, there's a way). I had proven this sentence true to myself today. Climbing stairs might seem easy but 6500 steps is not a joke. Thanks to the encouragement of my friends, I managed to complete the whole journey. Furthermore, I was not one of the last but one of the first 20 or so to reach the top. It's an achievement to me and I am sure I will do better in time to come.

11:44 PM

Friday, September 25, 2009
Day 25 - 谈公事

We had our IS lesson today on Chinese Business Etiquette. We were taught various ways of how to meet your clients and table manners when dining with them. This would be an eye opening experience for us as we do not have the chance to expose ourselves to the business world in China yet. Our lesson today was in a computer lab which means that each of us will get a computer to use. However, the only functions we have were to zoom in and out of the slides as the lecturer has control of our computer screens.


Everyone with their computer


A notice to tell us to pay attention to the lecture

Group B had our first group lunch to discuss about our post-trip video. The theme and songs are being discussed as well as the concept of the video. Look out for more when the video is done! Some video editing skills might come into handy now... *winks*


Heading for lunch


My drink


Black Pepper Beef Steak - Only 18 RMB!

As usual, had our BPE lesson in the afternoon and did chapter 7. In the evening, I was feeling unwell as my stomach was bloated and I kept having diarrhea. Slept in the bunk throughout as the others went for dinner. Although I kept mum, almost everyone knew about my problem and lots of them came to ask if I am alright. I was quite touched as I did not expect anything like that. Now I am worried if I will be able to go to 武当山 tomorrow.

11:17 PM

Thursday, September 24, 2009
Day 24 - 无招牌


Chapter 6 quiz


Tomatoes with egg - Definitely perfect!


Almost the whole campus at the auditorium for National Day Celebration




Reflection


It's quite true that the students here love their country. Lots of them volunteered to perform for the school's National Day Celebration and they have very good talents. From what I heard, they have a very stringent selection criteria. Therefore, I think that we should learn from their spirit of loving their own country.

10:24 PM

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Day 23 - 探险之旅

We had something different from what we usually have today; Outward Bound Activities. We gathered at 8am and got into our groups with a simple army drill. Due to the large number of people that do not understand Chinese, I was chosen as the interpretator. We got into our groups and started to make our flags and tribal costumes. We are called 龙 and our leader is called 龙头 with the followers as 龙儿 and commoners as 小龙. A little skit was prepared to introduce our group to the others. Our story goes like this; One day, 龙头 brought her 4 龙儿 our for a tour when a monster came to destroy the village. When they came back, they defeated the monster and the whole village worshiped her.


Group photo!


Discussing our design for the flag!


Our artist for the day!


Me with the completed flag!


Our tribe leader!


Group photo after the skit!


Our first activity was rock climbing. After about 70% of the people had gone up, I gave it a try. Although I climbed quite low, I have beaten my record in Secondary Two. It feels definitely great!


The 21 guns with Mr Loh!


Me on the wall!


Oops! Landing time!


Thankfully I landed nicely, although off target!

After lunch, we had a little game called Tiger, Mouse and Elephant. Basically, it's just a game of scissors, paper, stone but the whole group has to do the same thing. After the game we proceeded on to a game called Trust Fall. It's a game whereby the group members will stand behind the person to catch him when he falls. Sounds familiar? After which, we gathered for a small game of Barang Barang with our instructor. He learns fast!


Tiger, Mouse and Elephant


Falling down!


Barang Barang

Last on the list is the high obstacles course. I've told myself I will never step onto it as the height is very high and I have an extreme acrophobia. Therefore, I sat down and gave the others the moral support.


The high obstacle course!


Group photo with the instructors!



Reflection

Exceeding one's limits ain't easy. I know I've tried my best at the rock climbing wall today although the results are not very satisfactory but it is good since I beat my own personal record. The trust fall made me realise the importance of trust among friends. Although I did not personally go up because of the lack of time, I'm sure I will be alright even if I am up there as I can trust the friends I know here.

The obstacle course made me realise that fears are very difficult to overcome. The greatest fear in my life is still my fear of heights. Trying to overcome it is unavoidable as I will need to overcome it when I am in army.

8:47 PM