wuhan for now

HELLO!

2009-05-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

maybe i should be anyhow blog one post here? to indicate that the china OIP spirit still lingers in all of us? HAH

anyway its told that our IS had been graded but we wun get to know it until the end of the sem. Environment technology is over too i guess? took final exam on wednesday.

i still cant accept that singapore is so hot.

CANT wait for man u to lift both the EPL and CHAMPS league cup yo!

Last Day! ):

2009-04-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

Day 41:

one word: SAD

the local students were sad to see us go. we were sad to leave. Sadness filled our dorms and followed us all the way. tears accompanied of course. ):

Singapore yo!

me and jasper's luggage

first time boarding plane like this

bye wuhan!

lsct+local students

me and meiyi

wuhan airport

outside dorm wif mr chong+mr wong

Before

After

223!

223 toilet

41 days ago, while me jasper and hardy were on the plane leaving singapore, we still had questions for each other like are we sure we can adapt to china? do you think we can survive without the comfort of our home, the luxuries in singapore, the food and the people?

days and weeks past, we already had the answer in our heads: a definite YES.

from the first day on, i grew up. i endured the extremely cold weather, i learnt to take care of myself. of cos it wouldn't happen if i was without my friends. we look aft each other and we are all like one big family. not forgetting mr chong oso. he really worked very hard to ensure our safety and welfare.

i will miss wuhan alot and i bet i will not forget the happy moments i had for this trip. the tours we went were all very enriching and the places in china are so beautiful.

i miss talking/hanging out/crapping/walking/eating with the people(hardy, jasper, jerald, cimin)

i miss back alley. all the food that are so cheap but nice. every night will definitely get my supper there.

i miss fake kfc

i miss everything of the past 6 weeks

and i have made alot of new friends too. BIG thanks to the local students for taking care of us while we were there. and not forgetting my dear l.s.c.t mates and m.d.e ppl! u all rock!

day 40

2009-04-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

Shopping day!

went to han zheng jie for like the 3rd time to do our last min shopping. set off at around 10am to take the bus there. so i bought some gifts like belts and watch. had lunch at the fake kfc over there.(ate my last roasted chicken) and then did some more shopping. took 588 wif jasper and hardy at around 6 becos we have to get back in time for our dinner wif mr chong.

went over the Qin Feng(the restaurant nearest to the front gate) and mr chong treated us all to dinner. sat separately though. and we had lyk 8 great dishes. after dinner i walked around the area near the school and together wif jasper and hardy, we bought our last supper at back alley.

went back dorm to pack my luggage. slept around 5plus.

1st table ppl

2nd table ppl

day 39

2009-04-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

Zoo + farewell party day!

Finally had time and the chance to go to the zoo. mr chong and I had been wanting to visit the zoo since lyk week 3 becos we wanted to see the pandas. so while others went shopping, me jasper and mr chong took a cab at around 12pm to the wuhan zoo.

the admission ticket was 20 yuan. and the zoo is seriously very big. its like a park at first because i couldn't see any animals and there were even amusement park rides for kids. so we followed the direction arrows and our only aim was the pandas.

past by different animals lyk the bears, monkeys and peacocks b4 we reached the panda enclosure. by the way, the zoo is very different frm the singapore zoo. every animal will be in a cage, and then there will be another cage surrounding it. so its not easy to take a nice picture. the animals seems sick also, and that was not surprising to me because their livng conditions are pretty bad from what i see.

luckily we no need to pay extra for the viewing of the pandas, spammed loads of pictures of them. (:

we returned and had dinner at ni nan. went over to 702 to have our farewell party.
ate cakes, sang songs, took pictures and chit-chat. everybody was really high and partying.

the local students

sang jian dan ai wif jinquan.

everybody enjoying themselves!

we have ALOT of cakes

day 38: thursday

2009-04-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

today was our presentation for the environment tech. project! the night b4 my grp hardly slept or din't sleep at all as we were rushing to complete the assignment. and we went to mac at 7 plus to rehearse for 1 hr and had breakfast b4 we head to classroom 506 for the last time at 9am.

my grp(me hardy and jasper) was the 3rd grp to present and i felt we did quite an okay job. lets hope our marks will be alright too.

so after that we went back our dorm to finish up the report and handed in to mr chong at 5pm. we had fake kfc for dinner next.

oh ya i said i will publish the photos of chicken fries(btw if you do not know abt it, it's a snack frm the back alley which is best for supper!)

our class room(506)

mr chong grading

jin quan presenting

mei yi presenting

ci min(the one who intro me to chicken fries)thanks yo!

day 36

2009-04-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

leadership activity day!

today we went to the e.c.e ppl side to engage in a 1day leadership development programme. it was some sort lyk a one day camp whr we have been told there will be high elements activities.

so we boarded the bus and it took 1 hr plus to bring us all to the WUST zhong nan branch where all the e.c.e ppl are staying. their sch is really very big and new. however i must say it is quite deserted.

so we went to the "camp site" beside the sch and our day started off as the main instructor divided all(m.d.e+l.s.c.t+e.c.e) into 4 different groups. within our own grp, we thought of a grp name, a grp song/cheer, and designed our own flag. my group name was "zhong xin" which simply means china+singapore.

after presenting to the rest about your own group, our nxt task was to construct a tank wheel chain using newspapers. and everybody must be standing inside the chain to act as the wheels and the team that can move forward the furthest and fastest will win the competition. sad to say, my team wasn't very creative and our chain broke before we started the competition. however we just continued on and had great fun out of it. our team thus became more bonded aft that.

we went to have our lunch nxt. according the the e.c.e ppl the restaurants opp of their sch are famous for their fishballs, hence we went to try them. ordered some other dishes and everybody paid 18yuan each for the meal.

returned 1 and 1/2 hour later and everbody seems to be excited about the high elements activities coming up. we had another team bonding session first. aft that 2 groups went to do the "plank jump" and the other 2 went to do the "trust fall". my grp did the latter.

it was the first time i am free falling frm 1.5m above ground. with my hands and legs tied, i have to fall backwards and trusting my team mates below to catch me. i believe it was a great activity to build up trust among team mates and the courage inside one self.

we then swap with the 2 other groups and did the jumping from one plank to another about 8m from ground. this task oso trains our courage and i think its not that difficult so everybody from the 2 groups tried and succeeded if i am not wrong.

the final activity was rock climbing! which most of the students are looking forward to. after that had a mini debrief then it was touring round the "camp site" and taking pictures.

day 34+35

2009-04-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Luling trip

It was our last tour while in Wuhan already. this time round, it was a trip to the Luling resort. as usual we board our bus early. it was a 4hr ride. and i want to comment on this particular bus trip. becos its the most bumpy and noisy one i ever sat in my entire life. throughout the journey was uneven paths with honkings frm the bus to warn any vehicles in front or incoming frm a blind spot.

so we reached and had lunch, jinquan wasn't feeling well at that time due to the bus ride. therefore he din't join us all for the tour after we checked in to the local hotel. btw the hotel is great. its very spacious and classy. the only bad point is that alot of ladybugs flew in through the window.

we walked about at the mei ren gu(Belle valley) and its seriously very beautiful there with nice flowers, streams, rocks and waterfalls. so we spent quite a long time there taking photos and then after that we went back to some whr near our hotel to walk around the nearby village. we have to cross a suspended bridge btw. and the bridge can only hold 10 ppl at once.

after that we went for dinner and at night there is this campfire with performances and singing session. everybody was very high and had fun.

day 35

2nd day at luling.

we checked out of our hotel.

and today we went to the luling fort village. we climbed up a mini hill that has alot of attractions, like some specials rocks and tree vines.

then we went past han tian gate which is a magnificent scenic spot, saw the statue of liu xiu(first emperor of the Eastern Han), took pictures of the camel peak and next we went to a battle ground which in on a hill. (830+m above sea level.) pretty cool to see a watch tower, battle flags, tents and there is even an area for u to try out archery!
aft that we left for lunch. bade farewell wif the local tour guides and took a 2hr exact same bumpy bus ride to kong shan dong. its basically a cave which has interesting features and some natural formations inside. ended our cave journey by completing the scaling ladder.
our trip thus ended. headed back dorm to rest early for the leadership development programme the nxt day.

pictures:

day 32 and day 33

2009-04-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

DAY 32..

so yea our common test ended. we set off in high spirits on friday for our shopping. Destination: Han zheng jie. first time going there, but heard that its a good shopping place with nike factory outlet stores.. hence went there straight after our last tutorial. sat in a double deck bus again then after abt 35 mins, we reached.
it was very weird because the place was lyk a night markt style. din even see any high rise buildings or shopping centres. but the street is indeed called han zheng jie. hence aft our grp separated to do our own shopping, me and jasper explored! we want to find the shopping centres.
walking aimlessly was tiring. asked quite a number of people. finally we reached some whr more modern. saw a metersbonwe shop and went in to ask the salesgirl. turns out the nike shops are just beside! its a shopping centre called Coma wif shops lyk meterbonwe, bossin, and loads of sporting brands discount stores.
unfortunately, nth really cheap or nice caught my attention, so left coma empty handed. explored even deeper, saw a "shoe alley" too. And when we reached this big shopping centre called grand ocean, we realised we were at bu xing jie already. so time to settle our dinner! had ajisen ramen. then it was back to hostel. took bus 502 back.

Day 33.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JASPER AND JINQUAN!

special day! it was jinquan and jasper bday. the night b4 at 12am both their faces were already being treated to cream and cake. (:
so basically today went back to han zheng jie again! walked with yisheng, jerald and hardy this time round. since me and jasper went there 2 times in 2 days, we felt real bored. and moreover its jasper's bday. what a way to spend his bday.....
luckily for me, i bougt a nike jacket for 318rmb. hardy and jerald oso spent alot on clothes in 'Me and City'. after shopping was back to dorm. At ard 10 plus. we had the 'real' celebration for the two Js. ate cakes and red eggs, had mini singing session with photo taking plus viewing of pictures slide show. glad to see jasper and jinquan really enjoying themselves. in addition, they even hunt for their own presents.

pictures time..

they got their presents finally!

bu xing jie

group pic wif charlotte and yeap

jinquan's and jasper's cake

hardy, jerald, jonathan with me; all wearing shirt.

sushi!

my ramen

why only arsenal store?!

grand ocean shopping centre

me and jasper ate Dairy Queen

this is the "shoe alley"!

coma shopping centre

nike discount store!

han zheng jie

day 30 and 31

2009-04-02T07:35:00.000-07:00

day 30 begins with us meeting at 8am to board the bus for our tour of the new campus of WUST. its around a 35 mins journey and once we reached there everybody was asking the same question: why we are not staying here?!

so we went to the library first because there is a mini museum about the history of WUST inside. there was a guide and a translator to explain to us about the exhibits.

after that we walked around the medical school and popped by some classrooms to see what the students are learning. we oso went to this room to look at some specimen. some of which are very scary. and btw everything in there is real. the teachers disect the stuff themselves.

nxt, we went to a conference room to interact/present singapore to the local students there. there is even a games session with them.

then the local studens brought just to have lunch at the canteen. but hardy jasper and me didn't go for lunch. instead.. we explored ard the sch. and i found INDOOR TENNIS COURTS

at 1pm, when everybody finished their lunch, we went ard to take pictures and thn it was back "home". bought food from back alley and had class at 3.30pm

dinner was again settled from back alley.

Day 31: common test day

didn't really had a good sleep for the past 2 days. but didn't really study too. so went to the common test at 1pm quite unprepared. but oh well its over.

went to back alley to get some food aft test and its only now then i realised the 汤包is very very nice! juz 3 yuan for 8.

then mr chong finished up his last lecture. and we went to fake kfc to eat the chicken again.

feel really tired so going to sleep early. bye~

day 29: 3 great food i have nv tried b4

2009-03-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

woke up ard 12 15pm in the afternoon because the night b4 slept at 4am. prepared for class at 1pm and blogged day 28 post.

first news mr chong annouced was that common test changed to 1pm. so less time to study?

then lesson for 2 hrs then it was movie time again! watched EARTH today and understand more about the artic, polar bears, the nature etc.. went for dinner at macdonals ard 6pm.

tried my first nice food! : 猪堡堡！spicy pork burger

always wanted to try the pork burger whenever i am in mac in china becos singapore do not have that. so ate it wif jasper today. And... its really nice! the crispy pork meat wif the sauce. woo. satisfying meal at only 16.50yuan. btw we ate wif felicia and xin hui today.

after dinner went to buy eggs frm supermarket and then to back alley to try the mutton satay we always wanted to try! Conclusion: we are going to have it everyday!

really big satay which costs 3bucks for one

hungry me went out to buy supper at 10.30. i bought the "chicken strips/fries" and its superb. seriously. on par wif mutton satay i guess? unfortunately dun have pics for it. shall take and post it nxt time.

I NEED TO STUDY! BYE~

day 28

2009-03-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

MONDAY

went for class at 10.30am . mr chong told us about our trip this wednesday to the WUST new campus. and after some negotiations, common test is officially postponed to thursday 4pm!

so basically he talked to all of us about the proposal for our week 6 presentation and released us for lunch at 11 40 so me hardy and jasper went to back alley to buy from the same fried rice/noodles store.

resumed class at 1 and learned about air pollution. but because everybody was lyk so bored and tired, mr chong showed us the movie-the other end of the line at around 3plus.

its a pretty nice romantic comedy that talks about the love between a "credit card girl" working in india and her client living in USA.

i realised mr chong does not show us movies just for fun or to entertain us. theres always some very important lessons to learn in his movies. And as for this particular movie, we can understand the importance of family and how we should always try our best to achieve the things we want.

btw, shared a soccer ball with hardy because we miss soccer so much!

10yuan ball from roadside uncle.

going to class in 10 mins. bye~

week 4's weekend

2009-03-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

SATURDAY

had another M.D.E+L.S.C.T tour today. this time round we only took a less than a hr ride to 汉口江滩. some sort lyk a park. however it was raining heavily so we proceeded to 步行街 first to shop around.

there are alot of shops over there. spotted around 5 nike, 5 adidas, 5 kappa retail outlets at least? so me hardy jasper and jerald walked around and was constantly approached by ppl wanting to sell their illegitimate goods. pretty irritating..

so as it was so cold due to the rain and none of us really had something in mind to buy, we went to lunch at a fast food restaurant(Dico's) first. their main course is not chicken or burger. its rice!

after that we continue to enter different shops to look at clothes, went to bank oso to help hardy enquire about the exchanging of money.

at 2pm we met up wif the rest and went back to the park area. still drizzling thou so went to take some photos at the park and then went back to bus for our journey back to university.

lsct+tour guide

had dinner at the ramen store later that night!

drinking milk tea as always

SUNDAY

sunday was free and easy. no plans for us so basically all lsct ppl started studying on their common test except me i think. went back alley for brunch and wal mart shopping mall for dinner. PIZZA HUT!

first time in a double deck bus in china

waited outside pizza hut for a while

our food

dinner time!

my last slice of pizza.

will start blogging on week 5 asap! bye~

week 4

2009-03-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

time flies, week 4 is ending. which means i am here for a mth already. i am starting to think about how i am going to miss wuhan after i return to singapore.

JUST HAVE TO ENJOY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE NOW!

so basically a summary on week 4.

Monday, tuesday and wednesday were as per normal. had lessons wif mr chong, and he finished showing us madagascar 2 and red cliff.

but i have to comment on monday's dinner. we went to this restaurant nearest to our school and mr chong told them table for 17, then we they led to this big private room, with toilet inside, sofa and a big television. initially we were afraid theres going to be extra charges, but during payment and to our surprise, each person only had to pay 22yuan!

Thursday: had lessons in the morning and then afternoon was left doing tutorial 6 and giving presentation. ALL the np students did a good job on their part and i think that the local students and lecturers were really interested in what we were presenting.

Friday. 2nd industrial visit. we went to the Yangtze optical fibre and cable company to get to understand more abt fibre optics. which is basically glass fibre in cables used to tansmit data through light. so we were led by a host to look at some of the processes lyk the quality control management. Also found out that the company is actually the second biggest in china!

So our tour ended in around one hr then we went to view the sakura flowers at wuhan university. had to pay 10yuan for entrance fee but i dun really think it was that worth it.

Still beacutiful thou.

headed over to that shopping mall with a Wal Mart nxt and went K for 2 hrs while some shopped and some played pool. the ktv was really cheap, 1 hr in the medium room: 32 yuan. although no drinks or tidbits.

they have up to date songs!

didn't have dinner near there cos we wanted to eat the fake kfc chicken. so cabbed back.

wudang mountain part 2

2009-03-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

SUNDAY.

after such a nice rest at the wonderful hotel, all the ppl set off at 6.30 am for breakfast. everybody could be seen eating more than usual to have more energy to conquer mount wudang

With gatorades, mineral water, food..etc in our hands, we took the internal bus again to 南岩(the southern grotto palace). took a group pic with the tour guide b4 our climb.

the climb was fun, seeing friends encouraging each other not to give up and persist on. food was also shared among all.

Result? : everybody completed the hike and we were quite fast too. (=

thought u finished? theres more!

fyi this post is pictures, pictures and more pictures.

100-step stairs

me and hardy

me and tour guide aft completing the above

after around 15 mins later, we saw the peak!

more stairs

0.3km to金顶!

when we reached, the ppl taking cable car were not even there yet. AND, turns out we have to go up another flight of narrow and squeezy stairs to reach the TOP/HIGHEST point.

And finally we reached!

WE went down the mountain by taking the cable car. quite scary at times during the ride because of the strong winds.

TOOk more pics after we touched ground.

WE LOVE 武当山!

wudang mountain

2009-03-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

SATURDAY

its was our third weekend trip since coming to wuhan. and this time around our destination was wudang mountain. DAY 19, which was saturday, we took the tour bus at 7am and had a 5hrs plus bus ride to wudang mountain.

lunch at a restaurant

after lunch we proceeded to start our tour on the attractions in wudang mountain. had to take the internal wudang shan bus to get to all the different tourist spots. and the bus ride was quite exciting because the roads are all very narrow and there are alot of turns and blind spots. Our first stop was the 太子坡 (the prince temple), whr children who wants to have good grades come and pray.

then, we went to the紫霄宫 purple heaven palace.

see how far in between each attraction?

basically oso temples there but one interesting sight is that when we were there, there is this class of sudents learning wudang martial arts. seems pretty cool and make me feel lyk learning also. By the way for both "the price temple" and "purple heaven palace", we have to climb up quite a few flight of stairs. training us for the wudang mountain hike i guess??

the flight of stairs

the temple where its very crowed inside

learning wudang martial arts.

click to enlarge

as usual, we were rushing for time so din't have time to look around and purchase anything. head off to 南岩(the southern grotto palace) nxt.

had to go uphill again..

to reach here.

so basically we had our serious "warm up" for the next day at this third attraction because there were alot of stairs to cover. but it was all worth it because there were lot of nice spots to take great pictures!

at the end of the staircases, there will sometimes be young children selling mayb some food or special whistles. at times, its seems really tempting to buy from them because the children have that innocent and pitiful look on their faces. from what i see, i really think that the children in singapore are really fortunate. they have shelter above their heads with 3 full meals a day and a top class education.but the sad thing is that alot of people in singapore take what they have for granted.

reached some place and as usual pictures taking session again.

one interesting sight at alot of spots is that there will be this 大水缸 with a dragon head at the bottom. and lots of ppl will drop coins in and try to have their coins land nicely on the dragon head, which would therefore means good luck. what kinda shock me a little is that beside every big water tank, there will be this booth for ppl to exchange for coins. A waste of money?

after our tour. we went to have dinner at the same restaurant. proceeded to check in to a local hotel after dinner. according to our tour guide, the hotel we are staying in is the best around.

dinner.

hotel. (=

last lecture of xiao ling lao shi

2009-03-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY 19th march.

today in the morning, we had our usual ennvironment tech. lecture by mr chong and after that we went to the muslim canteen to have our lunch. then at 1pm, we attended the last lecture of xiao ling lao shi, we had been teaching us since the first week about everything on china.

i only realised that i will miss her lecture alot when our class was ending at ard 5pm. NO, not because during her lecture i can sleep, play psp, etc.. but its really her patience in teaching us that makes me more and more interested in paying attention to her. frankly speaking i do not really wish to know about chinese culture,history in the first place, but seeing her put in so much effort for all of us, i could not help but to feel very grateful towards her.

from her lectures(some from her notes) i learnt about:

1. the total population of HUBEI is 60.161million, urban poulation is 33.883 million.

nationalities in HUBEI: Han, Tujia, Hui, Manchu, Miao, Mongolian

Area: 185,900 square km

number of airports: 7.

2: the emperors of CHINA

eg1. Qin shi huang. Qin shi huang was the founder of the first unified empire in the history of china. he established an autocratic state with centralized power over the feudal society. His real name was Ying Zheng and was only emperor from 246-221BC. During Qin shi huang reign, he succeeded in putting down internal rebellions, and, externally, waged wars for unification on the six other states. He oso standardized the script used for writing, the coinage, introducing a circular copper coin with a square hole in the center. In order to silence criticism of imperial rule, Qin shi huang decided to burn all the books in the empire and execute those scholars and their families who opposed his rule.

eg2.Wu ze tian. Wu zetian was the only female monarch of china, and ruled the empire for over half a century. it was during the tang dynasty(618-907).
Wu zetian was known to be as ruthless as possible in order to achieve her ambitions. she appointed sadistic and cruel officials to seek out and eliminate any opposition to her regime. some innocent people were not spared either.
Wu ze tian proved to be a very competent monarch and throughout her reign the legacy of prosperity was handed down. Wu zetian also attached great importance to the development of agriculture, as she ordered the construction of irrigation schemes, and commissioned the compilation of farming textboks.

3. the story behing foot binding, eg:(the purpose of foot binding was to identify women of high class, and to keep a woman from "wandering")

the Chinese Queue: initially was a specific hairstyle worn by the manchus from central Manchuria and later imposed on the chinese in china.

4: 1.face(面子）

2.relationship(关系）: chinese often regard a good social relationship as a symbol of personal
ability and influence.

3. 客气: Its impolite to be arrogant and brag about yourself.

4. surnames: there are 438 chinese surnames, with 30 being double. the most common surnames are wang and zhang.

5: how to address ppl lyk u call the cab driver shi fu, the waiter/waitress as fu wu yuan(服务员) and nv address a lady as xiao jie.

so after the lecture the lsct and the mde students took pictures wif xiao ling lao shi and presented her with a token of appreaciation.

sorry no pictures! bye~

visit to the steel factory

2009-03-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

TUESDAY

visited the wu gang steel factory in the morning. the bus ride took ard 20-30mins due to complications lyk the interuption of the INTERNAL TRAIN.(the factory is so huge that there is even a train within its compound for transportation)

anw no pictures taking is allowed in the factories.

so we went in to take a look at the production of iron rolls. its very very hot inside the factory and the noise level is very high. saw the heating process, the cooling process, how the impurities were removed and how the steel is being shaped into its desired thickness and length. just by walking along the walkway which is mayb 7 meters away from the machines the heat is already very intense and the noise level can be compared to the F1 cars, i really cant imagine how warm the workers are feeling when they are so near to the steel. they do not seem to be wearing ear plugs oso so i guess that the safety conditions of the workers there is not very good.

however i feel that this trip is not that good because we only saw this one process and nth else after spending almost 1hr travelling to and fro.

three gorges dam

2009-03-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

our second tour: the three gorges.

FRIDAY

woke up 6am in the morning because we have to board the tour bus at 7am. had a 5hrs long journey to yichang which is another provice in hubei and then had our lunch at a restaurant which serves really good food. after lunch, boarded the bus again and then aft a 1hr bus ride it was time to visit the three gorges dam.

lunch at restaurant

qu yuan

mao ze dong sleeping on the top of the mountain.

went back to the same restaurant to have our dinner and everybody rushed through their dinner becos we were already late for the boarding of the cruise by about 1 hr. checked in to our rooms and then realised that there is no heater in the room. so no hot water to bathe and sleeping will be difficult. the cruise is oso really boring becos other than staying in ur room, or go out to experience some strong winds, theres nth else u can do . so we played cards, joked ard and then it was our turn to pass through this particular dam.

lobby; room

gate opening.

have to float up ard 4-5 storeys high to get past the second gate.

there were five more gates to pass through ard midnight and from what i heard it will be much more fascinating then the first one. however felt real tired and slept and missed it.

SATURDAY

woke up early, had breakfast and then we went on to another tour ship to tour around the shengnong stream(sheng nong xi)beautiful view all around.

yin yue liang(the cruise)

we alighted and took sampans to have a even closer experience of the sheng nong stream. there is also this very narrow stream whr the boatmen have to get off and pull the sampan and get it out of the shallow waters. btw the fast flowing water at the shallow stream is very refreshing to drink.

on the sampan with the tour guide

boatmen pulling the sampan.

went back to the tour ship and went back to our cruise for lunch. its seems that we will be passing by 2 gorges. anyway i just took pictures.

picture of the back of a 10yuan note

AFTER ABOUT 3 HRS WE REACHED OUR NXT DESTINATION WHICH IS SOMEWHR IN CHONG QING: BAI DI CHENG.

we have to climb up around 200+ stairs to reach the BAI DI MIAO. theres statues of liu bei zhange fei etc. and there was oso the suspended coffin.

after which went back to have our dinner in the cruise. then slacked ard at the top deck.

SUNDAY

woke up early again, had breakfast and boarded our bus at 7.30am. stopped by some supermarket to buy local stuff then it was ard a 7 hrs journey back to our university.

ps: different colour text, caps sentence is due to this lousy blog which wun follow my alignment.

boring days

2009-03-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

MONDAY

accompanied hardy to the hospital to check out his sprained ankle. luckily not that serious.

hospital

went to env. tech class nxt then it was dinner at a local restaurant. according to mr chong, this restaurant is the only place then will listen to ur request for less oil and salt. the food was okay for me, mr chong loved it. LOL

TUESDAY

env. tech class again but this time lesson was much better becos mr chong showed us step-up 2 the movie.

highlight of the day: running!

went to run ard the campus wif jasper and i completed 4 rounds! not bad achievement considering i have not ran long distance for ages.

then had instant noodles for dinner.

WEDNESDAY

env. tech again, watched abit of the inconvenient truth during class then it was 4 hrs of china history. as usual, slacked and then went out wif everyone for porridge. bought and ate some buns too then it was running again.

did 4 rounds and here i am blogging.

boring 3 days... looking forward to weekend becos we will be heading to the 3 gorges dam!

bye~ (:

amusement park.

2009-03-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

ok i am really slow wif my blogging becos uploading photos to my blog is such a chore.

so basically last sunday was a free day so the china students went wif all the ngee ann poly students to the amusement park. we took the public transport which is a 40mins bus ride. i really lyk the public transport system as everybody only pay 2yuan no matter whr u taking to. i couldn't find any fault of the china bus comparing to the singapore sbs and tanslink except that the driver drives real fast. there is even an annoucement to inform u that the bus is turning so hold on tight to the handrails.

on the bus

when we reached there me and my friends was lyk so shocked because we didn't see any roller coasters, bumper cars...etc...as we expected to. it was just a nice park with nice views to take pictures.

bought ice cream, joked around, know some new china students and then we finally saw the real amusement park!

so below are all photos again!

tried the roller coaster

tried the "washing machine" as they call it; bought tickets for the latter

but in the end coundn't play.

tried this which is lyk the inverter in escape except the machine is alot more rusty.(:

after amusing ourselves it was time to have our dinner. walked to this shopping mall(wuhan guang chang) and the initial plan was to go to the singapore food court. however it was too crowded so decided to have steamboat.

steamboat time! (:

before

after!

great 1st weekend in wuhan!

day 5, saturday, 7th march

2009-03-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

its the weekend!

everybody(including m.d.e student+e.c.e students) went out on a tour. we woke up very early at 7am because we need to board the tour bus at 7 50am. places that we will be visiting? 1. east lake 2. wuhan museum 3. yellow crane tower.

east lake

the bus ride to east lake wasn't too long. when we reached there the tour guide explained to us about the map and talked about the 3 must go attractions. i only remembered the qu yuan statue a one of the 3.

quyuan

walked around in east lake and took quite a number of photos because the view is seriously very beautiful with cool trees and "reflecting" water in the lake.

2. wuhan museum

boarded back the bus and went to the museum. i do not know for what reason but we cannot bring water into the museum. i think the museum should be really huge but due to time constrain i do not think we walked around the whole musuem.

so i shall let the pictures do all the talking...

we went to have our lunch nxt at some place which is near the yellow crane tower so that we can walk there aft lunch. however it was a long journey so almost everybody in the bus slept.

we went to this snack street to eat food like dou pi, stinky toufu, tang bao etc..

stinky toufu

3rd. yellow crane tower

after filling our stomachs, it was time to visit the yellow crane tower. stopped by some interesting spots to take pictures and then it was time to climb up the huang he lou. It wasn't very high, maybe 6-7 storeys? so definitely the view high up the tower was very nice and at the highest level of the tower you can also see the yangtze river.

photos on the top of the yellow crane tower:

yangtze river(chang jiang)

photos after we came down:

this is a photo with the m.d.e students.

we left yellow crane tower and i bought a souvenir which is a bookmark with my name on it for 25yuan.

went back to hostel after that and had dinner. pool nxt!

pool

supper after pool.

3rd and 4th day in wuhan

2009-03-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

so the 3rd day in china initially began with a lesson by a chinese lecturer regarding china history and culture at 9am. so had to wake up at 8 to preapre for class. however due to dunno what miscommunication, the lesson was postpone to the aftn so we walked to eat macdonals again. btw i nv mentioned about how salty the macdonals fries is here in china. so for this particular lunch we wanted a saltless fries and it was way much better.

then went back for aftn class which lasted for 4hrs! luckily the chinese lecturer speak quite fluent english and is very lenient towards us. so we sometimes dose off and played psp during the history class.

lecture

class ended at 5 so nxt activity was to go out with the china students. we went to a shopping mall(xudong guangchang) and played arcade. the arcade here in china is really cheap. games i play in singapore like time crisis 4 will cost me 1 sing dollar. however the arcade we went only cost about 33 sing cents! but i did control myself and only spent 5yuan. (:

arcade

after arcade we took cab back to our hostel. its really interesting to know to the starting fee for the cab is only 3yuan, but i couldn't really calculate how the meter works. sometimes it increases by 1yuan, sometimes it increases by 7 jiao. and there is this metal railing in between the front and the back seats. if i din't remember wrongly the fare was ard 12yuan but the china student who accompanied us insisted to pay.

cab

tooks loads of pics.

with some china students

so day 3 ended with a good night rest because the heater is perfect and room is very warm and i welcome day 4 by going to the first mr chong's environment tech class.

in class

as it was only the first lesson, we didn't have a long lesson. aft that went back to room to eat our noodles for lunch.

actually nth interesting happened on day 4. night time was just having dinner at a food center, which takes very long to serve the claypot rice.

food center

my claypot rice(tomato + beef)

after dinner went to supermarket to stock up instant noodles and bought a new mug plus some eggs. went back and slept. zzz..

1st: wuhan,china

2009-03-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

my first post, my post about wuhan. the place that is freaking cold even though winter is over according to the locals. sitting on my bed in the hostel and just spent an hour just to reach this posting page because it's so difficult to come out with one url.

changi airport

experienced the first day and the first night and i must say i am pretty satisfied with the conditions of everything. firstly the flight to guangzhou airport was good, and it's totally not crowded in that airport. able to grab our macdonals lunch and board our domestic flight off to wuhan airport. frequent turbulences here and there but still a smooth flight and once we reached wuhan everybody was like woohoo....because its seriously very cold. some of the unversity students came to pick us at the airport and my first impression of them was that they are extremely friendly! played with the mist that was coming out of our mouths as we speak, boarded the bus, got through yangtze river and we FINALLY reached wuhan university of science and technology. (:

at guangzhou airport

reached wuhan!!

dinner was at some nearby restaurant which i dun have any pics of the dishes unfortunately then after that is LAST min buying of mineral water at a supermarket... checked into respective bunks, unpack, tested the toilet, settled computer stuff, and its "layering yourself time"... wore 4 layers of clothing which is still not enough as i kept waking up in the middle of the night..finally decided not to continue sleeping at around 10am plus.

chinese restaurant; room

AND I BEGAN MY 2ND DAY! headed to a muslim restaurant with hardy kumaran jasper and mr chong to a muslim canteen in the university. by the way their canteen payment is all by a card which i bought for 100yuan and has 80yuan value in it. so we ordered kongbao chicken, some sliced fish with veggies, green pepper with chicken, and tomato with eggs. (no pics too) took a peek at the chinese canteen....

so nxt was touring aroud the campus and shopping. walked around in the mall and check out the prices in shops like nike, adidas and levi's. conclusion: no difference as singapore after you do the conversion. so off to more important stuff which is to get our personal mugs, basin, water boiler, utensils..etc..meiyi hardy and some other of our course mates went off after that to get for everyone our china SIM card. which costs 50 yuan and has 40yuan value inside. really cheap deal cosidering incoming is free and has 40 mins free local talking time. walked back in the rain so its alot colder and after that we went to this ramen stall to have our dinner.

the ramen stall; my beef ramen(4 rmb)

initial plan nxt up was to join the china students for a movie screening in the LT which was specially planned on every wednesday night to help improve their english. however due to technical glitches we ended up having an introduction session. really surprising for me to know that almost all the china students have their own english name.

then nth much happened aft the "orientation" so its hostel sweet hostel to start up THIS blog.

overall wonderful first 2 days here.. (: