Monday, December 29, 2008
9th December, Tuesday:
Well, its actually 28th November on the day I am typing this post. Haha I know im way behind schedule but I’m still going to try to rush out my posts. Havent really had the time and commitment to type out my blog posts for awhile already. Pardon me if events are not described as clearly, or if there are any mistakes cause I have forgotten some things already.
Today we went to chang cheng at last! Yup the great wall of china. We took a coach again which was great since we could sleep again. I don’t really get much sleep everyday here so the coach ride is great for sleeping. Some people find it interesting to chit chat on the bus but I personally think they are just making a lot of noise. Could type in more detail but I guess I’ll leave that out since I don’t want to flame anyone even if I didn’t mean to. Anyway, after reaching the carpark, we had to trek up to the great wall. Had to climb up a lot of steps but after we got up it was really worth it. Being me of course, I ran up xD Then I kept niaoing nick sim cos he refused to run with me. Along the way we kept reading people wrote on the stones and some of it was really funny. We even found some stones that had words from the previous hwachong batches written on them. There was one that actually counted the number of steps lol. When we reached the cable car area some people wanted to stop there but most of us continued up to reach the top. The top was really cool and we had to climb up this super steep staircase to climb up the last part. We didn’t go further because it the rest of the area was sealed. Haha then everyone was carving their names on the stones so I wrote my name there too with some chalk. Mr Kong went all the way up but stopped at the steep steps cos he is scared of heights. Then everyone was cheering him on although we were niaoing at the same time too xD Kept on calling him humji. And others were giving him incentives too like giving him as many wives as he wanted. Or threatening to tell May(his rumoured girlfriend) that he is such a coward. Lol so after about 15min he finally we KONGvinced him and he went up. Then everyone started cheering. I remember one of them was like this:
Some guy: I say Kong Chiak you say Wu
Kong Chiak!
Everyone: Wu!
Some guy: Kong Chiak!
Everyone: Wu!
Some guy: KONG CHIAK!!!
Everyone: WU!!!
After that we went back to the cable car building and took a cable car back down. Wang Yue said theres a said but I didn’t see any o.0 Slide down?? I think she must have been joking probably.. Anyway, on the way down the cable car trip was quite short but definitely not short on scenery. Had a great wide angle view of the great wall and the forest all around it. It is really quite amazing to think that the Qin Dynasty managed to build such a long and big wall with primitive technology.
After coming down we took the coach again and went to a temple. Can’t really remember the names of the temple but it had something to do with it being a bamboo temple. This temple is special because it has a whole bamboo forest inside. One of the Emperors of China ordered that the bamboo forest should be preserved so up till now the forest has still been preserved. It seems kind of out of place but nice too as there are no other places where you can see so much bamboo. Bamboo is very thin so from any point u can see a long distance through the forest because there few leaves to block your line of sight. Went in to view all the prayer halls and there was a very big tree there which had branches all over the place. Its supposed to symbolized something but I think I wasn’t really paying attention at that point of time so didn’t really catch that :p
Thursday, December 11, 2008
I have been in beijing for one week already!!
8th December, Monday:
Today was a really long day. Left at 7.30am and only returned at 11pm.
Went to the eco-city at tianjin. In case anyone doesn’t know, the eco-city is collaboration between Singapore and China to build a city which is entirely eco-friendly and helps the environment instead of damaging it. Its still in the construction stage for now but my only comment is that it still has a long long long way to go before reaching eco-friendly status =.= Lol the air there is so hazy u can barely see beyond 50 or 100 metres. We took a chartered us for the first time there which took 3 hours to reach the eco-city…or rather..the exhibition hall because the city isn’t built yet. The design looks nice and with all the measures they are taking it seems like it will really make a difference. But as I mentioned earlier, they really have a long way to go. The air is unbelievably polluted but maybe that is because the air is still today. Even in Beijing the air quality was just as bad. The smell of smoke and haze is evident and obviously that sucks.
After that we went for lunch. Lunch and dinner today in tianjin are sponsored by some guy from Keppel corp so we had a great lunch. I sadly didn’t get to finish it though because we were in a rush. I declared it my best meal in Beijing though :D rushed off to nan kai zhong xue, a school in tianjin that hwachong has some affiliations with because we hosted them a number of times in my school. Nan kai zhong xue really has quite a rich history. It was the former school of zhou en lai and wen jia bao and we had a tour of the place where we even got to see the room and bed where zhou en lai slept in. Lol I was asking my friends why they didn’t seal off the toilet too and say wen jia bao did his business in there before xD
We went to some culture street after that and many people bought paintings of there own names, school names and other stuff. Didn’t get any cause I thought it was quite a waste. I just know its going to become a white elephant in my house after I buy it.
We had dinner at another restaurant after that and the food was REALLY GREAT AGAIN. And guess what. I declared it my best meal kin Beijing again! Yeah it was even better than lunch. Today will be such a memorable day. Its not everyday where you get to eat 2 best meals in one day xD Felt extremely full after that but also very happy and satisfied because I ate so much. 5 bowls of rice :p Even more than sean who was trying to eat more than me but only succeeded in taking 3 bowls.
Then we had a long bus trip all the way back to our hostel which took 3 hours. Had a great sleep xD
Btw I am SUPPOSED to be studying English now because its my wanzixi (night study session) now. But…I’m blogging in English after all…So I guess it counts huh?
7th December, Sunday: We had the whole day free today cause its sunday. In Beijing we are given the weekends to do anything we want if we aren’t any trips planned for us. We went to xiu shui jie where we could get all the cheap stuff and then after that went to xi dan which is more of the malls but quality tends to be better. Bought lots and lots of stuff. I don’t think I ever bought so many things at one go before but I really couldn’t resist the temptation. Stuff here are really much cheaper :D
In xiu shui jie I bought a pair of shoes…my second pair I bought since coming here. Then after that bought 2 pairs of pants, had lunch, and headed off to xi dan. Sounds like it was quite fast but actually it took rather long as there were many many choices and I had to chose properly. Bargaining takes time too. Sometimes the prices they offer are really exorbitant and you can slash the price more than 50% at times.
At xi dan we went to one of the shopping centres which has quite nice stuff. Unfortunately most of the things there are more expensive so had to be more discerning. In the end I bought a wallet cause mine just tore yesterday :( and also a sling bag for my brother.
Spent a total of about 240 yuan shopping xD I thought girls were good at shopping but you know what? I think I’m better :p
Went back to the hostel and since we are also allowed to leave our laptops with us during weekends, I played Counter Strike till midnight. Dota doesn’t really work well cause the connection isn’t very stable and keeps disconnecting halfway. For CS its easy to rejoin but for dota I have to remake the whole game so we aren’t playing it.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
6th December, Saturday: Went to Qinghua University and Beida University today. Not too sure how to write it in Chinese but I think it should be 清华大学and 北大大学. Those are the 2 top universities and Beijing. We had a good tour of both universities because we have seniors there from Hwachong who went over to the universities. There were others from other Singapore schools that also helped to bring us around.
Went to qinghua university first and it was just as cold as the ;previous days. The wind was still strong and qinghua has many open areas which was obviously bad when we were walking around. I’m slowly getting used to the cold so I didn’t wear the cap today to cover my ears. It looks horrible and makes my hair stick up very weirdly so I rather leave it open. Although at the end I kind of regretted it I couldn’t even feel my ears or nose. Qinghua is a very very big university about 10 times the size of hwachong. And I thought Hwachong was already very big. There’s a big lake in the middle of the university too and it was so frozen up today that I experimented walking a few steps out onto the ice and there were no cracks at all. Didn’t dare to go any further because if it cracked I probably wouldn’t be alive anymore. Had a nice tour through the place. The university is really like a small town. I guess its close to being totally self-sufficient. Qinghua university even has a nuclear power plant inside…Seriously.
After we left qinghua, we went to beida university. Beida university is about one-third the size of qinghua but that is still huge. They say the things you have to see in beida university when you go there can be summarized in four words. Yi Ta Hu Tu. Lol its not the 一塌糊涂 meaning blur. Its 一塔湖图. Meaning the pagoda, the lake and the library. Beida university has a pagoda overlooking a huge lake..I think bigger than the one at qinghua and it looks more suitable for ice skating too. If there’s a chanced I really look quiet forward to ice skating. I really love ice skating but sadly I rarely get a chance to skate. That’s one of the things I’m really looking forward to. The lake is frozen and of course bigger than any of your manmade ice skating rinks :D
Went to zhong guan cun after that which is the equivalent of sim lim square of Singapore. You can get all the good computer stuff at great prices there. Didn’t buy anything though although I need a charger because I forgot all the specifications and I was thinking that I might be able to manage without it after all as more than one friend has compatible chargers with my laptop. Which is why I’m able to type out such long blog posts.
Ate out at a restaurant near our hostel and it is unbelievably cheap. After dividing everything up it only cost me 20 Yuan for the meal. A restaurant meal. Bought a ear muff too so in the future I don’t have to wear the retarded looking cap xD
5th December: Went to the forbidden city today. We had only our Chinese cultural lessons today and guess what. I didn’t sleep this time :D After that left for 故宫，which is the forbidden city. Its still just as cold today but the forbidden city is definitely more important than the cold so I’ll post about the forbidden city first :p The forbidden city is huge with many many many huge empty spaces. Which is bad because it is so cold. When the wind blows u have no way of hiding. Felt totally frozen..perhaps even more that Wednesday because we still had shelter on Wednesday. We went to see many of the palaces. The place is really very well designed. The palaces all have such intricate designs it makes you wonder how much time and effort was taken to carve it all out. Especially with the kind of technology they had hundreds of years ago. Many of the things inside are made of gold too. Now I can understand why so much of the money could be used in the palace. After wondering around I managed to find a way up to the palace walls too. The steps are really interesting and its just like a straight slope with very very very small steps so it gives the friction to prevent ppl from falling. Palace walls give a good view of the forbidden palace but its not really very high. Raced Nick Sim up and won xD
Now about the cold. After descending the walls we went back over to the imperial gardens where the rest of them were and there was a pond there which was also frozen. Timothy Tay (the super strong gymnast) tried to break the ice again. He took a big stone and threw it with all his strength at the ice. 2 things happened. First, the stone hit the ice, CHIPPED it and bounced of. The ice didn’t break through, it just had a small portion chipped off so the water still wasn’t exposed. At the same time, timothy, carrying jonathan’s glove, also threw the glove along with the stone maybe because he threw it so hard. Lol someone should have taken a picture of jonathan’s expression. Luckily the ice didn’t break or his glove would hav gone down in the water. In he end after much distress (jonathan’s) and amusement (everyone else) a worker there took a very long stick and rescued his glove. The canal partially froze up today too.
4th December, Thursday: As of today I will try to avoid repeating the normal things like rushing to school to be there by 7.30am. Went to the Beijing Zoo today. We didn’t have any lessons in the morning today as we had to rush off and instead of meeting in school we met at the lobby at 7.30am. Why the rush? The teachers told us pandas only move to eat in the morning, and then they sleep for the rest of the day. So we had to get there early in order to see them moving. Took a bus (public bus of course) down to the zoo which is just opposite the plaza we went to on Tuesday to buy the winter clothings. The pandas were really cute….and well…FAT. Shouldn’t be much off a surprise that simply eating and sleeping everyday makes them fat right? Haha but I they are really really cute. They way they move and sit down is very funny. Didn’t bring my camera so I don’t have the pictures to upload now but I’ll see if I can edit my posts n put the pictures in when I get back to Singapore. Yuna is already asking me for the pictures 0.o After that we went to the aquarium where we watched the seals and dolphins performing. Which inspired Oswald to want to be a dolphin rider. After all that guy who rode the dolphin like a skateboard is really damn cool. He just stood on the dolphin and the dolphin swam through the water so quickly and when he reached the edge he just jumped off and dived into the water. Another time he let the dolphin push him out from under the water and he flew out like 5 metres. Those dolphins are really super strong. I ate my nicest meal so far for lunch after that at 面爱面。 But it was very expensive at 23 bucks. That’s like usual Singapore price.
After that we went to the planetarium where we watched a 4D movie on how Galileo invented the telescope. Didn’t really get much of it cos a lot of the terms are in Chinese…but for the most part because I fell asleep lol.
Today is also the coldest day since I’ve been in Beijing. I was wondering whether I should post about the zoo first all the cold, because both were equally memorable. It was so cold that after just 5 min outside I had to find shelter to warm up. In the end I gave up but almost froze to death. The wind was grade 6 today. So strong that it can even cause u to walk diagonally when you were actually walking straight. It’s the wind that really kills. Temperature went below negative today and the water partially froze. But the ice is still really thin and we had fun smashing the ice by just putting a little weight on it.
I have decided to keep a day to day update now since there are so many interesting . Beijing is turning out to be really fun and nicer than I expected. Maybe that is because I came here with an open mind but in any case, I am totally enjoying my experience here so far. My previous post the other day was about my first 2 days, Monday and Tuesday in Beijing. Haven’t really had the chance to update until now but I can still type in Microsoft word and upload when I’m in school and have internet :D
3rd December, Wednesday: Like any usual weekday, we have to wake up early. We had Chinese cultural class for the first time today in the morning in 二附中. That’s how every weekday is going to be but for the first 2 weeks we still have trips out in the morning and afternoon so we don’t have to sit in for the boring lessons everyday. Haha the we usually have 1h30min of cultural lessons during the weekdays and they teach us Chinese literature and Chinese history..all he dynasties and stuff. It can be quite interesting, if I can stay awake that is xD I stayed awake until after the 1st hour which was the literature part. Then I slept in the history half. After that we went to the exhibition centres to see the architecture layout of Beijing. Theres a building where we actually can see the whole of Beijing in that small structure form. Those kind of mini structures that they always have at the show house of flats..If you get what I mean. Its like a 3D map of Beijing with actual structures sticking out the the ground. Except that they are just in small form. Its very updated too and I can even see the Bird Nest Stadium and Water Cube there. After that we went back on the bus. I don’t think I mentioned so far but we actually take public transport everywhere. Its actually quite interesting. It makes you feel like you are actually part of the place, and not just a tourist. Went back and still had time so played basketball for awhile. Its really cold here and my stamina sucks because the cold freezes up your lungs. But still had fun playing. I have only one thing to say after playing with those local students. Their basketball is gay. Had our night study session for the first time today too. Supposed to study English online. But I didn’t of course and somehow ended up gaming in class. Sean, Oswald, 2 St Nicholas girls and me are sitting at one table together. Found out their names today after daoing them for uhh 2 days? I didn’t say I knew how to spell the names though. Lol so im not going to post that.
