POST OFFICE!!

Day 7 - 31st August 2008

Ohya, forgot to say something, yesterday was the last day of the 7th Lunar month. okay, trying to be random.

We started our day with scolding by Mr Wong. Reason being lack of punctuality. Yep. It was our fault. So I do not have any comments about it. That did woke everyone up about punctuality. A good wake up call. =P

Most of our time today were spent in Hankou, one of the 3 towns in Wuhan. The other 2 are Wuchang and Hanyang. Hmm. I think I mentioned it before in yesterday post. Anyway, we went to 2 of the main attractions in Hankou, Hankou JiangTan and Walking Street. Some of us did not go to the jiangtan because they went to the nearby church/mosque for their Sunday service etc.

Hankou Jiangtan is 'divided' into 4 phases. However, we only went to phase 1 and 2 of the jiangtan because phase 3 and 4 are either under development or too far. Other than being a leisure park for the locals, Hankou Jiangtan also serve another mission, to prevent/control flood or overflows of Chang Jiang. Anyway, when we went there, the park is like a sports complex. You can see people playing badminton, tennis, squash (but use tennis racket) and fishing. On the other side of the park, senior citizens gather around to listen to Chinese Opera (as seen at Zhongshan Park) and families 'picnic-ing' under the tree, chatting or reading newspapers.

Photos of Jiangtan!

After the 'free and easy' walk along the jiangtan, we gathered again and went to the Walking Street. The Walking Street is something like "Orchard Road of Singapore". The only difference between these two is that no cars are allowed in the Walking Street. It is more like a HUGE pavement with shopping malls/retail stores on both sides.

For lunch, we ate at a Korean restaurant. Something like Seoul Garden. But it is non-buffet and more "Korean-style".

Some photos from the Korean restaurant!





After all the walking and shopping, we went back to hostel for a rest before going for a volleyball game with the people. =)

That's all for our first Sunday in Wuhan, hmm.. kind of tiring yet interesting. Haha.

P.S. Guess what I realised, I didn't know that Wuhan is like of like Shanghai. Along Chang Jiang, everyone can see the foreign-style buildings that were once built and occupied by the British, Germans, Russians, French and Americans etc. Some survived after all the wars, some did not. In terms of cultural/historical interests, I felt glad that these buildings remained (or survived) and were being used as government offices or banks etc. Seriously, without these buildings, I would not even know that Wuhan (or Hankou) used to have foreign concessions (sth like Shanghai) due to unequal treaties by the colonial powers of the past.

ohya, I FOUND 1 CHINA POST OFFICE AT WALKING STREET!!! sadly, it was closed on Sundays. =(

journey back to 春秋战国時代

Day 6 - 30 August 2008

Yep. Today was part 1 of the Wuhan City Tour. I think the tour was conducted by an external agency. And yep, they gave everyone a round hat, which resulted me looking like a terminally-ill patient going for an overseas trip in the photos. LOL. BTW, it was another raining day! =.=

First, we visited the Hubei Provincial Museum. Most of the collections basically displayed artefact of ancient Chu State, which existed during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States period. An extract from Wikipedia about the Chu State:

"a kingdom in what is now central and southern China during the Spring and Autumn period (722-481 BC) and Warring States Period (481-221 BC).
Its ruling house had surname mi (芈), and clan name xiong 熊, and originally was of the noble rank of zi, roughly comparable to a viscount.
It was originally known as Jing (荆) and then as Jingchu (荆楚). At the height of its power, the Chu kingdom occupied vast areas of land, including the present-day provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Henan, Shanghai, and parts of Jiangsu. The Chu capital was at Ying (郢), around modern-day Jingzhou, which is located in what is today Hubei province."

Yep, so to say, Wuhan, which is part of Hubei province, is part of the ancient Chu State during the 春秋战国時代.

Anyway, the artefact are rather interesting and of great historical value. For example, the sword belonging to King Guojian of Yue (越王勾踐), or commonly known as Sword of Goujian. You can read more about it if you want =D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Goujian
Another one would be the Spear of Fuchai, which belonged to King Fuchai of Wu (吳王夫差), arch-rival of Guojian. However, the artefact wasn't at the museum as it was loaned to Beijing for the Beijing Olympics. =(

BTW, you would know who the 2 kings are if you have read before the story, 卧薪尝胆. =P

Anyway, I think the most fascinating exhibition is the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng. For this exhibition, I think i should let photos to do the work. =D For more info, can check this website too! I think their explanation is more accurate than what I am going to say. =P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Marquis_Yi_of_Zeng

After the visit to the museum, we went for lunch at the shou yi yuan xiao shi jie. Kind of a food street with a lot local delicacies. Probably everyone enjoyed the best is the Soup Bun (tang bao) AND Beancurd skin (Wuhan delicacy). Quite a wonderful experience because there are a great range of variety of interesting (and weird looking) food. For example, Yuting mistaken the prawns as cockroaches. LOL.

BTW, something to reflect. I realised that (as of now), the foodcourts/centres uses electronic cards instead of cash. Something like cashless purchase like those in Singapore Kopitiam. Is it a trend in China? probably yes. Maybe this is done to minimise 'corruption' and centralise all funds flow in a specific food centre.

After the meal, we continued to move on and go to the Yellow Crane tower (Huang He Lou). It is built on top of a hill. Apparently, there are lots of legends about the origin of yellow crane tower. One of the more famous one involved one of the 8 immortals, Lu Dongbin. Anyway, we went up the tower and took numerous photos. Seriously, the view from the tower is magnificant. rather pity because it was raining. Ohya, everyone complained of cold. =P

In short, the yellow crane tower is a must go attraction in Wuhan. I think. =D

Before i end the post, I realised something about Wuhan. Most of our day today were spent in Wuchang District (also the location of the famous Wuchang Uprising in 1911 against the Qing Manchu Dynasty). Maybe majority of Wuchang is quite developed, the infrastructure is completely different from what I have elaborate (briefly) in Day 1 posts and others. The infrastructure, planning of roads, traffic flow etc are much better as compared to day 1. Maybe this is the 'real Wuhan' people are expecting. Ohya, this could be a result of uneven development of a city? lol

Yep. that's all for today. Take care! =)

P.S. somehow the Yellow Crane Tower was burnt down at least once in every dynasty since Tang Dynasty. =.= The most recent one was in the 70s or 80s, i think.

Steel Mill and more! (erm. I think thats all. LOL)

Day 5 - 29 August 2008

Hmmm. How Iron man got his armour? Or should I say, where did Iron Man got his armour materials from? Iron ore la. =.=
Yep. So is steel. All right. I am bored now. So please tolerate my nonsense.

Anyway, we visited the Wuhan Steel Mill today! BTW. today is a raining day. First 'cooling' day since we arrived here on the 25th August.

As expected, no photographs are allowed to be taken in the steel mill. So let me briefly elaborate what we went thru!

Firstly, we went to the control room and saw the tip of the furnace. According to Mr Wong, the furnace is about few stories deep. However, we are unable to go and take a look because we lack of the safety equipments required. The purpose of the furnace is to melt the iron ore (which is normally iron oxide) into pure iron, while in the process removing the impurities. Actually, this is kind of familiar la. Think I learnt during Secondary School Chemistry. A wonderful sight nevertheless.
OHYA. the control room somehow reminded me of the Senoko Incineration Plant control room! LOL

After that, we went to the area where steel sheets are being produced (compressed from 20mm to 1.0 mm, i think. cannot rmb until which breadth le). A magnificant sight I would say. the factory is at least kilometres in length i think! However, it was rather a pity to see the actual work in process as the machines are still warming up for production.

Thats all for the Steel mill! I would say, a huge piece of land is required. It is huge! Ohya, just something to comment, I somehow got a first-hand experience on how 'safe' china workplace is. Not being saractic, but probably the safety precautions is not as good as Singapore workplace. Nevertheless, I believe Wuhan will still improve in years to come! =P

After the visit, it was lunch at a shop selling Islamic food. yep. ate egg 'xiao mian', or sliced noodles. The taste was rather interesting. After that, we went back to hostel to take a rest, before SS, Vv, Andy, Benji, Karen, Teckyi, CX and I went to play basketball and table tennis.
OHYA, I finally played table tennis on a table! YEA.

Yep. thats all for now. Rather nothing much to write about today. Lets hope there is more to come tmr! =) City tour =P

Again, enjoy the photos montage! (Not that many though).

the day of different experiences

Day 4 - 28 August 2008

Today is special. Firstly, it is our first IS lecture by our Chinese lecturer (Ms Xiaoling). Secondly, this is the first time in my life (in my memories) that I visited a doctor out of Singapore!

View some photos before continue reading!

Lets talk about the IS lecture. The lecture topic is about introduction to Hubei.
As for details about Hubei, I shall not write down here as everyone is able to find the information easily from books and internet. Instead, what I realised that the Chinese lecturers teaching style is rather different from Singaporeans. It seems to me that their powerpoint slides/learning aids etc is packed with information. Reason being they would like to give as much information as possible to students. Also, they don't give NOTES!
For Singaporean style, it is about giving notes and lecturers explaining the main points, rather than explaining every single point of each topic. Ya. So please don't be surprised that an introduction session powerpoint has 174 slides!

Later on, I realised that the main reason behind the difference in teaching style is the difference in teaching directives. For Singapore, I believe everyone should know, 'Teach Less, Learn More", or should i say, learner-centred learning. However, for China, it is about 'Teacher/Lecturer-centred learning". As such, Chinese teachers/lecturers would always pack their lectures/sessions full of information because in the eyes of the students, a good lecturer is a person who explain every single detail to the students. Anyway, since China (or should I say WUST) is 'teacher-centred learning, why do they don't give notes? LOL. Maybe they do, but not for our lectures. haha.

Anyway, speaking about our lecture, I did feel a bit sad for our Singaporean students. Not exactly 'criticising' them, but they did showed that they have a poor understanding of Chinese history and culture. It is rather difficult to give an example here.
However, I cannot exactly really fault them. There isn't a subject in Singapore schools like Chinese Culture or Chinese History. Or should I say, not all schools have. As far as I know, for some SAP schools, there do have a subject (compulsory) like Appreciation of Chinese Culture, where certain Chinese histories are being taught too.
Probably I am more concern about the lack of interests in Chinese History or Culture by Singapore students as a whole, as we are Chinese. =( Kinda a bit of waste actually.

Let's move on. After the lecture, we went back to our rooms to tidy up our stuffs and have a rest. It was then I decided to go and see a doctor (after discussing with my mother) as all the medicines, cough lozenges etc are not taking effect. At 2.30pm, Mr Puah, Mr Wong and the Chinese lecturer (i think she is HU Lao Shi) accompanied me to the School Hospital at the other side of the Campus. YEA. Serious, u will know when I post the photo.
THE HOSPITAL DOES NOT LOOK LIKE ONE FROM OUTSIDE!!!

Anyway, the experience of visiting a doctor is rather different. In that 'hospital', there is only 1 doctor working. Anyway, that doctor don't really look a doctor. Serious! I got a feeling that the doctor job is just to prescribe medicine to patients who are unsure of which medicine to buy! Sorry! =P LOL. Let me briefly describe the steps of visiting a doctor in WUST (or China).

1) Pay a registration fee of RMB 0.50 and get a consultation slip
2) Queue up and wait to see a Dr.
3) See the Dr and tell him/her what are you feeling bad about your body (anyway, the doctor suddenly got interested in me(as in asking me a lot qns) because Hu laoshi told her I am from SINGAPORE. LOL)
4) Get the prescription and bring the slip to the pharmacy counter
5) Pharmacist will tell you the price of the medicine and pls go to the registration counter and pay
6) Collect your medicine! =)

Anyway, I wanted Antibiotics actually. But the doctor, for safety reasons, did not give me. Instead, she gave me Roxithromycin. However, here is the irony. I checked with my friend later at night. GUESS WHAT. He said actually Roxithromycin is a type of antibiotics. LOL

Just to conclude, a different experience in visiting a doctor with MBBS (Singapore) and someone from China! LOL.

That's all. Stay Tune, Channel 5. (just being random)

All right. It is my birthday.

Day 3 - 27 August 2008

Remember I said day 2 of wuhan officially ends with a dinner from the local market and a game of dota?!? yep. Unofficially, the day did not end that simple. At 1200 hours sharp, I remember the door was knocking. At that time, the guys were in chin xiang's room, doing their personal reflection after the game of dota. Upon opening the door, I only saw chin xiang standing outside with a torchlight shining at his face! I was like, erm, please don't act as a ghost and come and scare me pls. Immediately I turned my back and went back to the computer. yep. the surprise came. Everyone started to sing the birthday song and gave me a pillow bash! =.=

Anyway people, thanks for the red date tea and 'apollo' cake! =)



8 hours later, it is time for our first lesson by Mr Puah! The lesson is more of an introduction about Business Process Engineering and settling some administrative stuffs. However, the lesson ended earlier (approx. 11am) because the WUST student services personnel is coming to our rooms to settle the internet connections to our laptops. Hooray! Finally, internet access is enabled after 3 days. Seriously, speaking of this, I got a feeling human beings are heavily relying on technology. Personally, I don't think that is good for human beings because IT (or technology as a whole) are supposed to assist people in their daily lives, not becoming a necessity in human lives. If one day, there isn't any electricity available (i.e. all technological appliances unable to work), how will humans adapt to this kind of lifestyle? hmm...

Anyway, enough of deviation. Approx. 1pm, all of us gathered together (together with our chinese counterparts) and went to Zhongshan Road and Zhongshan Park. The park is something like a combination of Singapore's Botanic Gardens, Escape Theme Park and Sculpture Parks. If I did not remember wrongly, we spent almost 2 hours in the park, spending time on taking photos and playing in the theme park.

Talking about this, I remember something Mr Puah said during the lesson, which I thought is rather true. When Singaporeans leave Singapore for overseas trips, they tend to forget about their image and have the so called "heck care, just do it" attitude. Haha. Maybe the term "heck care, just do it" attitude is rather serious. But currently, I cannot find a more suitable term yet.
For example, everyone can just stop and take 'jump shot' photos, scream etc or do actions that people normally won't do in Singapore streets. Is this singaporeans? Haha. Do Singaporeans are more self-conscious when they are in Singapore? hmm. a good point to ponder about. =D

After the Zhongshan Park tour, we headed for to the shopping malls along Zhongshan Road. Hmm. bought 2 shirts at RMB 55 (buy 1 get 1 free la). Anyway, the clothings in China now are rather cheap (in a sense that promotions are going on) because of the following reasons:

1) Summer is ending. Hence, every retail stores would want to clear as much summer clothings as possible because it would not be advisable to keep till next summer due to possible changes in fashion trends OR business costs etc

2) Post 2008 Beijing Olympics. About the same explanation as point 1. However, the main reason is that products that are producted for Olympics should be sold quickly before the Olympics fever is over (resulting in lost in value of goods)

Dinner at a food court where i found my beloved white fugus desert/shop (which is good for my current BAD sore throat and cough) and went to mei shi jie to do some final supermarket shopping.

Yep. Everyone took taxi back to WUST. Each taxi can seat 4 passengers. I realised that Wuhan taxi and other province taxis are rather different. (based on my experience) Somehow, I feel that Wuhan taxis are more safer as compared to other provinces.

Our taxi journey was rather smooth as compared to others.

Ohya. Thanks again to my friends again. for your YE JIU HUA HONEY and your chocolate blueberry cake (which i din eat actually. =D )

Once again, enjoy the photo montage! And thanks for enduring reading such a long naggy post!

I would say, First Day in Wuhan officially!

All right. the title spells out everything.

Yep. First shock of the day. Andy, Benjamin and I woke up late! we woke up at 7.40 when we are supposed to meet everyone for breakfast at 7.45am at the common corridor. BTW, everyone did not meet at the sipulated time. =.= Result: everyone reached the canteen at 8.15am and there isn't any food to eat!!

In the end, everyone went to the roadside stores (or local market, i should say) behind the hostel to take-away their breakfast. Huge varieties of food at rather cheap prices.

Reflection of this incident:

WUST canteens are rather different from Singapore schools canteens. For WUST, all canteens have a fixed opening time. As such, if anyone miss the opening time, NO FOOD! Hmm. rather unique. Anyway, another cultural difference between China and Singapore STUDENTS (i meant students). Based on the opening time, I can infer that the Chinese students' breakfast time are different from Singaporeans. Why? Is it because we tend to wake up later? haha. to be confirmed again =P

Anyway, signs of lack of standardisation (in terms of cleanliness standards, stores organisations etc) can be detected at the local market. Probably these are the reasons why Singaporeans (or should i say, foreigners) are discouraged from eating from these stores. HOWEVER, i realised something, isn't such type of markets are common in the 60s, 70s or even 80s Singapore? Another thing, the locals eat from there DAILY! hmmm... something to think about. Why people are discouraged from eating at such areas. lol

After breakfast, everyone attended a simple, yet serious welcoming ceremony, hosted by our China counterparts. After that, we went for orientation, getting ourselves familiarise with our classrooms and the school environment.

The whole morning ended with visiting the nearby supermarket and lunch (at macs again. =/ )

After resting in the hostel, everyone gathered at around 2.30pm to purchase for the China prepaid cards. On our way there, we walked passed one of the neighbourhood. It was rather interesting walk as everyone could experience the local culture in wuhan. Firstly, the whole atmosphere of the neighbourhood is rather relaxed. Sights of people rushing from point to point, buying groceries etc could not be found. Instead, the adults were playing mahjong, Chinese chess, poker cards along the street. Children are playing their toys or basketballs, women are chatting with their neighbours etc. That is how relaxed the neighbourhood is. An experience which are seldom detectable in Singapore.

Anyway, we got our prepaid card from a local telecommunications shop afterwards. However, it took us some time before we are able to purchase the cards. For me, I would say it is a communications problem within the main telecommunications company and their branches.

Yep. Day 2 in Wuhan officially ends with dinner from the local market and a game of dota? opps.

Please enjoy!

Day of Adapting

Day 1 - 25 August 2008

PHOTOS

All right. Let me recount briefly on what happened today. =)

4.45am --> Arrival in Changi Airport T1 with my mother and grandmother
6.30am --> Started to check in and cross the immigration counter after the final sent off by my family and dear classmates, who stayed overnight at the airport.
8am --> Board the plane the journey to China starts =)

Seriously, nothing much has happened UNTIL we reached Guangzhou for transit.
I remembered that everyone was worried because Suelyn lost her luggage. Fortunately, her luggage was taken (mistakenly) by someone from ME dept. Everyone was relieved when the luggage was found. ANYWAY, both luggage looked very identical!

Morale of story --> It is always important to check your stuffs before you leave, anywhere/any situation. Haha, in this context, always check the luggage tag (don't assume the particular luggage is yours when it looked like YOURS). Use prominent and unique tags to 'identify' your luggage. When i mean prominent and unique, I am refering to rafia strings or those used to tie rice dumplings, no ribbions pls.

Anyway, after that, there is something more 'exciting'. When we were preparing for transit, there was a commotion at the transit luggage counter. It involved the transit officers and a group of Chinese tourists. Initially (based on the exchanges between them), the officers, who wanted to minimise the queue length, requested the Chinese tourists to leave the luggage at the counter. However, the tourists refused to do so as they want to see their luggages being checked in properly. Hence, the quarrel started. Nevertheless, everything was sorted out and everyone was happy.

Apparently, on the surface, onlookers may think that Chinese people may be selfish and crude in nature, reason being they do not want to co-operate with the authorities for the benefit of others. However, later I realised that there might be another side of the story. Apparently, it seems to me that the Chinese tourists are rushing for their transit flight. As such, they would only feel safe if their luggage to enter first as they do not want to board the plane w/o their luggage. Hence, their actions may be justified. However, they could have negotiated 'peacefully' with the officers instead of quarrel? Maybe this could be the 'cultural difference' between Singaporeans and Chinese? hmm..

Anyway, we should not place judgements on people based on the first impression as it would be unfair to them as we do not understand what is happening.

So, journey to wuhan continues.. Ohya. Guangzhou Airport stuffs are expensive. A can of coke can go as expensive as S$5.

Upon reaching Wuhan international airport, we boarded the shuttle bus to WUST. On our way there, it is rather interesting as Wuhan looked entirely different from what we expected. Disorganisation and non-uniformity of roads, buildings and public structures can be seen everywhere. So are poor maintenance. Air pollution (Guangzhou too) are evident everywhere. However, attempts for a 'greener environment' can be seen as trees are being planted along the roads. Although this journey to WUST is rather short (approx. 30 to 45 mins), a lot things can be observed and allow students to further appreciate Singapore. For instance:

1) Poor management and planning of estates as old, run-down shophouses and new shopping centres etc are together
2) No proper traffic laws being respected
3) No 'CLEAN' environment along the streets etc

I was rather glad that everyone learnt to appreciate singapore during this SHORT journey. HOWEVER, there is something which I would like to comment. Personally, although it is good to appreciate singapore, I feel it would be unfair for Wuhan if the students have a bad impression about the city. Reason being, the areas we covered in the journey could be just the small /rural areas of Wuhan. Yep. Anyway, the city of Wuhan is developing, so some areas would be that poor. Maybe in 10 years time, the whole city would be different? =)

Yep. Nothing much for the rest of the day, except everyone feeling 'stunned' by the state of the hostel rooms. However, despite of all the complains by everyone (initally), personally I felt glad to see everyone working together to make their rooms as comfortable as possible. =)

Dinner at MacDonald's and our first night was full of screaming and boiling of drinking water. =P