Day 8, Boring

Day 8
It was a same usual morning from the rest of the other days. Classes starts at 10 and ended at 12.
We were all busy washing our clothing in the afternoon as the weather forecast reported that there will be rain in the next 2 days.
As we were done washing and hanging our clothes out to dry, we thought of making our own dinner. After thinking a little while more, we decided that today we will eat out and buy groceries for the next day to do our cooking.
We went to Carrefour, the usual place for good & fresh groceries, and bought ingredients for our spaghetti. The most unusual thing was, when we wanted to buy eggs, we have to queue up for it and each person is only entitled to roughly 30 eggs each. Weird?
After an entire evening of shopping, we were all hungry and settled for Ajisen for our dinner.
Today hasn’t been much of a good day as all of us were tired.

Day 7 First lesson in Wuhan

Day 7
Today is the first day where lesson starts. All of us are ‘excited’ about it.
We made our way to the food market where we had our breakfast.
Reaching the school, we look for the flight of stairs which Ms Wang brought us the other time. While Mr Wee went to collect the keys for the class, we climbed the stairs.
It was a tiring climb as the height of each level, are much higher than those in Singapore. We manage to reach the 7th floor when we realise the gate was locked. Feeling exhausted due to walking from the hostel to the school and up the stairs. All of us were lamenting.
The school keeper told Mr Wee that there is another entrance up. This means we have to walk down this stairs and climb up another stairs to the 7th floor.
Finally, we reached the classroom. The room was nicely furnished and it felt not like a classroom but rather, a restaurant. It is a nice place though, we will be spending our next 5 weeks over at that classroom. What was most surprising about the school, was the toilet.
In the toilet, each cubicle has walls. However, each side of the wall is about 1 metre high. That means, if you’re doing your business, it will be seen by anyone using the toilet with you. The cubicle has no doors too. The water-closet is a tiled-made trench stretch along 4 cubicles. In other words, if 4 people want to defecate at the same time, they will be using the same trench. And if one person flushes, the entire trench will be filled with water which brings the first cubicle faeces to the other cubicle. Yucks!
The class lasted until about 4 pm with a 2 hours break in between. After class, we had a suggestion of going to golden hans a buffet restaurant which is located near Carrefour.
We had our dinner there. The food there was good, filling & most of all CHEAP!
We were acting like big bosses, as the restaurant was food were cheap. People who were eating there wore nice clothing considering that the restaurant is quite posh. But to us, the restaurant was just like any coffee shop in Singapore in regards to the price.
We paid the bill which only adds up to like S$9 each.

Day 6 (9th March)

Day 6
Today, there are no lessons. As we had lots of travelling the day before and we need to catch up on our journal for 3 days as we did not bring our laptops to Yangtze.
However, we went out to have our food and do some sight-seeing in Wuhan to find out more about the place.
We took a bus down to Yang Mao Guang chang. The bus driver is super impatient. One of our friend, Alicia, as she board the bus, the bus driver step on the accelerator almost leaving her leg severed. Mr Wee too, was a victim. He dropped his coin on the bus. As soon as the bus door close, the bus driver press the accelerator almost to the maximum causing him to fall.
Yang Mao was boring for me, as there was no food. Mr Wee, Han Soo, Chong Rui, Jackboon & Me then decided to walk out of Yang Mao in search of foot reflexology. But to no avail, we didn’t manage to find one.
We then took a taxi back to the hostel being afraid that we may meet another terrible bus driver.
In the taxi, we started a conversation with the taxi driver. As we started to gain his trust, he talked to us about the people in China and told us why the bus driver was so reckless and impatient. He told us that it was the character of Wuhan people. He said that when they are born they are already like that. If they are not fierce, they will be bullied by others.
Adding on, he told us where we should visit in Wuhan for example Han Kou. Which is, the ‘city’ of Wuhan. He told us that Han Kou is a place where is filled with business, fun, games, shopping & food. It sounded like orchard road in Singapore.
He also mention about Lee Kuan Yew. To my surprise, Lee Kuan Yew is so famous that even a taxi driver knows him. He praised Lee Kuan Yew, as he made an impression on the taxi driver that Singapore is a clean and green and a safe country to be in.

Day 5, Travel Travel Travel

Day 5
We reach Yi Chang at Noon and had lunch over there. Afterwhich, it was travelling and travelling all the way back to Wuhan.

Day 4, YangTze ( 7th March )

Day 4
Breakfast would be served at 0630hrs. We woke up at 0530hrs at a estimate 4 degrees. It was super cold.
For breakfast, porridge, peanuts, Chinese salad, Man Tou(Chinese buns) & Nian Gao(those we eat during Chinese new year) & boiled eggs. It was a light breakfast, which was healthy and filling. Not like those in Singapore which are so heavy and oily.
I went to the back roof to get some fresh air. As there was a good amount of sunlight, I was greeted with the majestic view of the Yangtze River. The sight was simply picturesque.
The air was fresh and the wind was cooling. Words are not able to describe the amount peacefulness and comfort just being there to enjoy the scenery.
We changed our ship to a smaller one so that it can make access to Shen Long Jiang. When we were at the back of the ship, we cooked up a conversation with a local. He was selling antiques on the ship. He was telling us about the bad memories they have of the Japanese. That he would rather sell a particular item to an American for 200 RMB than to a Japanese for 250 RMB. He was also making enquires about Singapore as he have an impression of the high cost of living here. It was rather a fruitful talk with him as we get to know more about the people here in China.
We then made our way to Shen Long Jiang. Where it is famous for men, naked, paddling and pulling the boats.
The main reason for the men to be naked is because that, these men are poor. With clothing on, through wear and tear doing all these hard work would damage their clothing which means they have to purchase their new set of clothes which cost money. As so, they decided that being naked would save them the necessary trouble and money. And furthermore, they only earn 25 RMB a day.
However, as the government decided the flood the YangTze river, the River became a popular place for tourist to come. Therefore, the men are forced to be dressed when doing their routine work.
We then went back to our cruise where they will bring us to Bai Di Cheng, a famous Romance of the Three Kingdom place which Liu Bei, the leader of the Liu Army died.
The trip will take roughly 2 hours. Along the way, it was mountains and more mountains. But, being smart tour guides, using imaginations, they carved our images of lions, dragons & eagle. I.e A dragon climbing up the mountain can be seen in certain angle.
My friends and I felt tired at that point as it was boring on the ship, just sceneries & beds. So we decide to bring a few chairs to the roof to play poker. I bet it will be the envy of many to be able to play poker in such a beautiful scenery and weather.
Before we knew it, we reached Bai Di Cheng. We walked up 300 stairs to Bai Di Miao ( Bai Di Temple). There, we saw the scene of a dying Liu Bei surrounded by his many subordinates. The scene was shown in statues with the tour guide explaining what was happening at that point.
The worship statues of Liu Bei and some other famous characters in San Guo Yan Yi i.e Zhu Ge Liang have a history of 400 years which heads were chopped off during a war in China. The heads we then placed back some 80 years ago. Also, in the temple, there were skeletons of the earliest people on earth. There was one body, which uses the trunk of the tree. The inside of the trunk was dug out and the body was placed inside. The trunk acted as the coffin. That particular body was certified the first of its kind to die and be buried. These people we called the Tu zhu. The earliest tribe in China.
The most famous thing there is huang yang mu shu. Every where you go, there are combs and more combs. However, there are real and fake ones. The real ones can cost up to 50 RMB for one while the fake ones can cost 8 for 10 RMB.
We went back to the ship where we turn in for an early night as all of us were exhausted.

Day 3 To YangTze! (6th March 2009)

Day 3
We woke up earlier today. As we have to for our 3 days trip to Yangtze River. We packed our stuffs which will last us 1 day in Singapore. As we decided that since it was cold, we will not bathe for a few days.
We met Ms Wang at the gate where a bus was stationed, which will bring us to Yi Chang where the ferry terminal was located.

We sat in the bus for 4 hrs. It was a pleasant ride as the scenery outside was good. Yellow flowers filled the lands, which I later found out that these plants are used in making cooking oil.
Upon arrival at Yi Chang, it was dinner time. We went to a restaurant,which the tour guide brought us. Her name is Ms Tan. As we take our seat, we waited for the dishes to arrive. We were received with 11 dishes on the table with a balance of fish, meat, vegetables & soup. In all, 11 dishes was served. However we only had 10 people at our table. The eyes of the girls almost popped out as they start nagging about how fat they will be after the trip.
We boarded the cruise called, Yin Yue Liang. Its a 4 star cruise. The rooms are cosy and good. Fortunately, my room is located just beside the back roof. So I can just easily go out for a nice cool breeze. However, it was dark outside so we didn’t manage to see anything, beside lights. Along the way, we saw many bridges which are excellently constructed. Therefore we deduced that China people are masters in construction of bridges. The bridges were lighted up beautifully. It was simply magnificent.
As it was dark and had nothing to do on the ship, we decided to have an early night.
It was just a day of travelling.

Day 2 Venturing Into The Lands (5th March 2009)

Day 2
In the morning, it was freezing cold. We realised we didn’t turned on the heater! How foolish are we.

We reported at the gate at 0900hrs. Meeting Mr Wee, other travel mates and Ms Wang, teacher from WIT and also our guide for the trip. Ms Wang brought us to purchase our China phone card so that everybody is accessible to their family back in Singapore. However, only a few of us purchased it.
Ms Wang then brought us to have our breakfast. We went to the food market opposite of our school. My friends and I see this stall which sells Dry and Spicy Noodles and had a long queue. Being typical Singaporeans, we decided to go for the safer choice and queued for it too!

The portion was huge! In the bowl, it has noodles, spring onions & Sauce. It cost us 2.5 RMB approximately S$0.60. It was delicious, dry & super spicy. We enjoyed our breakfast and made our way to our lecture hall to get familiarise with the way.
On the way to the lecture room, me and friends we chatting about why when we say thank you to some china people, their face will turn hostile. We were wondering throughout the walk to the lecture room. And came out with an idea, we decided to observe the locals and learn what we should and should not do.

At 11am, Ms Wang then brought us to Carrefour. We took the public bus. Bus stops were located close to each other. Which I had no idea why. Each bus stop would only take 3 minutes to reach. In the bus, it had a speaker which would tell us which stop we are in. It’s the speaker which we always hear in Singapore’s MRT.

Upon arrival, Mr Wee gave us 3 hours to do our shopping for necessities and assemble at the ground floor. In Carrefour, imported goods had almost the same price as Singapore goods, only slightly cheaper. However, goods made in China were cheap as hell. We bought loads of stuff from food to washing powders.

Hearing that Macdonalds in China are delicious, we headed to there for high tea. The food there, were slightly cheaper, probably S$2 cheaper than what we have in Singpore. Me, being not every supportive of Macdonalds food, had only fries so I do not know how they fare.

We then headed back to our hostel at 4 pm. We settled down, get everything done. The clock hit 7 pm quickly and it was time for dinner.

We headed down to a restaurant; we ordered something like 8 dishes. Mr Wee insist that we should not order fish as it have a smelly smell to it. When the food arrived, almost every dish has blackwood fungus in it. Probably, the country, have abundance of it. I also realise, the country only uses chilli powder and do not have chilli sauce. They only sauce they have are tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, etc, but not chilli sauce. The dish that left a lasting impression on me was the dish which had loads of chilli in it. The chilli is short and fat which we don’t see in Singapore. In that dish, the chilli is mixed with small pieces of chicken. The chicken is fried in a way that it absorbs the chilli oil. I picked one piece and put into my mouth. It was super spicy until the after effect of the spiciness can be felt with the pricking feeling on the tongue. I picked up my tea and tried to wash the chilli off, but it got worse.

After the sumptuous meal, we foot our bill. We were shocked at how much everything would cost. It was only 265 RMB. In Singapore, we probably won’t even get S$265 for what we ordered. It was Mr Wee’s treat that meal.

We walked back, feeling delighted that we had so much good food with so little money.
Reaching the hostel, we were all tired and turned in.

P.S Pardon my English, I’m super fatigue to think already =)