Daniel's Wuhan Life

2009-10-12T23:45:00.003+08:00

Day 42 - 武汉后会有期！| 我们回家了！

The time has arrived for us to return back to Singapore, our homeland. Although there are wonderful memories in Wuhan, I have been waiting for this day for 42 days. Nothing is better than being at your own home. We gathered at 8.50am to take the bus to the airport for a whole day of journey back to Singapore. Did our last area checking at 8.30am to ensure we did not leave anything behind. The doors of our hostel rooms slammed shut for the last time at about 8.40am and that would be the last time we would be seeing our hostels. I will miss you, room 319!

Our toilet entrance!

The cupboard which kept our valuables safe when we are out!

Goodbye my dear bed!

Room 319

Thank you, toilet bowl for saving me from the torture for 42 days!

Byebye, toilet!

Last view of our room

My 2 roommates, Chin Kuang and Zhong Rong

Goodbye, 东1 hostel!!

We set off for the airport at about 9.15am. It will be a 2 hours journey bus ride from the hostel to the airport. 武汉科技大学中南分校 will be dearly missed in our hearts. On the way to the airport, we had all our chats and stuffs as it might be the last time the 21 guns will be together again. We reached the airport at about 10.30am but we had to circle around the airport as there was some confusion about where to stop our bus. After 20 minutes, we managed to disembark from the bus. Checked in our luggage and mine weighed 33kg. Although 3kg overweight, some others who had light luggage was able to even out. Having lots of time before our flight at 1.35pm, we went to KFC to have our last lunch. It will be the last time having China's KFC and I will certainly miss the egg tarts and other stuffs that Singapore does not have. After lunch, we went to the boarding gate to board our plane, a Boeing 737-800 by China Southern Airlines operating as CZ3345 from Wuhan to Guangzhou.

We arrived at the domestic departures hall for our flight to Guangzhou

Wuhan airport looks great!

My lunch in KFC! Last meal in Wuhan! =(

Our plane to Guangzhou!

The flight took off shortly after 1.30pm and off to Guangzhou we go! When the plane took off, lots of images of Wuhan was in my mind. I do not know when will I get to see my friends in Wuhan and savour the food in Wuhan again. All will be memories.

Our flight to Guangzhou!

Boarding the plane

My snack box on the plane!

Upon arrival in Guangzhou airport, I had a mission for myself; Finding my nephew from Guangzhou who is here to pass me some stuffs. It's been 7 months since I saw him so I am quite excited to see him again. After some calling around, I finally found him after 20 minutes. We walked around the airport while waiting for my next flight to Singapore. At 5.30pm, we gathered to get ready for our flight back to Singapore. While passing through the temperature check, one of our friends, Adrian was rejected to pass through as he had slight fever. I was quite worried that he could not pass through as he is not familiar with the environment in Guangzhou. However, he finally managed to pass through so it was quite a relief.

Me and my nephew!

Our flight, CZ351 to Singapore!

My meal on the plane, the Seafood Meal

We touched down in Singapore at 10.39pm. There were cheers and applause coming from us when we touched down as we finally reached our homeland! I was very excited to go back home once the doors of the plane opened. Went to the duty free store to purchase some liquor and collected our luggage. Our OIP leader, Mr Lim Choon Boo was actually there to pick us up! Cabbed home and I was so excited that I gave my mum a great big hug once I stepped into the door.

Our luggage on the trolley!

Last group photo for MDE OIP Batch 3!

Some of my good friends.. Friends forever!

Reflection

As the saying goes, 往事只能回味. All of what we had gone through in Wuhan has already past and it will be etched in our minds forever. It was amazing how the 21 guns bonded together as one while we were there. Some of us did not know each other before the trip but we are all good friends now. The life in Wuhan, experiencing different cultural experiences and having fun together is something I will never forget in my life. Another thing is sharing our hostel rooms with our good friends. We did not had any chance to stay with each other for so long in Singapore but we had the chance to do it in Wuhan and it will put the friendship to the test as we have to tolerate each others' shortcomings to ensure that conflicts do not happen. I would particularly like to thank my 2 roommates, Chin Kuang and Zhong Rong for doing that and they were patient in telling me what they did not like so as to create a good environment for everyone to live in. We are now back in Singapore to our normal lives but I am sure the memories will never be forgotten. We shall look back at the photos we took and all the laughter we shared during the trip and remember the good ol' times we were together as the... 21 guns!

A song dedicated to the 21 guns

As we go on
We remember
All the times we
Had together
And as our lives change
Come whatever
We will still be
Friends forever!

2009-10-11T23:46:00.001+08:00

Day 41 - 光谷，后会有期！

We visited 光谷 for the last time today. I must say that it is the shopping centre we visited most throughout our stay in Wuhan. Had our lunch at Ajisen. It has much cheaper prices compared to Singapore and the taste is great!

光谷!

The menu

千味拉面

BBQ Unagi!

Fish Roe Sushi!

After lunch, we proceeded on to shopping! Left with not much money, I was once again very careful with what I bought. Got an Adidas shirt and some gifts for my friends. In the evening, we decided to visit the Night Market for our last dinner in Wuhan. I ordered fried rice and it still tastes great!

One of our very last views

Night view of 光谷

Farewell, Optics Valley!

My fried rice!

A friend I made in a local supermarket

Tomorrow is the day we are leaving Wuhan for our hometown, Singapore after 6 weeks!

2009-10-10T23:12:00.001+08:00

Day 40 - 首义路

We decided to visit a place near 黄鹤楼 (Yellow Crane Tower) named as 首义路 for some shopping! Gathered early to board our chartered van which cost us 80 yuan to reach the place which borders 武昌. Upon reaching, we went to 首义园小吃街 for our brunch. The food here tasted great when we came here last time so we decided to come here to have our meal again. I bought pig blood and century egg porridge at a stall which is near to the end of the street. When collecting my porridge, there was a waitress who carried the porridge all the way from the stall to my seat which is almost nearing the other end of the street. I was quite shocked to see this as this rarely happen in Singapore.

On the way...

Pig blood and century egg porridge!

Fried clams!

We started our shopping spree. Having not much money to spend, I was very careful with every dollar I am going to spend. Reached this shop called YY Sports where they sell lots of different sports brand, something like World of Sports in Singapore. Bought a Nike shirt which looked great on me and proceeded on for more shopping.

The whole street is full of shops with a road in the middle so we did a zig-zag pattern by looking at this shop and crossing over to the opposite side to look at another shop. Basically, we crossed the road countless times today and we almost mastered the art of crossing the road in China! We took a van we hailed on the road back to school for our farewell dinner in the evening.

You can take this for 1 yuan if you are tired!

My new Nike t-shirt!

Reflection

It has become a fact that the Chinese are into their job, at least in the service industry. We have had several instances whereby we said thank-you to them and they said "welcome" back with a genuine smile. Also, the porridge waitress did not mind bringing the porridge all the way to our tables although it was a very long distance. From this, we can once again see their love for their work.

2009-10-09T23:39:00.003+08:00

Day 39 – 最后一课

Our last lesson at Room 407, Foreign Language School today. This marks the end of the climbing of the 135 steps of stairs up to the classroom every time we have lessons. It’s a dreaded part but it will definitely leave a memory in us. Our task for today is also simple, Assignment 3 Presentation. I can say that this is one of the very few times I am presenting without any powerpoint slides and this can be very difficult as you have to know what to say at the back of your mind.

My canteen card

Mr Loh and his workstation!

Our classroom

After so long, I still do not get what is "English Salon"!

Flower patch

外语学院，后会有期！

After the lesson, I went to 光谷街 alone to look for my 2 Wuhan friends, Charlotte and Ya Nan. This might be the last time I am meeting them before going back to Singapore so I cherish this chance a lot. Decided to take a cab there to save time. It was difficult to hail a cab along the roadside and when I got onto the cab it’s a journey of endless “stunts” again. There was once this mega 18 wheeler truck was less than a metre away from us and it made me thought that we would collide anytime.

Had our dinner and walked around the shopping trying to get some stuffs for my friends. My money is draining out! More gifts to be bought in the last few days. Finally, we ended our shopping trip at about 8pm and I embarked on my journey back to the hostel, wondering if I will be able to meet them again… Someday, somehow.

Reflection

While waiting for the cab, I saw a local writing National Day messages for the country although national day is over. We can see how patriotic the Chinese are compared to Singapore when most of the people do not care when NDP is over and some only treats it as a holiday.

Ya Nan and myself

Charlotte and myself

Proof of patriotism!

2009-10-08T23:49:00.001+08:00

Day 38 – 生病记之二

Good news: Our bedsheets has been changed!
Bad news: It's the last bedsheet change we'll have =(

It’s yet another day of me staying in the bunk as I am still sick! The others decided to visit another mall today known as 群光广场 but I decided to stay in the bunk since I am too unwell to get out. Stayed in the bunk for the whole day to watch some videos while resting.

Moral of the story: DO NOT GET SICK WHILE OVERSEAS!

2009-10-07T23:17:00.000+08:00

Day 37 – 生病记之一

It was a stay-in day for us to do our assignment 3. Therefore, we discussed about the whole assignment and completed it within the day. Had lunch and continued with our assignment. Not forgetting, we give ourselves a little break to have the energy to go on. After dinner, I discovered that my throat has inflammation. It was not really obvious until this time when my throat starts to hurt and bothering me. Decided to rest early so that I can get well soon. It’s not fun to be overseas for such a long time and getting sick a few days before returning home.

2009-10-06T23:46:00.000+08:00

Day 36 – 光谷，我来了！

Another of our countless visits to 光谷街. We decided to take the van service that our friend found out about to the place as it only cost us 30 yuan for 10 people. However, the bad point is that we have to squeeze into the van, which was quite fun but uncomfortable! The driver really shocked us by the “stunt” he made before picking us up.

Had our lunch at an eatery which serves awful food but a thing to compliment is that their soup is quite nice. We walked around the shopping and I found a clock which is quite nice. It is a wooden block with digits appearing but it is just a flat surface with nothing popping out. I have seen my friend’s clock and I was tempted to buy it too. It not only shows the time but also the date and temperature and it also comes with an alarm clock which I think is ineffective in waking me up! Had our dinner at MacDonalds and headed back to our hostel in the van again.

A random shop

光谷 at dusk

Cheeseburger!

The packaging

2009-10-05T23:44:00.000+08:00

Day 35 – 再次重逢，汉口

We had our local tour guide bring us to 汉口 today for a tour of the other side of Wuhan. Wuhan is being divided into 3 parts being 汉口，汉阳 and 武昌 which is the part we are in. Being 10 times larger than Singapore, the travelling time here can be very long at times. We have to get up early at 7am to prepare for our set off at 8am as the journey there will take at least 90 minutes. Our chartered bus cost all of us 800 yuan so it is about 36 bucks for each of us. I find that it is quite worth it as it will take at least 60 yuan if we take a cab instead.

We finally reached a theme park in 汉口 known as 中山公园. According to the tour guide, it is the largest theme park in Wuhan but the facilities are just so-so. Some of them decided to take the roller coaster which is named as 三环过山车 which means “3 Loop Coaster”. From what I see, some parts are very rusty and there are funny noises coming from the coaster when it is moving. I decided not to take it for safety reasons but about 11 of them went up. I was actually praying for them when they went up as I had a very uneasy feeling. Fortunately, all of them alighted safely and we went on to the next ride.

三环过山车

After some rides, we saw the Pirate Ship which made me want to go on it. It is scary here as it will go nearly vertical at its peak. It feels totally great experience near 0g or even negative g forces as it will be a very rare chance to experience it. All of us went for the mirror maze which was really rubbish as it is poorly designed. However, the ticket price was 10 yuan and there was a middle aged lady outside the maze giving us discounts for the ticket if we were to go in together. We managed to haggle the price from 10 yuan to 5 yuan in the end. However, I noticed that the money we gave went into their own pockets. I guess this is what you call “extra income” for them as they do not have the system whereby the tickets have to be inserted into a machine. This is something that will not happen in Singapore as corruption is strictly against the law.

Our next destination was 江汉路 which is a pedestrian street (步行街). Since it will take a very long walk, we decided to take the local 轻轨列车 (Light Rail Transit) for a single stop. It is sort of like our MRT in Singapore, just a different name. A single stop cost us 1.5 yuan. Their ticket here is also interesting as it is in a token form like what you see in an arcade. You have to scan the token before entering and the gate will open for you to enter. When exiting, just drop the token into the token slot and the gate will open for you to alight! However, there is a strange stench in the train that most of us could not stand. It smells like some vomit smell or something but I do not really remember.

The LRT ticket!

LRT tracks

The train is approaching, please stand behind the yellow line!

Interior of the train

Had our lunch at 真功夫 which is a restaurant that serves Chinese food in a fast food restaurant style. You queue up to buy the food and they serve you a set meal. Their price is quite reasonable and consists of rice, soup, vegetables and the main dish you ordered. A drink can also be added at a small price. Right after lunch, our shopping spree begins! There are lots of sports brand around like Adidas, Nike, Kappa and many more China brand like Peak and Anta. Bought a new bag from Nike which looks very cool with a chiller compartment where you can put your cold and hot drinks and an attached shoe bag to put your sports shoes. Cost 400 yuan which I guess is a reasonable price as you cannot find it in Singapore.

Another thing I bought today is a new wallet since so long as my wallet has worn and tore and all the coins have been dropping out. Finally in the evening, we walked to the ferry terminal to take the ferry back to 武昌 as it is expected to have major traffic congestion if we were to cross the Yangtze River via the bridge. The ferry can fetch up to 1000 people at a time and the trip takes 15 minutes. The boarding was very fast which made me shocked. Imagine hundreds of people crowding around a gate which is just 3 metres wide and people just dash in when the gate opens. This is how the Chinese spend their everyday life. I guess the people here are more “kiasu” than we are?

After disembarking from the ferry, the tour guide brought us to a food street whereby they sell lots of local fares. However, I did not want to eat the roadside stalls as they were too oily so I went to KFC with Adrian and Erwin. Although it’s KFC, I tried not to order any fried stuffs to minimize the oil and fat that I will be taking in.

Chinese boarding the ferry

MDE peeps

Night view of 汉口

Another view with digital display lights!

Boarded the bus back to school and I was watching videos on my iPod along the way. Felt very nauseous just after 20 minutes and I guess it is due to motion sickness. Now I have discovered my problem. I cannot watch shows on a small device in a dark moving place. Had an early night today.

Reflection

Corruption is still a major problem in China. We can see that lots of places have corruption going on. I guess this is because of poverty in China and most people are earning just enough to feed themselves so they have to find ways to earn extra income. Public transport is very cheap in China but the quality of their transport is really low. I guess this is what the Chinese saying goes, ”一分钱，一分货”. Although we pay more in Singapore, we get high quality public transport services. I have seen some buses with broken plastic seats in China but we rarely see any broken seats in Singapore buses. Furthermore, the buses here only has plastic seats without any cushion whereas we have cushions in our buses to ensure the comfort of the passengers.

2009-10-04T23:17:00.000+08:00

Day 34 – 宅男

The whole day I was in my bunk finishing up assignment 2 report and discussing about our assignment 3. Although the whole day was spent in the bunk, we did not feel bored as we had things to do and of course having our lunch and dinner. Sometimes our meals can be interesting as we would joke around and spend an hour eating. This is how it feels like to be in an immersion program with friends that you know or have made during the trip.

2009-10-03T21:29:00.002+08:00

Day 33 – 老鼠街

We visited a new place today named as 卓刀泉 but another name for it would be 老鼠街 which literally means “Mouse Street”. The bus ride there took longer than what we usually have at 45 minutes or so. Throughout the bus ride, I discovered how the Chinese can actually squeeze in the bus without caring about body contact with strangers. That happened to me during the ride as there was this middle-aged lady standing behind me and she had some body contact with me. Although not any sensitive parts, it was an awkward situation for me as it does not really happen in Singapore.

We are taking bus 907!

The Chinese way of squeezing in buses

Selling dog meat!

Poor dog.. I guess he's in a person's stomach by now... =(

We finally reached 老鼠街!

Upon reaching, we went to look for places to have our lunch. On our way, we saw this shop selling Dog Meat Steamboat which I found it very disgusting. Dogs are a man’s best friend, so why are we eating them? Found this steak restaurant which serves food that is up to acceptable standard at an acceptable price. All aspects of this restaurant are average with nothing to compliment and nothing to complain about. After lunch, it’s shopping time! To our surprise, the Mouse Street is just little shops stationed in a small alley, something like what you see in Peninsular Plaza in Singapore.

Our menu

My meal

Prove that we had been to 卓刀泉!

Since it is mostly girls’ stuff in the street, the guys decided to visit the other side of the street which sells mostly IT stuff. Although catering more to my taste, I still do not find anything to shop or buy there as most of them are cameras, computers and MP3 players which I already have. At 8pm, some of us decided to come back to the hostel first as we were already lethargic.

Reflection

I must say that the Chinese are really “powerful”. Since China is the most populous country in the world, it is expected to have lots of squeezing around the public transports but I did not expect it to be so extreme. Comparing the population density between Singapore and China, Singapore has a much higher population density than China so it is expected to be more packed in Singapore than in China.

The difference is that we have different cultural values. In Singapore, most of the things is being controlled by the government such as transport, importing of food to our accommodation. Furthermore, bribery is a very rare thing seen in Singapore. Comparing the 2 countries, lots of bribery can be seen in China and other stuffs in areas are out of control by the government as the country is too big. We can see dogs being chopped up and eaten in public here and nobody treats it as a big deal but in Singapore it will become headline news in just a few hours. Therefore, we should be able to accept another country’s culture and compare it with our own culture.

2009-10-02T23:47:00.003+08:00

Day 32 - 光谷步行街

We had our Written Test 2 today early in the morning. Although an open book test, it was tougher than the previous one and I also took the full duration to finish it. As we complete more stuffs, I feel that my workload for the next semester is getting lesser so that I can spend more time to focus on other modules.

A group of us decided to visit 光谷街 again for some hair treatment. Upon reaching, we went to have lunch at Pizza Hut. Although we're in China, the pricing of that of their pizzas are almost the same as in Singapore. I spent 90 yuan on this meal which is about 20 SGD. However, they do have stuff that we do not have in Singapore such as Pork Pizza and Walnut Pasta.

The IT Mall near the shopping

Another view

Bacon and Walnut Pasta with White Sauce

Mashed Potatoes

After lunch, we decided to walk around for a while before going to a shop named as Yes, I Do for our hair treatment. Initially I only decided to cut my hair but I got tempted by the dye so I decided to have a go. My 2.5 hour treatment cost 200 yuan which I find that is reasonable with the standard and quality of service they provide and the decoration at the service facility. My hair has colour again, after half a year!

Me, Adrian and Ming Yu before our treatment

My hair is being washed =D

Looks like our MDES President isn't it?

Me getting a dye!

On the other side!

The dye that is applied to my hair

After our treatments!

The plushie I got at the arcade today!

2009-10-01T23:33:00.000+08:00

Day 31 - 欢庆新中国成立六十周年

Map of the administrative regions of the People's Republic of China

Happy Birthday to the People's Republic of China! It's the place where I was born, the place I grew up and the place I spent 2 years of my childhood before going to Singapore. I got woken up by one of my China friend via SMS urging me to watch the National Day Parade on air from 10am. It's a grand ceremony with lots of performers and thrilling stunts.

I fell in love with the China National Anthem. Here is how it goes

起来不愿做奴隶的人们
把我们的血肉筑成我们新的长城
中华民族到了最危险的时候
每个人被迫着发出最后的吼声
起来起来起来
我们万众一心
冒着敌人的炮火前进
冒着敌人的炮火
前进前进前进进

Reflection

It's touching to see how patriotic the Chinese are. As my friend said, no Chinese would not be excited for this day when their own country celebrates her birthday. Also, it's the country's 60th Birthday this year so the celebration was very grand compared to the previous years. Loving our country is something we ought to learn from the fellow Chinese we see here. Some of us just do not care about Singapore's national day which means that they are not proud to be a Singaporean. We as Singaporeans should be also united as one to be One People, One National, One Singapore.

2009-09-30T23:13:00.000+08:00

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.

2009-09-29T23:44:00.000+08:00

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!

2009-09-28T21:50:00.000+08:00

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.

2009-09-27T23:44:00.002+08:00

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.

2009-09-25T23:17:00.002+08:00

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.

2009-09-24T22:24:00.000+08:00

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.

2009-09-23T20:47:00.004+08:00

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.

2009-09-22T22:59:00.002+08:00

Day 22 - 可口的可口可乐

We had the chance to visit the local Coca-Cola factory to see how is the famous drink being produced. When we reached we were brought to a room to view a video followed by a short tour of the factory. It's interesting to see how the drinks are being produced as I have never seen it before.

We've finally reached!

A display shelf, I guess?

Large sign!

After the tour, we headed back to our hostel to have a rest before going out for dinner at a local fishball restaurant. Their food is great, although their service is horrendous.

Sanitized utensils, 1 yuan for a set

Tofu

Golden Mushrooms

Fishballs! Look at how big the pot is!

Potato with beef

2009-09-21T23:30:00.004+08:00

Day 21 - 我们逛街去！

We have been in China for 21 days now which means that we had gone through half of our trip. We have strengthened our bonds with each other and hopefully we will bond even better with more days to come. Had our third IS lesson this morning which was the most boring ever. Talking about Chinese history and religions ain't my thing, I guess.

Spring and Autumn Period, 春秋战国时代

The Five Cardinal Values which is sort of like my secondary school motto!

My favourite, Analects!

We decided to visit 光谷街 for lunch and shopping, followed by dinner. I bought a jacket which totally changed how I look like as it fits me very well and makes me look slimmer! Only costs me 237 yuan which is about 45 SGD. We had our lunch at 豪客来 which is a beef steak restaurant and I ordered the Australian Steak which costs only 50 yuan, a little more than 10 SGD for a full meal of steak! Rating for the steak? 10/10! Had our high tea at Starbucks Coffee and dinner at McDonalds.

We took a cab back as we did for the outward journey but it was a scary one as there was some misunderstanding about the location we want to go and we were brought to another school. The cab fare soared up to 40 yuan from the usual 22 - 25 but he agreed to reduce it to 30. Although still expensive, we decided not to pursue it further.

My lunch!

Marble Cheese Cake | 云石芝士蛋糕

Green Tea Latte

My dinner at McDonalds

The shopping mall

Waterfall!

My jacket!

2009-09-20T21:49:00.004+08:00

Day 18, 19, 20 - 壮观的长江三峡

It's finally our turn to visit the one of the most admired sights in the world, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. Gathering time was 6.20am but I woke up at 6.10am as I had a long night and the first thing I did after waking up was to check my results on NPal, which turned out to be disappointing. After some delays, we finally set off at 7am. It's a 5.5 hour journey to Yi Chang, the neighbouring city of Wuhan. We were slated to have a tour around the Three Gorges Dam followed by dinner and transfer to another city to take the cruise.

Here we go!

Our lunch! One of the best we had!

The ship lock that we are going to pass through on our last night

Group B jump shot!
Edy, Yoke May, Daniel (me) and Jarold

Photo at the dam

We were brought to dinner after the visit. After dinner, we went to the port to prepare for our boarding. It's crowded with people as there are at least 5 cruises boarding. Finally, we settled down in our cruise after 1.5 hours of waiting. I am in room 106 with Adrian. Before boarding, we were told that there are rats, cockroaches and other creepy crawlies in the room but we were very fortunate not to encounter any of those during our stay. However, a good news is that the toilet here is sitting, not squatting! Shortly after boarding, we set sail for our journey!

Our room. Small but cosy!

The next day when we woke up we were already at Chongqing, a city out of the Hubei province. Its full name is 重庆直辖市 which means that it does not belong to any province in the People's Republic of China but it once belonged to the Sichuan province till 1997. Our first location was 白帝城 which looks like an imitation of the Great Wall of China. It also has museums with displays of ancient artefacts such as the suspended coffins. It's cool to see these artefacts as it's a once in a lifetime experience for me. We had to climb 200 - 300 steps of stairs

Our breakfast onboard the cruise

Our room: 106

The long flight of stairs up

Me and Jun Ru

Some random staircases

One of the suspended coffins

The long bridge leading to 白帝城

Another cruise just beside us

MDE unite!

Time for us to get to our next destination which was 神农溪, located in another city in Hubei province, 恩施. We had to transfer to another cruise to bring us to the stream where we will take the little boats to tour the river. The boatmen jumped off the boat when we reached a place where the water was only 1 metre deep to pull our boats as that was part of their tradition. However, this sight might be gone forever a few decades down the road as they are getting old and their children has gone to larger cities like Beijing and Shanghai to work. A kind man helped us to collect stones for us to take back as souvenirs.

Beautiful mountains

Picture taken from my room

One of the best photos I took

Boarding the boat. Each boat can carry 17 people

Beautiful waters!

The kind man that helped us get stones

The stone I got!

They are working very hard...
Picture edited by Polim

Mist floating on the water

Another picture of beautiful waters

At 10.30pm, it's time for us to cross the historical place, the Three Gorges Ship Lock. It's the largest in the world and can handle ships up to 3000 metric tons. It consists of 5 sections and we will descend in sections of about 20 metres each as the elevation between the 2 levels of water is more than 100m. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience for me to see this sight as I had been wanting to witness it.

The view of the gate before it closes

Close-up of the gates, they are real big, about 30m tall!

Other cruises and boats alongside

Look at how much we descended!

The last morning, we just woke up for breakfast and back to Wuhan! I miss my hostel after leaving for 3 days! Back in Wuhan at 2pm and rested before going for lunch and then dinner.

Reflection

As mentioned earlier, China is a place with a rich history. Natural and human creations are visible on the soil of China as we explore further. In Singapore, we do not have this privilege as our whole country is urbanised. Getting the chance to witness the project of the century, the Three Gorges Dam is also a very historical moment of my life. The boatmen pulling our boat is very hardworking and this is a spirit that we should learn from them as they start working when they are 20 years old till they are about 60. This shows the commitment to their work and their passion for it.

2009-09-17T23:00:00.002+08:00

Day 17 - 考试来了！！

Nothing to do this morning so we woke up early to have breakfast at 广州肠粉 which is situated just below canteen 3. I must say that their 肠粉 here have the Guangzhou taste as I have personally tasted it in Guangzhou before. Furthermore, the price here is very cheap, ranging from 2.5 yuan to 4 yuan! Alvin came over nearing noon to have our "K-Bunk session" which was very crazy! Videos will be uploaded soon! :D

牛肉肠粉

The K-Bunkers!

Lessons at 2pm and all we have to do is listen to 1 presentation and have our written test. I guess it would be alright and should be able to get a 70/100 for this. It's an open book test but the questions are tricky and there are tons to write!

Only group for today: Polim, Chong Sian, Ming Yu

TASTE OF HOME!

Reflection

It's my first time having a test overseas. The feeling is totally different from what is like in Singapore and it gives me the determination to do better.

2009-09-16T21:50:00.003+08:00

Day 16 - 演讲

It's time for IS lessons again! Had a lesson on Traditional Chinese Wedding and Feng Shui. The wedding part was alright but Feng Shui part made everyone doze off on their tables. We had to use headphones but I found it useless as it is very soft.

Pre-lecture. His email might attract some unwanted attention..

Everyone using their headphones

Lunch after class and we went to canteen 3 to have lunch. The rice here is superb and cheap! Only about 5 yuan for rice with 3 dishes. Back to bunk to have a little rest before going back to class at 2pm for quiz and presentation.

My lunch

Quiz time!

First group: Roy, Alvin, Jarold

Second group: Erwin, Edy, Adrian

Third group: Yoke May and Rebecca

Last group: Eshlyn, Xanier, Shun Qing

Reflection

Something I have not experienced in Singapore is using headphones to listen to the lecturer. It will help students to listen better without disturbance from the outside world but it will be hard for the lecturer to keep an eye on the students and also the volume is quite soft even at its maximum so I do not find it a very good way to do so.

2009-09-15T23:39:00.002+08:00

Day 15 - 摘橘子 | 烧烤

We had an interaction with the local students today - They brought us to a nearby farm to pick oranges. I initially thought it'd be boring but it turned out to be fun. We gathered at 1.30pm and boarded the charter bus to the farm which took about 30 mins. Upon reaching, we were amazed by the large area of the farm. Although there were a lot of oranges to be picked, only a few of them were sweet, the rest were tasteless or sour.

We've reached the farm!

Lush green vivacity, you call that?

The oranges here are green in colour!

The toilet.. You wouldn't want to do your "big business" here as there is no door!

Curved brinjal

Beautiful scenery near the entrance

A rock

Welcome to the guys' station

Back to our bunks to have a little rest before going out again. This time, our destination is somewhere that can reached by foot; a garden near our school for BBQ! Upon reaching, we discovered that their BBQ is not like what we have in Singapore. It is like a campfire where everyone can sit around and chit chat while cooking the food. I find that this is a very interesting way and a whole new experience for us. Other students bought some fireworks and fired them high up into the sky. It is my first time seeing fireworks being fired and they explode just less than 10 metres above your head. Some flares did not extinguish and fell down to the ground. Although fun, it is still dangerous. I guess that's why Singapore does not allow fireworks?

Campfire's burning!

Jarold and me

Adrian, Jarold and me

Adrian, Erwin and me

Campfire is still burning..

Fireworks!

2009-09-14T22:12:00.002+08:00

Day 14 - 考试

First of all, Happy Birthday Shun Qing! Although it was a failed surprise, she was nonetheless happy about it.

We have morning class at 9am today so we woke up very early for class.Scheduled to complete chapter 4 and FlexSim today. Quiz 4 was like the usual and we continued on our exercise for FlexSim. Most of us were stuck on the exercise but we managed to get through it with the help of Mr Joseph Loh. We decided to have a try at canteen 3 for our lunch since we have not visited there before. The food here is great! Better than canteen 2.

Our blackboard decoration

Military training on the field

Everyone busy with their work

Quiz time!

热干面！！

豆浆

Went back at 2pm for lessons again. This time we did our mock test paper followed by the actual lab test. It was quite easy and I guess I can score full marks for it if everything goes well, haha. Back to bunk for a rest and went out for dinner with Mr Joseph Loh and the rest. One of the best meals I've had in Wuhan so far, I can say.

The dishes are wrapped in plastic, hygienic!

Sanitized chopsticks

Beer!

Nothing like a cup of cold beer!

Fried cabbages

Fried beef slices with capsicum

鸡蛋炒丝瓜

2009-09-13T23:54:00.002+08:00

Day 13 - 玩偶世界

We were brought to 江汉路 for shopping today. Before the actual shopping trip, we went to a place which is the bank of the Yangtze River for some relaxing and photo taking. There are kites for sale and I can see people flying their kites up high.

We're approaching the 长江大桥

The intersection of 汉江 and 长江!

First view of Hankou, one of Wuhan's 3 districts

步行街

Our destination: Hankou Beach!

Yoke May and myself

JUMP!

We were brought to the 江汉路步行街 after that for free and easy. We walked around deciding what to eat. However, we were too hungry so we decided to buy some snacks to whet our appetite. Bought this fried chicken drumstick from a stall but it does not really taste nice. Oily, no meat and very troublesome to eat it. Score? 2/10. We decided to have lunch at a small eatery round the corner. It looks lowdown but no choice as I have already ordered the food. While eating halfway, I heard that there is a rat in the restaurant! Although I did not see it personally, it is not good news if rats appear.

Critic
Food: 2/10
Environment: 0/10
Service: 1/10
Price: 1/10

After lunch, we walked around and decided to try the "kiap kiap" machine at the arcade. After several rounds of walking around, we finally found the arcade. Spent almost the whole time playing in it. Probably a glitch was present in the one of the machines as we managed to get lots of prizes from that machine. The amount was so huge that the staffs went to do something to the machine. However, I do not think that it is a glitch with the machine.

Chicken drumstick

My lunch which earnt a "very nice" critic

Some random decoration? I think it's a shop!

The arcade!

Soon it was time for us to meet up and take the bus back to school. On the way back, bought a cup of Mango Yoghurt Drink. It tastes alright but is just too sweet. When we were back in school, we were told that Jun Ru, one of our fellow friends landed in hospital as she was feeling unwell. She actually started feeling unwell since yesterday but the condition deteriorated today. We visited her at the hospital to find her lying helplessly on the bed and the hospital looks lowdown. Singaporeans like us would not want to go there unless there is no other choice. However, she has returned from the hospital and is recovering well now.

Jun Ru, get well soon!

Reflection

What happened today at the arcade was quite unusual as in Singapore they do not have staffs looking around the machines. What you win, you will get it and nothing will be done to the machine, at least till you leave.

Another thing is what happened to Jun Ru. After this incident, I feel that it's very important to have true friendship when you are overseas as we will be the ones looking after one another in times of emergencies. I do not get why is the hospital so lowdown without any decent facilities except lots and lots of glucose solution for putting into the patient's body. I did not see any doctors moving around the hospital so I am wondering how this hospital operate. Moreover, the hospital is located right inside a night market. This set me thinking: is it because the night market food is dirty so people can rush into the hospital if they have food poisoning?

2009-09-12T20:54:00.005+08:00

Day 12 - 城市之旅

Today is our first city tour! Gathering time was at 7.15am so we woke up very early and all of us were very tired since we slept late last night. Our first destination today: 东湖. It's a lake that is famous in Wuhan for its beautiful scenery and 7 times larger than its sister lake, 西湖 in Hangzhou. The scenery here is really one of a kind, rated as AAAA in China. It really deserve the rating as you cannot find this in Singapore and it's a whole new experience for us.

Let's set off!

We've reached our destination!

Junru and myself

The cobbled path

When you admire flowers, flowers will admire you back!

Sense of serenity

Reminds me of.. Counter Strike!

Every tile is history, every plant is love

After the 东湖 tour, we went on to 湖北省博物馆 to understand and view the ancient relics of China history. We were introduced to 3 items by the tour guide on the bus but I had forgotten what they are. This is what happens when you are sleepy and listening to the tour guide speak! I was quite excited to visit the museum at first but as I walked on the displays all look similar to me so I got more and more tired of it. Taking photos were a chore too as there are reflections on the glass panels.

Some displays in the museum

The second gallery we went

Two very nice vases

Pure gold display!

Fountain outside the museum

After the museum visit, most of us were already very tired. There was a traffic congestion on the way so we managed to catch some sleep. Surprisingly, a force woke me up and when I opened my eyes, I see our next destination, the Yellow Crane Tower. It has a very special architecture. According to what the tour guide said, it was first built by Sun Quan in AD223 and was destroyed and rebuilt 12 times until it is now today. Before touring, the most important thing is to have our lunch! There's a food street just nearby the tower so we grabbed our lunch. Like in school, we have to purchase a card to use as they do not accept cash payments. Had my favourite 热干面 and some other dishes. Have a look!

The food street nearby

The card to be used to purchase food

热干面！

Barbequed octopus!

汤包

Duck liver

沙冰

This is how they twist their straws!

Making our way to the tower

The tower from the bottom

Lu Dong Bin, an ancient character riding on a yellow crane

Adrian, me, Erwin

Shun Qing and me

Eshlyn and me

Alvin and me

View from the tower

Logistics Management students!

Origins of the Yellow Crane Tower

There was a woman who had a restaurant and a poor man came to her restaurant every day for wine. After drinking the wine for a year, he said to the woman one day that it's time for him to go. Since he has nothing to give her, he picked up an orange peel and drew a crane on the wall. After drawing, he immediately disappeared. However, he told her that the crane would jump out of the wall and dance if she claps her hands. Although she did not believe it, she tried it and the crane really jumped out and danced. This made roaring business for the restaurant. 10 years later, the man came back and said that it's time for him to take the crane back as it has made enough money to repay his wine bills. Therefore, he flew away on the crane. It was later found out that he is actually one of the 八仙过海 characters, 吕洞宾.

Reflection

Today was a practical class for China's history. Since China is a country with rich history, there are lots of historical sites in the country such as the Yellow Crane Tower we went today. It was an eye opener for me today to see ancient artefacts being displayed and visit an ancient building, although it is not the original one.

We should preserve what we have now as we might not know that it will become an important historical monument 1000 years from now.

2009-09-11T22:05:00.004+08:00

Day 11 - 历史课 | 飞天超人

Our first IS lesson today about understanding the history of Wuhan and Hubei. Our lecturer's name is Anna. At first I thought we would be trying to decipher what she is trying to say but her English is quite good, not too hard to understand. Although the lecture might be boring at times, it's interesting to find out about the history of a place we are in now. Topics covered include Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Qu Yuan, various festivals and many more.

Our classroom - Room 310

Talking to us about the geography of China

Xanier's artpiece!

My nifty camera! *Zhong Rong's camera as prop*

We decided to visit an eatery nearby for lunch. It is opened by students who are studying in university. Initially, I wanted to try their Black Pepper Beef Steak but it went out of stock so I decided to try the Beef Brisket Claypot Rice instead. It's wonderful except that I keep biting into the spices that are of a funny yet familiar taste. However, spices bring up the taste of the food so it will be tasteless if no spices are added.

Critic

Rice: 7.5/10
Drinks: 6/10
Ambience: 5/10

Beef Brisket Claypot Rice

The steep stairs leading downstairs

Slacked inside our bunk for the afternoon and went out in the evening to buy 2 birthday cakes for Ming Yu and Shun Qing. We decided to celebrate their birthdays together so as not to attract too many complaints from the other tenants. However, we decided to celebrate at the stadium. Chin Kuang, Alvin, Zhong Rong and myself went to get the cakes. It's interesting to see how the baker prepare the cakes. The celebration went on as usual and both of them were practically stunned when they saw the cakes!

Ming Yu's cake

Shun Qing's cake

18 years old candle for Shun Qing!

We bought food back from the night market for dinner. Had fried rice and 梅菜扣肉饼. The rice is delicious but the pancake is just too hard! However, I guess that's because we have left it lying around for some time. Just had an interaction with the local students who are slated to bring us around on Tuesday. Schedule for next week is going to pick mandarin oranges followed by a barbeque session. Looking forward to it!

The pancake

My beef fried rice!

2009-09-10T23:54:00.001+08:00

Day 10 - 喘不过气！

2pm lessons so we decided to have lunch outside school. Again, we went to 吉祥馄饨. Had the beef dumplings which were simply great. Juicy on the inside, tender on the outside.

Beef dumpling

Right after lunch, we went for lessons again. Today's lesson is a short one but started late. Half an hour lecture followed by half an hour quiz and then FlexSim. Feeling very sleepy because of lack of sleep, I was daydreaming most of the time.

Quiz time!

An exciting thing to look for. Nian Yue, our friend from NP is coming to Wuhan to look for us, from Beijing! We swiftly walked to the gate to meet him. However, on our way we saw the students doing the military drill which is a pre-requisite for all freshmen. This is going to be a tough task!

Military drills

Group photo!

Dinner was at KFC. After so long, I finally managed to have my 嫩牛五方! It just keeps getting out of stock!

Fries

The packaging of my meal

This is how it looks like! It's shaped something like a pentagon, so I guess this is how it got its name?

Interior of my meal

2009-09-09T23:53:00.006+08:00

Day 9 - 易君生日快乐！

Wonder who's Yijun? It's Rebecca, the birthday girl for the day! We got ready outside her room at 12.10am and gave her a surprise birthday. Lots of playing around!

Close-up shot of the cake

Another shot of the cake

Candles lighted up!

All ready?!

She looks happy and touched!

Group Photo!

Lessons start at 9am today, which means we do not have much time to sleep! Only managed to catch about 6 hours before waking up for class. Agenda today was to complete chapter 2 followed by quiz 2 and a FlexSim exercise. Short class, about 2 hours. The quiz was a tad easier for me today so I finished it quite fast. The exercise was easy too, with the help of my roommates. :D

Quiz time!

We had our lunch at canteen 2 but at the second floor this time. There are dishes like 新加坡盖饭 which made us go O.o?! Finally, we decided to eat noodles. I had the 牛肉刀削面 which tasted alright except that the soup was full of oil.

Some home taste?

Oily!

Slacked in the bunk in the afternoon when I had this random thought to clean up the room. Seeing that the room's floor is dusty, I decided to clean up the room. My first time cleaning a room so I was quite blur of what to do. Took the mop but forgot the broom. LOL. Cleaning is fun!

嘻唰唰！！

After slacking, we went out for dinner at the night market nearby. As usual, ate stuffs like barbequed sticks and fried rice. Here are some photos.

Barbequed meat

Some very oily noodles!

Barbequed golden mushrooms

On the way back to the hostel, I decided to buy speakers. Went to a shop that Edy went to last time. Knowing some flaws about their service, I was extremely cautious when buying from them. I saw a pair of speakers which were quite nice but it seems like the one which was rejected by him as they were faulty. I insisted a test and I found that there is a fault. Turning the tables around, I decided to change to another pair instead.

My new speakers!

Beautiful night view of WUST Zhongnan Campus

When we got back to our hostel, Chin Kuang and myself decided to pay a visit to Yoke May and Rebecca's room as their room was infested by mosquitoes. The lesson learnt: Do not leave the mosquito net open as all of them will fly in! Spent over an hour to clear up all the mosquitoes. Nice exercise!

Fat mosquito!!

Cleaning up the room

Deciding what to do next

Reflection

An eye opener today was the shop where I bought the speakers. Although they were rejected for flaws, they were not kept away but displayed and to be sold to another unlucky customer. This is very dishonest of the shopkeeper. As there were no other shops nearby, I had no choice but to buy it from them. Next time if you are going to buy something from a shop, insist that they demonstrate it in front of you and don't let it get out of your sight. Also, get a receipt! That's the most important evidence that the product is bought from them.

2009-09-08T22:42:00.008+08:00

Day 8 - 堆积如山的功课

We had the privilege to sleep in late today as lessons start at 2pm. Went for lunch at 12.30pm and had my favourite 热干面 again. It simply tastes great! However, it’s not fulfilling enough for a meal and you will feel hungry just 2 or 3 hours after the meal. Weather was cooler today (around 20~26 degrees) so going from the hostel to the classroom was an easier task, without the scorching sun! Our agenda today was to complete chapter 1 and have a quiz followed by FlexSim. This is the first lecture I had in Wuhan and I found it special despite studying exactly the same things we are going to study if we stay in Singapore. I guess the reason being we are in a foreign land and have friends which you do not normally have in class to study with which makes the feeling fresh and unique. The quiz for chapter 1 was not really easy but also not really difficult. I suppose 22/30 is possible? Haha! Also, we got our topics for assignment 1 today. Schedule seems tight, time to buck up!

Everyone doing their quiz!

Our classroom

The teacher's workstation

You jump, I jump!

After lessons it's free and easy time again. We met up for dinner and our destination today was 吉祥馄饨 again. Tried the 虾仁馄饨 today which was also quite delicious. To be honest, it's the best eatery I've gone to in Wuhan till now. Bought a packet of small little white bread snacks. It tastes delicious with strong milk flavour and I'm quite sure they don't have it in Singapore. On the way back, I saw fireworks being laid out on the streets. They look like ordinary boxes but with extraordinary functions. It's the first time I see fireworks in the raw form! Shortly after walking past, they were being fired up. We Singaporeans were amazed by the fireworks but the locals just treat it as an everyday affair, some even ignoring it. I guess no people would ignore any fireworks being fired, isn't it?

My dinner!

Fireworks in raw form

Fireworks!

2009-09-07T23:17:00.002+08:00

Day 7 - 劳心劳力

Woke up rise and shine to attend lessons today for the first time in Wuhan. Our schedule for the day was to get familiarized with FlexSim, the software that is going to be used for our Business Process Engineering module. The road to the classroom was tough, even tougher than getting from the bus stop to block 50! Long flights of stairs and the scorching sun makes the journey like a trek. The school is crowded today as it's the first day of school for the students of WUST too. Banners are being posted all over the campus to welcome the freshmen of the university too which makes me quite amazed as we do not have so many banners like they have in China.

Our classroom - Smaller than that of Ngee Ann's

Another view of the classroom

We are using blackboards here, unlike whiteboards in Singapore!

One of the more high-tech digital banners in the auditorium

After the lesson, we visited the toilet rumoured to have a very short wall for the cubicles. Thesis: Confirmed! The walls are only up till my chest level and a person can easily see into the cubicle while you are doing your "business".

The short cubicles

Had our lunch at 吉祥混沌 which serves very nice wanton. If you read my blog a few days ago, you'd have seen the pictures. We were unable to forget the taste so we decided to have another try. I tried their 韭菜混沌 and 扬州炒饭 today. As what I expected, the fried rice was oily but the wanton was perfect!

Green tea ice!

韭菜混沌

Just perfect!

At 1.45pm, we met up for a campus tour. We visited the Information Engineering School and Life Sciences School. Facilities include computer labs and practical labs. Their facilities aren't that up to standard from a Singaporean perspective but the wonderful thing is that the students are very hardworking here.

Administrative building

A view up the school building

A computer lab

Another computer lab

Some electronics stuffs...?

Greetings from Logistics Management 2L02!

Greetings from all 21 of us + Mr Joseph Loh!

Group B!

A room for nursing students

In the Life Sciences block - Model of a skull

MDE unite!!

After the visit, we went back to our bunks to have a rest and got called out to have Physical Training (PT)! Basically we did a campus run consisting of slopes and sprints. As I expected, I had the weakest stamina in the group and was quite behind the group as I ran. However, they were very thoughtful and kept cheering for me to boost up my spirit, encouraging me verbally and stopping to wait for me. I was very touched! I'm sure I'll be able to train up my stamina if I persist on and possibly lose some weight.

Group photo after PT!

Looking very sweaty after running, with my favourite milk! (Can be advertisement? LOL)

Xanier, my personal trainer!

Jarold, my best motivator!

Went to the night market to eat again. Nice food!

Reflection

The facilities in WUST aren't as good compared to those in NP. However, the students here come to school just to study, not enjoy the facilities. They have no aircon, no wireless but yet they do not mind as they just want to get a certificate. Studying without aircon is a torturing experience for us Singaporean students. I can say that we are very lucky to have all those good facilities in our school.

在家靠父母，出外靠朋友. Very true. If my friends did not encourage me to finish the run, I'd have given up halfway. Encouragement from friends is still the most important thing!

2009-09-06T19:54:00.004+08:00

Day 5 & 6 - 美丽的绿林

We are going on a special trip today to 绿林, a nature's retreat in Wuhan. A 4 hour long journey there makes it interesting. Along the journey, we experienced how the driver swerve the bus to avoid those agricultural stuffs placed on the road. While climbing up the mountain, there were very large bumps which practically sent our buttocks flying into the air! Not something you can experience in Singapore, the thrill is there!

We reached at around noon and went to have lunch before proceeding on to whitewater rafting. No photos taken during the rafting except for one which was taken by their photographer for 15 RMB. The rafting itself took 2.5 hours! I partnered Adrian and both of us were rowing like no tomorrow. It was fun at first but got boring as the ride gets longer and longer.....

The bus to take us to 绿林

Before setting off - Excited for the trip!

Look at how curvy the road on the mountains are.. I feel like I'm in an Initial D car!

Cold Storage Kids Run ftw!

We bought these straw slippers at 2 RMB each to wear during rafting

Both of us on the raft!

After the rafting, we went to shower before proceeding on to our next destination - Beauty Falls (美人暴). It was a long trek. We actually had 2 options to either take the boat or walk but we chose to walk. Apparently, we did not regret walking as there was so much of the scenery to take! The scenery is truly amazing and breathtaking. Finally, we reached the Beauty Falls and took some group pictures there. Walking further down there was another waterfall which I forgot the name. When the whole trekking ended, all of us were very tired so we proceeded on to buy some refreshments from a roadside stall.

If you want to take this boat, it costs 10 RMB

Wonderful water flowing

Direct from the waterfall

Adrian and myself immersing into the waterfall spirit

It's a bird? No! It's a plane? No! It's.. Beauty Falls!

Group B!

Chin Kuang and myself

We went for dinner after that. After dinner, we walked up the slope to our hotels with our luggage. It was quite a chore for us climbing up with our luggage as it was quite heavy. The room is better than our hostel but for some reasons I miss the hostel!

Our room key! I'm in room 85326 with Adrian

The 2 super single beds

Bathroom - Definitely better than our hostel's!

We were told that we have a performance to watch. It's some performers performing skits, songs and musical instruments on stage. Overall, the performance is one of the best part of this trip. The last part was the best when all of us were told to dance together with the performers. The music was very rhythmic and we all had fun dancing to it!

A skit being performed on the stage

Fire spinning!

Campfire burning, people dancing!

Second day - Woke up at 7.15am to prepare for breakfast followed by a ride to a sightseeing area nearby. There is a bus to bring us around the area and the ride is also bumpy as the driver "drifts" through the area. We reached a place known as 南山寨. There are activities like horse riding, archery and best of all is the scenery! The horse ride is only 10 RMB, much cheaper than Singapore. Almost all of us got the chance to try it. We even shared to let our trip leader, Mr Joseph Loh have a try at it! He's quite afraid before going up as he said that he might suffer a heart attack on the horse.

After that, we went to visit a temple followed by some caves nearby. Got an amulet of protection from the temple!

Beautiful scenery~

Presenting to you Group B again!

The artificial horse which almost everyone had some difficulties climbing up - Warmup before the real horse ride!

Rebecca and myself acting as couple + Junru acting jealous

Me on the horse!

The gigantic gong at the temple

Went for lunch after the visit before proceeding on to take the bus home. The ride home was even bumpier! My buttocks flew high into the air at least 10 times. However, I love the feeling, very exciting! This time round the ride took 3.5 hours and I was excited when I finally saw somewhere nearby our hostel - KFC! Went for dinner after reaching and had the 热干面 which I had been wanting to eat for so long! After searching high and low for so long, I noticed it's just below my hostel at Canteen 2!

The KFC near our hostel

热干面 - One of Wuhan's specialities!

Reflection

We should not take things for granted. Taking an example of the bus journey we had, the roads are bumpy and small. It's very dangerous for the driver to "drift" on the road but he has no choice to do so as it's been like that for many years. Sometimes we just complain how bumpy our bus rides are on our way to school, this has taught us that there are people living in worser conditions than us and experiencing things worser in another part of the world.

As the saying goes, 十年树木，百年树人. Since it takes 100 years to culture a human, it will take even longer to culture an entire country, especially a huge country like China. Therefore, we should have more patience as we see China rapidly developing.

2009-09-04T22:16:00.003+08:00

Day 4 - 全新体验

9.56pm - Woke up and discovered that we need to meet at 10am for the campus orientation. I was quite shocked but still quickly prepared for the meeting. We were brought to the Foreign Language School to see our classroom to be used for our lessons.

The school building from afar

The school aims to provide an education that is successful

Buses parked outside the school

Close-up of our school

The building that "contains" our classroom!

One of the classrooms in the building. They have fold-up seats like in a movie theatre

After the orientation, we went back to our bunks to have a rest before going out for lunch. Lunch was at a nearby dumpling shop. The dumplings were delicious! One of the best, if not the best I tried. I had the beef dumplings

Their green bean ice, very nice!

My lunch for today

Beef dumplings, perfect!

Rest of the afternoon was spent slacking in the bunk. We decided to take our clothes for washing. Each bucket costs only 4RMB! Although we only have 2 buckets, they said the quantity was too much so they charged us 13RMB. The washing was done swiftly in about an hour and our shirts were ready for collection.

Our shirts being hung in the bunk

Yanan came to find us today. It's been so long since I seen her! She was so excited that she was running towards me when she saw me, haha! Glad that we're in Wuhan now so we can meet often. However, the traveling time from her school to ours is a grueling 2.5 hours! After that, we went to have 麻辣火锅 for dinner. It was very hot and we were eating without fan so we wear perspiring like no tomorrow!

It's a 鸳鸯锅

Our ingredients for the steamboat!

Nuts!

Here's our table after meal!

Looking forward to 绿林 tour tomorrow!

2009-09-03T23:56:00.003+08:00

Day 3 - 放眼看武汉

Slept late last night so was dawdling this morning. We decided to visit the nearby foodcourt (which is just below our hostel!) to buy some snacks and drinks. Their milk tastes funny! It's a little sweet and... The taste is just indescribable. Also, the students here are having their breakfast in the canteen, it's simply jam packed. Just another sight that we see daily in Singapore as it's lunch time.

Their milk which tastes funny

WUST students having their lunch

We have immersed into the daily lives of Wuhan citizens today. How? We took their public bus to 世界城, also known as 光谷步行街. It's a very huge shopping mall with lots of shops but more catered to the girls.

Just a picture of peeps from 2L02 before setting off!

Walked to a nearby bus stop to take bus 903 to the shopping mall. It's a long ride and you feel like you are being a sardine packed in a can throughout the whole journey. I had a scary experience in Guangzhou half a year ago where the driver was literally doing "Tokyo Drift" at turns and it made me quite scared as I'm worried I might just fall and injure myself anytime. The drivers at Wuhan are much better with no "Tokyo Drifts" but still it takes some skill to balance ourselves.

The bus is approaching the bus stop

Just look at how packed the bus is!

We've reached our destination!

A horde of us headed towards the shopping mall while speaking our very "Singapore" languages. We attracted a certain amount of attention from the public but we do not find it uncomfortable as we are used to it from the last few days, haha!

Heading up the overhead bridge

The first double decker bus I see in China!

Storming into the shopping mall!

We started to explore the mall. Little did we know, photography isn't allowed in the shopping mall. Therefore, we walked around and did some window shopping and reached the atrium. There are some nice statues and nice scenery, took some photos again!

Group photo outside the mall

Adrian and myself taking a picture with the statue

Yoke May and myself. Double YM!

Rebbecca and myself

Had our lunch at MacDonalds. There's a major difference in the Mac in Wuhan and the Mac in Singapore. They sell Pork Burger!! Last time I had it was in March when I was in Guangzhou but I had actually forgotten the taste. I'll be able to reminisce the taste today!

The packaging!

This is how it looks like inside

Fries - A tad healthier than in Singapore as lesser salt is added

Something Singapore doesn't have - Mango Pie!

As we continued our adventure, we discovered something; A car scrapping yard in the shopping mall. It's my first time getting so close to scrapped cars and it hurts to see them go. They've seen better days. However, good things don't last forever so eventually all cars will go through the scrapping process. Having lots of time, we decided to go to the cinema to see if there are any movies. However, the movies are not very up-to-date compared to Singapore so we decided to give it a miss. The cinema has very luxurious furnishing but cheap ticket prices. Tickets for shows before 6pm and after 9.30pm on weekdays are only 30 RMB (about S$6+). You wouldn't believe it but they actually tell us how long the advertisements before the show are!

Sad to see a car go

More cars ending their lives here

This is how it looks like in the cinema

Lots of time to go, we visited the arcade. We got particularly addicted to the game whereby you control a mechanical hand to grab the plushies in there. After 70RMB and lots and lots of tries, I managed to grab a white and yellow one (after 4 hours!). I kept the white one while I gave the yellow one to Chin Kuang, what he always wanted, haha. Sometimes it feels good to "do charity".

Edy - the first person to grab 2 plushies in just a turn!

Here are the plushies we tried to grab for 4 hours!

The plushie that's going home with me!

The MDE version of Old Master Q (老夫子)!

The time's up and time to go back to the hostel. On our way back, the bus was even more packed as it's the peak hour. The bus attendant is simply a strong lady. She chiongs through the crowd in the bus from back to front to collect the fares and shouts loudly through the whole bus. Another shocking thing was a passenger actually spurted vulgarities at the bus driver when he forgot to open the door for him to alight. This is something we might not see often in Singapore!

After resting for a while in our hostel, we went on to the roadside stalls to have our dinner. The food they sell here is amazing and cheap. I guess no one cared about the sanitary conditions when the food is tasty but it is still satisfactory. Most of the food here is very spicy so watch out when eating. If you're not someone that can take spicy stuff easily, you might need lots of water while eating.

Smelly beancurd! One of the best!

Fried dumplings - 6 for 1 RMB!

Something which I don't know the name but fantastic taste!

葱油饼

Group photo taken at the night market. Adrian and myself has a funny pose. Lol

Overall, today has been a wonderful day of exploring! I've seen a totally different side of Wuhan.

Reflection

As previously mentioned, it takes time to blend into a local's culture. Sometimes it might take even up to a year! We will not get the chance to fully blend into the culture but we will get parts of it. The largest difference today is the public transport. Never in Singapore did I felt like sardines packed in a can like today (probably very very rare occasions) and a driver driving roughly on the road. A thing that puzzles me is the decision to have a bus attendant for each bus. A machine similar to our ez-link machines can be installed and save lots of money for the government and I feel that it will also be more convenient for passengers.

Spurting vulgar to the bus driver JUST because he forgot to open the door for you is something I had NEVER seen in Singapore. Before coming, I was warned by local students that the people here are quite temperamental. This has been proven! The man was really fierce, although it did not really create any shock in me.

2009-09-02T23:38:00.010+08:00

Day 2 - 寻幽探秘

Bought our China sim card today. Rested for a while and went out at 12pm for lunch. Some of them wanted to buy the China sim card so we went to a shop by the road. Chose a small eatery for our lunch. Seriously speaking, the food here is much more oily than what we have in Singapore.

The 虾仁炒饭 I had for lunch was tasty but there was a tad too much MSG in it, with the oil. They sell one of the best soya bean milk I tasted, smooth and not too sweet. We still have to get used with what kind of food we will be getting in Wuhan. However, it's still going on smoothly for us now. I guess this is what it means by immersing into a different culture?

After lunch, we went to buy some necessities that will be needed throughout our trip such as drinks, pails, kettle, spoons and cups.Went back to our bunk to have a rest before proceeding on to explore the area around our campus. We discovered a very big supermarket just opposite of the road, something like Giant in Singapore.

This supermarket is much better than the previous one. However, we did not buy anything here as they are only on our planning list. Exploring further, we discovered a KFC. Sat down to have a small meal. They serve fried chicken wings here, unlike in Singapore.

It tastes spicy but yet addictive. Would be real happy if Singapore had these.

After the meal, we went to the supermarket next to the KFC. It's not really a supermarket but a mini shopping mall with a supermarket at the top floor. The door is special, it has flaps hanging down from the ceiling at the door to minimize the escape of air conditioning. Some other stuffs were bought such as air freshener, mineral water and tidbits.

Walked pass an eatery opened by local students so decided to give it a try. I ate Pork Rib Rice which were mild spicy. 8 RMB for it and I found it very worth.

After spending a day exploring and discovering the culture of Wuhan, I notice that their culture is quite different from what we have in Singapore. For example, the cars will horn frequently while traveling on the road as pedestrians will just dash across the road without any warning. This is not frequently seen in Singapore as Singaporeans are more "kiasee". Another difference is their food. In Singapore, we are frequently told to have less oil, less salt, less sugar and more vegetables in our diet but this is not seen in Wuhan. Most of the food are quite oily and might cause health problems for the citizens in the long run.

Fake notes are also a problem in China. Notes of larger value (e.g. 50 and 100 yuan) will be examined individually right in front of the customer to prove that it's a real note. Doing so will also ensure the integrity of the restaurant as some of them will take the note and swap it with a fake one and return to tell you that you gave them a fake note. However, we were taught that we should note down all the serial numbers of the notes to prove that we aren't using a fake note. Although China is developing rapidly, there are still many areas to improve on. In Singapore, we never have to see any restaurants checking notes individually. By doing so in Singapore, the restaurant might just be boycotted. This still remains as a large cultural difference.

The view from outside our room

Our wonderful bathroom. We have to stand on top of the toilet bowl to shower!

This is how messy a room of 3 men will get after a night

Our sink! Isn't it big?

Outside view of our hostel

Look at the amount of rubbish!

My cup - Doraemon!

My favourite milk - 蒙牛！

Water for sale!

More drinks for sale!

Hi, may I help you? Would you like some rice?

Guess what is this? This is for us to put on top of the toilet bowl so we can do our business in peace without having the need to squat! The best invention I seen!!

2009-09-01T22:39:00.002+08:00

Day 1 - 武汉之旅的开始

Had a little nap at 3am till 4.30am before proceeding on to make some last minute preparations for my Wuhan trip. It's strange but I have no feelings about leaving my house for 6 weeks this time, I wonder why? Haha. However, I make sure that I'm fully prepared for the trip. Bringing a huge amount of money overseas ain't an easy job, I have to make sure each and every note is being kept safe with me.

Went out of house at 5am to meet Kai Chung to take the cab to the airport. Our mothers came along too. Reached the airport and gathered. A surprise planned for today: Rebecca's Birthday! Her birthday is on 9th September but our class decided to give her a surprise at the airport.

Singing the birthday song!

Group Photo of OIP Batch 3

2L02 + Mr Loh Wai Tuck + Mr Wee Gim Theng

After everything is done, we checked in our luggage, got our boarding passes and bade goodbye to our parents before going to plane to board. Got to our boarding gate and boarded the plane, bound for Guangzhou as CZ352, China Southern Airlines, Airbus A321.

Our plane waiting to fly us to Guangzhou!

The plane cabin

Flying to Guangzhou!

Snacks onboard

Chinese tea! Was served when we were 1 hour to landing

About to land in Guangzhou!

Trees in Guangzhou airport!

The landing was the smoothest I experienced in my entire life and after so many flights. However, the service on the flight was of a very low rating; probably 2 out of 5 stars. No drinks until about an hour into the flight, serving of food was very slow and the flight attendants have the face that shows "we are being forced to serve, not to serve with our hearts".

After landing, we proceeded on to take our boarding passes from Guangzhou to Wuhan and walked around the airport. It feels great in the airport and I feel very tempted to go and visit my family in Guangzhou!

Our lunch at Guangzhou airport, wanton noodles

After lunch, went to the boarding gate to take our flight to Wuhan. Checking in for a domestic flight is much easier than an international flight!

Our boarding pass from Guangzhou to Wuhan

A Boeing 737-800 to bring us from Guangzhou to Wuhan!

I was seated just behind the Business Class.. So tempting!

We arrived in Wuhan airport safe and sound!

Landing in Wuhan was a tad rougher than normal but still acceptable. Service on China Southern's domestic flight is brilliant. The standard is close to Singapore Airlines! Food nice, attendants friendly and fast service.

Took a long bus ride of 1 hour 30 minutes from the airport to the campus. It seemed like forever so I took the time to have a little nap. We finally reached the campus at about 9.30pm before proceeding on to have our dinner.

Our first dinner in Wuhan!

Settled down in our bunks after dinner. I am in room 319 with Chin Kuang and Zhong Rong. Not very used to the bunk on our first day but fortunately it went uneventful.

My bed!

Looking forward to a very interesting journey in Wuhan!

2009-08-31T20:17:00.002+08:00

9 hours

The excitement is really there, but there are also some elements of missing homeland. Here are my flight details for my trip.

Flight Details

Singapore - Guangzhou - Wuhan (China Southern Airlines)

SIN-CAN
CZ352
Depart: 0800
Arrive: 1150
Airbus A321

CAN-WUH
CZ3344
Depart: 1730
Arrive: 1855
Boeing 737-800

FYI, CZ352 is a flight from Singapore-Guangzhou-Shenyang, but we're only taking the Singapore-Guangzhou flight.

2009-08-30T22:20:00.002+08:00

Two more days!

Just 2 more days till I get to savour what's in store for us in Wuhan! Feeling very excited about the trip and the interaction with the China students. Interacted with some of them when they came in July, they were real nice!