A beautiful Saturday morning with a slightly lower temperature as compared to the day before. The sky was still a little dark as it was only 5+am in the morning and I was having the time of my life; trying to battle my fever. I lost the battle and watched as all my other friends set off to explore Wuhan city. It was really hard trying to persuade myself to stay back to try to recuperate. When they knew that I was sick and not going to be with them for this trip, they were asking how I felt, bringing their own store of water and food over for me, trying ways they know to bring down my temperature, easing my discomfort, all that the expense of being late for the weekend trip that I know I will miss. I felt really bad for making them late and I wondered if any of them received any scolding. Throughout the day, they were sending regular sms-es updating me about where they were and at the same time, I was informing them about my condition. It was only around 4pm when they sent me a sms telling me they were on their way back. They then reached the hostel and came in to check on me. Yee Tat and Tony were the first ones to appear at my room’s door and the rest followed after. At that moment of time, I felt safer to know that they were back. They then started to update me on what they did during the trip, showed me photos they took, explained to me some of the history that they had learnt.
Apparently, their first stop was East Lake and from what I inferred, the scenery was spectacular. With the rows and rows of willow trees and ancient structures lining the lake, the pictures that they took depicted such serenity that made me wished I had tagged along despite the fever. I wouldn’t have minded sitting at the side of the lake and enjoying the peace and tranquility for a short period of time. With the huge expands of trees, I would have believed that the air was fresher than anywhere else in the city. The breeze there would have been light and cooling too. I believed that this is one good area where they have invested in. In SG, having a garden with such a huge lake would have been impossible due to the space restrains. However, inside China, a country with bustling and polluted city, a garden with that many trees is literally like a god-sent from heaven. A place to relax and unwind and to escape from the pollution within the city. This would have been tough in SG, where the land is limited.
Their second stop was the Hubei Museum. The artifacts in the museum depicted the rich 5000 years history of China. From what they told me, some of the artifacts in the museum are unable to be duplicated even using the current modern technology. This fact itself awed me because in my opinion, with current technology, almost everything can be done. However, with the fact that the artifacts from the past can’t be duplicated now makes me wonder how the locals in the past managed to create the artifact with tools that are even more primitive than ours. Not mentioning the fact that there was such tight security in the museum as no one is allowed inside the museum without doing a full body scan. The artifact I always wanted to see was the two-tone set bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng. It was said to be the one of the greatest musical treasure excavated from the past and needed more than 3 people to play this instrument. I wondered how the musicians in the past felt when they were hypnotizing others with the beautiful music from this instrument. I believed that if I was one of the musicians, I would have burst with pride to know that the instrument that I’ve learnt to play is now current on exhibition thousands of years later. In another portion of the museum, there were showcases of porcelains that have been unearthed from various sites. From the brochures Tony had gotten for me, the porcelains displayed were all of different variety e.g. cups, vases, ink slabs and many more. All of them were well preserved and were adorned with intricate designs which made me ponder yet again, how much effort went into each of the works and how they managed to do it better than us with our current technology. It was really tough to imagine such pieces of arts being molded from scratch by the hands of the ancient people. There were also various types of weapons being displayed which can tell us more about the wars and blacksmiths of the past.
Ending the day’s trip was a visit to one of the more famous icons in Hubei, the Huang He tower or better known as the Yellow Crane Tower. It was said that this tower once acted as a watch tower in the olden times and was destroyed and rebuilt seven times throughout the entire history. The entire tower consisted of five stories. From what I’ve seen from the blogs, pictures covered almost every plane of wall in the tower and there were many stores selling souvenirs which included stamp making, wooden fans and many more. The climb was arduous but the view from the top was magnificent as it allowed everyone to have a bird’s eye view of a portion of the city below the hill of which the tower was situated on. I wondered how the guards felt like in the past when they were keeping watch on the tower itself and if they even wondered about whether people in the future would be able to experience for themselves the feeling of standing nearly at the top of hill. I really wished I had gone to at least seen for myself the beauty of the place and experienced standing on the very top of the tower. I’d this feeling that even though it would be a placebo effect of being at the top of the world, at least it is one experience that I’d had and would treasure.
Comparing the richness of the culture and the history between China and SG, China would probably win hands down. With its multitude of place of interest and history, China is like a heaven for tourists and locals to explore and know more about the history of China though it might take quite long periods of time to get to the different places and an even longer time to visit every site of historical value. There is one thing similar about the two countries that I can safely conclude; both China and SG put in quite a good effort of preserving the natural beauty of their places of interest which is good so that the future generations be able to enjoy these beauties, learn more about it and appreciate the goodness of it all.
Day 13
Another day of visiting and this time we were supposed to go to Hankou, a famous place for shopping and many more. I was still having fever and feeling unwell, but decided to stubbornly go on ahead as I didn’t want to miss out on another day of weekend trip. Hankou is said to be business district so it is not as developed as the Wuchang or Hanyang. It was quite the early trip due to the long bus journey. I really loathe the long bus rides whenever we have to leave the campus for weekend trips due to my recurring motion sickness. It was really terrible trying to tolerate the jerkiness the bus, the blasting of the horns and the long hours we were cooped inside the bus. The long hours in the bus is due to the distance large area between the provinces and the humongous land space that is built for travelling. It then becomes really tough to concentrate on the roads that we passed to spot the difference in the different provinces at the high speed that we are travelling at. Then there was no choice but to try to rest and resist moving around to take photographs. Somehow, we managed to make it to our destination with our tour guide talking about the various historical places with vigor. It was a vague memory but she spoke about how Hankou was really famous for floods and the villagers decided to build a temple to try to pacify the dragon lord of the river. It seems that the concept of praying to gods and building of temple to ward off catastrophes is similar in China and SG. However, due to the fact that the China government wanted the space on which the temple was built to further expand some of its business, the temple was torn down and buildings were constructed in its stead. It so happened that a flood occurred two years after the temple was torn down and people, being the superstitious species that they are, started to panic and worry that the dragon lord is angry that its temple was torn down and summoned a flood to punish them. The premier of China even came down to Hankou to reassure the hearts of the locals. The locals and the government then fork about a total of 1.2 billion yuan to build walls to help to protect future floods around the area of the previous dragon lord temple. It makes me wonder how far the power of superstition will push one to. Just because of fearing the purported “dragon lord’s wrath”, they forked out such a huge sum of money to build barriers around the original site to nullify the “wrath”. I guess superstitions are around everywhere in different countries. I’m skeptical when it comes to superstition though I understand that it is easier to just believe in mythology. Sometimes I think it’s just hard to push everything to superstition just because we can’t find the science behind it.
Anyway, we reached our destination, 汉口江滩 which translates literally to Hankou’s river beach but let’s just call it Hankou beach for now. It’s like being transported through time and space. The city was replaced by the scenic river side /beach where a cool breeze was constantly present. There were barges on the huge river and kites shop can be seen nearly everywhere. The constant wind makes it possible to fly kites and sure enough, most of the people were having the time of their lives letting the kites fly.
We explored the place further and headed back to gather and move off to the next area. Our tour guide brought us down the dusty streets to the start of the Walking Street where there were shops galore. We then broke off into our different groups and my groups of friends and Dr. Tan went off in search of the Xinhua, one of the bigger bookstores around this area. The four levels were linked by a spiral staircase, filled at the sides with children and adults alike reading books. I’ve always thought that a bookstore is a place to purchase books, not a place to read the books and then leave. Another point of difference between China and SG, and one that receives quite a high marks in my list of favorites. If only the books there were in English. I would probably go there every single day and spend the whole day there. We left the bookstore and started the hunt for food as everyone’s tummy was literally roaring. We by-passed all the packed eateries and ended up in a quiet and decent looking eatery, HCC. Regretfully, at that moment of time, I couldn’t enjoy my time there as my fever came back in full force. Yee Tat kindly helped me order pork ribs soup as I could barely eat anything else. The wait for his food was long though, and when it finally arrived, the order was wrong. Hallelujah. He tried to explain it to the waiter but apparently the waiter was at a loss at what to do and Yee Tat gave up and went back to tackle his food. After cleaning the plates, we left and then walked back to wait for the nice air-conditioned bus to take us back to campus. Sometimes, it was hard to even know whether the locals can understand us, what with their accent and all. It was hard to understand what they are saying at times too, so I guess I would have to try harder to pay attention to what they say, though it’s tough, since the environment is noisier.
Day 14
Today was another day for importing information into our brains. We brought forward tomorrow’s lesson as it will be a whole day of student interaction with the local students. I’d said that Dr. Tan’s lecture is really interesting. There is a low possibility of me, a sleepyhead, to even fall asleep in class. He brings in the most entertaining yet relevant examples. An example will be when he’s trying to explain the concept of the flow of Qi in the body during one the TCM lectures, he brought in the example of Naruto, a popular anime/manga which most of the class is familiar with. It was really fresh because I rarely had lectures that use examples from our student life. It was quite sudden but then, it seems like the studious and dull atmosphere in the classroom was lifted, bringing a fresher outlook to the whole class. I felt lucky that Dr. Tan came along with us to this trip, because being taught by him is totally a new experience.
Anyway, for the first time today, the temperature started to plummet. The first step out of the dorm caused me to fall back into the warmth of the dorm and head back for my jacket. The sudden change of temperature took us all aback and I couldn’t adapt that fast. Thus, my nose started to give me problems and I almost had to stuff my nose with wads of tissue paper. We left for dinner outside the campus and ended up with overly salty and oily food and that was when we asked for lesser oil and salt. I really cannot imagine what will happen if we didn’t voice out our requests. My food in SG were usually bland and I’m really have difficulty accepting the food here and so does my stomach. I’m kind of afraid that I would wind up with kidney failure soon and stroke or something along those lines. Due to the cold weather, we decided to hurry back to the warmth of our dorms after the dinner and went back to dealing with our assignments.
Day 15
Today is the day that we have been anticipating, the day where we are having interactions with the local students and we were to make our way to a tangerine farm in a suburb area.
We left quite early in the morning to beat the traffic and reached the farm with plenty of time to spare. On the bus journey there, we were briefly told about what can and cannot be done in the farm. We were allowed to pick the tangerines there and consume it on the spot, but we have to pay 1 yuan per 500g of tangerines we bring out of the farms. This brought to surface the question that was in my mind; why is the consumption of tangerines in the farm free and one only pays when he intends to bring the tangerine out of the farm? This question was voiced out but none of the students can give us an answer so we decided to leave this question alone. Upon reaching the destination, we headed off in different directions to explore the huge plantation. The farm stretched for miles and miles apart and I could barely make out the perimeter of the farm. We spent half the afternoon there and some of us ended up sitting by the small pond near the entrance of the farm. The tranquility of the pond and the clucking of the chicken nearby actually helped to sooth my erratic thoughts and brought calm to my emotions. In the end, I sat there and talked to Edah and listening to music playing via her phone and watched the water surface, spotting the occasional fish here and there. All in all, it was a calming and peaceful place to just sit and talk. However, as Chinese saying goes “天下无不散之筵席” which means there is always an end to all the good things, we were to bade goodbye to the tangerine farm and make our way back to the campus for the second round of the student interaction. We took a break in our individual rooms before gathering down at the lobby of the hostel to move off to the next location.
We were to have a barbeque in the training park beside the campus. As the night was more cooling, I switched my jeans for a pair for shorts which later I regretted making this decision. We followed the local students through the training park and ended up in a miniature field where we all stopped in surprise. There were no BBQ pits available and in its place were something like over-turned broken pots where stones were placed in. The students the supplied us with what was meant to be the pit on which was placed on top of the over-turned pots and charcoal was placed inside.
One thing I really find astonishing was the fact that the fuel was dried grass and twigs/sticks. It took a really long time for our guys to set it up and get the fire going. I believe that during the process of getting the fire started, there was severe smoke inhalation by the guys who were trying to get the fire going. There were no such thing as fire starters and it was almost like stone age all over again. I believe this is a valuable lesson to learn because it shows us how pampered and soft we are. Here in China, there is no such thing as fire starters as the locals knew of ways to start a fire even though it would take a much longer time. I’d admit that I was too pampered in Singapore such that I was actually shocked that they were using the primitive way of getting a fire going. It was only until now that I really realized that I have been taking things that are always within my reach for granted. In a way, this interaction helped wake me up to the harsher reality.
We were all gathered around the pit and were watching the students talk to each other. Their BBQ food is also different from ours. In Singapore, meats like chicken wings, stingray and many more were cooked while this BBQ consists mainly of vegetables. They had brought their own spice and condiments and were slathering the vegetables with the spices and then offering it all to us. We broke the ice and started to converse about the difference in the schools in China and Singapore. There was music blasting through the speakers someone had decided to bring along and loud conversations can be heard over the music. The appearance came so suddenly that many people were stunned. Fireworks, not 500m away from us, were sent up into the night sky. This greatly surprised me as fireworks were banned in Singapore unless its National Day and even if it is, only trained personnel are allowed to send it up into the sky in s secluded place. Comparing it to China where as long as it’s nearing their National Day, and in the law-specific place, anyone can send fireworks into the sky. At first, it seemed like a novel idea to send fireworks into the sky so close to us, however, as more and more of the fireworks are sent into the night sky, illuminating the area for a little while before it fades away, the once-spectacular scene cease to interest us. So once again, we fell back to talking to the local students and exchanged ideals and differences we see in our individual countries. Nearing 8pm was the signal for all of us to leave. Our group was the smallest as many had left way before the fire was set up and some of them left during the BBQ and so the clearing up was faster. We then made our way back to our hostel, pausing to buy some food as most of us were still hungry. This then marks the end of our day of student interaction.
Day 16
Was an IS day whereby we learnt about the Chinese wedding and the fengshui. Not particularly interesting, yet I jot down notes along the way, with the sole purpose of letting me stay awake. The way of teaching is unheard of in Singapore; the lecturer speaks through a mike he placed near his face. Sure, we have had teachers in secondary schools doing that too, due to the fact that they have a sore throat and couldn’t project their voice well enough. Apparently, the lecturer for this IS class was a man of soft voice and he had to speak into the mike. The more interesting thing is that, we were all told to pick up the headphones to be able to listen to his voice clearly. This is really something new. How often do you see students in Singapore listening to a headphones that do not play music of their own choices and instead, the monotonous soft droning voice of the lecturer? Some of the students, me included, refused to put on the headphones due to 1) hygiene reasons, 2) it would probably lull me to sleep. It seems that we are unable to escape from the main points of TCM; there were mentions of yin/yang and the 5 elements everywhere!
The afternoon class brought us closer to the end of the TCM chapters and also a yawn when we found out about the test dates. Apparently, tests and exams not longer brought the sense of adrenaline rush or in my terms, the panic button. It was just simply a yawn and an “okay” as a response to test dates. Probably due to the fact that we had faced too many tests along the poly life. Life was getting smoother as we started to adapt to the surroundings. It’s really nice to be in a area where people knows you by face e.g. bakery and student diner and started to have a conversation with you, trying to learn more about Singapore or just trying to keep up with the times.
Day 17
The day where there were no more TCM chapters! Not exactly happy about it, since that was the bulk of the reason why we were here for but, I’m not going to complain about studying less. =) There was discussion set by Dr. Tan today. Listened to his explanation of what is to be done and off we start. Jotting down the points was easy but not the churning of the brain. We were all still pretty stoned and at first and I swore my brain told me to stop thinking and to start sleeping in a tiny weeny voice at the back of my head. Anyway, when we were done, Dr. Tan told us about him trying to book a room for yoga classes next week. Urgh. To me, yoga is fine, with a yoga mat. I really can’t imagine doing yoga on a floor where no one knows the last time it had been cleaned. Doing yoga on those floor is almost equivalent to helping them to mop the floors, with our nice clean clothes! Shall not think about it, shall not think, not think…