Have you ever heard of/watched street performance of monkey in TV? Today I saw it! Just right in front of my eyes! The monkeys are so adorable. :X
The performance actually took place at an uptown area. Without any license, the street performer just brings his little treasure --- 2 monkeys, and does a little trick in the public place. The business works like this, the monkeys perform some tricks and then if the public feel the performance is great, they will drop some money as a repay for the performer.
I guess this is something we won’t get a chance to see in our country as Singapore is a very rule-oriented country. Everything has to go by law. As for such performance, the executer must apply license or else sure being caught or fined. I don’t know if the street performance is part of China’s culture or just that their land is too big so their government can’t take a good control of these illegal performances, but from a tourist view, I find it entertaining. It manages to keep me in a mood of looking forward, curious about what is going to come up next.
To me, China’s a country filled with a lot of suspense. Let me discover more about China and let you know!
Labels: Maple's Special
Did you ever watch any TV series whereby the people washing clothes at the river bank, by using a wood stick, without any soap or washing powder?
To me, it only shows in TV, particularly in those costume play.
But I saw it here! In China, right in my eyes! And I got the proof!
Without any Photoshop edition, this was exactly what I captured.
The uncle was washing his clothes with the aids of lake water.
What really surprises me is not his way in washing clothes, but rather, he’s allowed to wash clothes in such a tourist attraction place! It seems like there’s no rules implemented in preventing the lake water from pollution. Of course it’s astonishing to see people washing clothes like that. But to me, there should be some measures taken in conserving the place in a nice state, for example nobody is allowed to wash clothes there, since East Lake is one of the top-visitors-place.
Another incident of today is at a snack street. But too bad, I don’t have photo to show you guys. :X
At the Shou Garden Snack Street, we had a small fight. One of us fought a seating place with a local uncle from Zhe Jiang as both of us spotted seat together. So the person just sat down on the seat and then we got fight.
Actually this fight is mostly due to culture difference. In Singapore, people usually will not fight for the table when there’re people conquering the table. But in China, due to the overflowing population, everybody’s fighting for seats. They’ll secure every single available seat that appears in front of their eyes. To them, as long as there’s nobody on the seat, the seat is considered as a free seat, they don’t bother the others three people in a 4-seated-table. This is their living culture, hence there’s a misunderstanding.
No matter how, I ended up to befriend with the local uncle after apologized to him about the culture misunderstanding. He even treated me a lot of local nice food! That’s why I got a good lesson today, that is:
When you expect people to treat you nicely, you must first treat the person well.
Labels: Maple's Special
16⁰C - Sunny
Destination 3 – Shou Garden Snack Street 首义园小吃街
Forget about the frustration just now, here comes our beloved paradise of food!
This was a great street, occupied by all kinds of famous food in Wuhan, I didn’t count how many stalls were there, but approximately there’re more than 60!
As you know, there’re always people going after nice food.
So with a bunch of 20 students, we can’t really get a seat.
So 10 students just squeezed in a 2 seats table and ate while standing. Sounds very pitiful? But this is part of their living culture and very normal to them. And a reminder, if you want to have a seat, you must really wait patiently beside a “potential and spotted seat”. Once the customer left, you must sit down immediately. If you are a very kind-hearted, slow-motioned person, *cough*, you’re fated to stand forever in China.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this meal! It’s such a sumptuous feast! Haha.
I ate the freshest and nicest oyster I had ever had!
I ate my favorite tang bao 汤包again!
I ate bing tang hu lu 冰糖葫芦for the first time in my life!
I ate spicy tian luo 田螺with “sooop sooop” sound!
I ate a “roti canai” filled with eggs and sausages!
I ate the spicy grilled sotong!
My stomach told me: I’m very satisfied! So let’s move on.
Destination 4 – Yellow Crane Tower黄鹤楼
This was the final place we visited for today. It’s actually a tower built in the Three Kingdom, founded by Sun Quan, aimed for military reconnaissance due to its perfect location. It’s also one of the Top-3-Towers in China. As you know, Li Bai was a great and talented poet from Tang Dynasty. There’s once he was very fascinated by the scenery of this tower and when he intended to create a poem for this tower, he saw a great poem, written by Cui Ying.
<<黄鹤楼>> 崔颢
昔人已乘黄鹤去，此地空余黄鹤楼。
黄鹤一去不复返，白云千载空悠悠。
晴川历历汉阳树，芳草萋萋鹦鹉洲。
日暮乡关何处是，烟波江上使人愁。
这 首诗的意思是：过去的仙人已经驾着黄鹤飞走了，这里只留下一座空荡荡的黄鹤楼。黄鹤一 去再也没有回来，千百年来只看见悠悠的白云。阳光照耀下的汉阳树木清晰可见。鹦鹉洲上有一片碧绿的芳草覆盖。天色已晚，眺望远方，故乡在哪儿呢？眼前只见 一片雾霭笼罩江面，给人带来深深的愁绪.
About this poem
Basically, it’s a poem describing the nice scenery of yellow crane tower during sunset time.
With the fascinating sunset scenery, the poet starts to think of his family, his hometown. He misses them a lot, but what can he do now? Staring at the foggy river surface, he feels that the sadness and solitary inside his heart.
For more information about Yellow Crane Tower, click here http://www.cnhhl.com/
PS 1. I really hate the feeling of being rushed. I didn’t get to see the whole East Lake and museum as the time given is really insufficient. It’s just making me to see things from surface, without even have the mood to understand the meaning or story behind them. (Maybe this is the reason why I don’t like to follow trips always. Can’t have my own time.)
PS 2. Thank you Yong Qi and Jasper for accompanying me to toilet in East Lake, though the toilet really makes me speechless.
i made a wish to you. did you hear that?
Labels: Maple's Story
Maple Story – Episode 5 (Part 1)
16⁰C - Sunny
The first weekend in Wuhan, how has it turned out to be?
Definitely I’m not going to leave it blank!
That’s why we paid a visit to many places today!
Destination 1 – East Lake东湖
According to the tour guide, East Lake’s the biggest “city lake” in China. Can you imagine a lake scenic area which covers 82 km2 and the lake itself covers up 33 km2? Unbelievable right? And just nice that it is located in Wuhan! So we get to enjoy its fascinating scenery!
In fact, we didn’t follow the tour guide, just spilt among ourselves as it’s really hard to get the whole group together. But what I can conclude is that we all do enjoy the place, as it’s really breathtaking.
The serenity and tranquility make you feel that you are really out from the hustle and bustle of the city, far away from the stressful lifestyle. The sightseeing view is just like a great painting masterpiece, so fake yet so real. And when you close your eyes, you can feel the embrace of the wind, cool but refreshing. Without the noise of vehicles and hectic footsteps, what goes into your ears is just the sound of the insects, the blow of the wind.
It’s all just so soothing.
Anyway, I saw some interesting games inside!
This was what I wanted to play. Go inside the giant ball then walk on the surface of the lake water! Don’t you feel it is very thrilling to play it?
I didn’t get to play it anyway as my lecturer MR. CHONG is too responsible in students’ safety so he prohibits me to play it. * Sigh*
By the way, one stall in making shaped-toys by using crystal brightened up my days again!
It’s so amazing to see the straight transparent crystal turned into a well-shaped penguin after 15 minutes of firing. Sounds cool right? It’s even cooler when you see it yourself! You will really admire the Shi Fu for his excellent skill.
For more information about East Lake, click here http://www.whdonghu.com/
Destination 2 – Hubei Provincial Museum湖北省博物馆
Seriously say, this is an interesting place but I really not in a mood to enjoy it. Not because it’s a museum, filled with the gray of history but because the time given is really too rush. How can you expect us to finish visiting a museum within 1 hour? Due to the rushing hours, I can’t really tell you much about what I had observed, because even I don’t know what I was doing at the period of time. Just had a quick glare at the cultural relics then either take picture or leave, don’t even have the time to digest the short introduction passage. No matter how, I did some photo taking there.For more information about Hubei Museum, click here http://www.hubeimuseum.net/
Labels: Maple's Story
It’s really beyond words when it came to me. There’s a loud “Oh my God!” uttered deep in my heart, because I really didn’t expect them to be street-selling here. I can feel his feeling, the urge that he wants to go back home earlier, the urge that he wants to earn some living money from blanket selling.
It’s a big contrast from the picture just now, although their aims are the same, making money. One’s crowded by people, whereas the other one is totally ignored.Labels: Maple's Special
11⁰C - Windy
Well, today’s a really bad day to Alan I guess, his laptop’s spoilt automatically shut down due to chestnut water.
Really pity him.
So, Xin Hui, Kidd and me tried our best by accompanying him to town area whereby the Fujitsu Service Center could be found.
And that’s when the heartbroken moment came. His laptop’s officially declared as “died” state, as the motherboard got short-circuited by water. So even though it’s under warranty, it can’t be repaired as it’s classified under “manmade mistake”.
Sad for him.
But admired him for his calmness in facing problems.
Great guy! So cheer up kay! :)
Anyway, we had a lot of wonderful moments today, as this was the first time we went to town! But the traffic situation there’s really in a mess, people’s walking and vehicle’s travelling on the road at the same time. Quite dangerous, but it seems to be their living culture too.
Along the crowded street, we discovered quite a number of interesting things, for example this, the parking slot. This resembles the parking slot in Malaysia. You need to insert coin into it to park your car here.
And they are quite environmental friendly in the sense of they use electrical-charging motorcycle here! All the petroleum-based motorcycles are banned here to reduce the emission of toxic gases. Very unexpected right?
Anyway, we visited the famous Electronic Store which has 4 levels in total, all selling electronic stuff. And I bought my laptop keypad skin and also Logitech mouse there! Only costs me 50 RMB oh. Worth it. Happy.
Then Alan bought a lot of pirated DVD from a local seller. 1 DVD only costs 4 RMB oh! Can you imagine it? Hehe.
Sorry can’t show you the picture here, or else everything will become proof for court. Haha.
And guess what? We saw the famous duckling shop, ZHOU HEI YA! YOHO!
We bought 15 RMB of duckling wings but too bad we don’t have anywhere to sit and eat!
Finally we landed ourselves in Starbucks coffee, a very classic seating place. And we started to eat our duckling wings by using hands there. Super contradicting to the romantic atmosphere there.
Still, we happily started our little snack, looking forward to it.
But after our first bite, our lips were all numb! Oh My God! The wings are Really Extremely Super Spicy! It’s really OMG!
Look at our expression and then you can imagine it.
This was the culprit for leading us to that pathetic state.
To reduce the spiciness, we bought a cup of Starbucks Coffee. It’s really nice and the price is quite the same as Singapore’s. But they have Starbucks After Meal Chewing Gum here!
While waiting for Kidd back from tuition, we went around the town and did some light shopping, of course eating also. Haha.
For example, we tried out the famous smelly bean curd! It really had an awful smell which Xinhui can’t stand it but Alan and I enjoyed it. Haha. It’s so unique! Grant my wish to eat it! Yeah! Ironically, the aunty selling it is actually quite friendly and pretty oh. Hehe.
Anyway, we took the public transport – bus today!
It’s very crowded and we had to stand throughout the 1-hour journey, but it’s a great experience I think. It’s unlike Singapore SMRT which always makes me put on my thick jacket, bus here is quite warm, making me to feel like taking off my jacket. But it’s really cheap, the bus fare only costs 2 RMB per ride, regardless of which stop you’re alighting.
But under such cheap circumstances, the bus’s really fully occupied, so you must hold to the grip at all times, to prevent you from falling down. (same rule applies to Singapore at peak hour.)
Fated, I can’t feel the snow here.
Labels: Maple's Story
Visited local students’ dormitory today. After the visit, I really felt that we’re blissful enough to stay in our current room. It’s really much much much better than their place.
At least, we don’t have to squeeze in a room of 5 people, and don’t know where to hang our clothes.
At least, we have a room attached with toilet, don’t need to bathe together like they do in the public toilet in each level.
At least, we have heater to keep us warm in winter. Their dormitory doesn’t provide them such facilities, so even with 1⁰C, they can only stuff their cold bodies into the double blanket which they think are warm.
At least, we have clean corridors, compared to them. At the least point, rubbish in the corridors is not piled up, unpleasant smell is not circulated, and paint on wall is still there.
I really admire them, for their ability in adapting such a worse lifestyle in our eyes. We would definitely complain a lot if we are placed in their shoes. Yet, they never complain, they just said: your dormitory is really better than ours.
I guess this is something that we, the too blissful people, should always learn on. Our life is always occupied by luxuries; hence we don’t know what a hardship is. We only know how to write a complain letter when the environment doesn’t meet our requirement. But did we ever think of the others, who lead a worse life than us? Maybe this is the human nature, always desire for better things. For instance, when most of my friends own Ipod, I desired to buy one too, although I already have a good-functioned MP3 in hand. I never think of someone who doesn’t even own a MP3, but only look for the things that are better on others’ hand.
This is something that I think I really need to control and learn from them, in managing my own desire, in cherishing what I have.
Labels: Maple's Special
12⁰C - Sunny & Windy
A super eventful day!
Firstly, we had our very first lecture today, with Miss Xiao Ling. Her English standard is quite good so basically we all can understand her lecture. But, it’s a geography + history class! So..yah.. I guess you know clearly what we will do in class. Hehe.
Sorry Miss Xiao Ling, I was really exhausted, that’s why I dozed off for a while! :X Sorry.
Anyway, be thankful to her, I know a lot of featured nice food available in Wuhan! Hoho. All the food monsters were so happy, including me!
And on the very same night, I tried out all the recommended snacks which is called小吃Xiao Chi here!
I must say that the food here is really dissimilar to Singapore food, particularly in terms of their taste and also ingredients. Food here is more to numb-spicy, and also salty. But they have one special feature; they’re lots of small snacks here.
1st Prize – fantastic Tang Bao汤包 which is super juicy when you bite it! The feeling is Oh My God! Amazing!
2nd Prize – sticky Egg Wine清酒 which resembles mucus in appearance, but taste super good in taste!
3rd Prize – crispy Dou Pi豆皮 which wrapped rice by the fried tou-pok skin! Great creation!
Consolation Prizes
Re gan mian热干面
You tiao油条
We all were extremely impressed by the good-taste of foods, that’s why everybody was fighting for food, especially Hardy! hOho.
However, the food paying system here is also the same “tap-card” system found in WUST. You must buy a 20 RMB card from the counter then use the card to tap in order to buy the food you want. But rest assured, your deposits of money can still be refund.
After dinner, we went to arcade in a shopping mall called Shopping Mall, cute name right?
The game here is almost the same as Time Zone in Singapore, basketball machine, air hockey…etc. But unlike Singapore’s card system, they still use coins here. 1coin = 50cents RMB and a normal game just need 2 coins. So, it’s super cheap and that’s why we enjoyed ourselves here a lot!
After that, I ate Strawberry Xue Hua Bing雪花冰. It’s actually a cold snack from Taiwan imported to China. It’s available in Singapore too. I tried it out because I was too thirsty after battling in Arcade. Haha. Can you imagine it, eating thin ices in the weather of below 10⁰C? The feeling’s so great! Not freezing, yet enjoyable. You should try it out next time.
After taking illegal cab back to school, don’t know why everybody starts to take photos and so I ended up as the skillful camera girl. :)
They say, there'll be no snow.
Labels: Maple's Story
Well, here comes the great spirit of the Chinese people.
With the temperature below 12⁰C, there’re several middle-age ladies sitting by the roadside, earn a living by wiping people’s shoes. They do not bother about their pride or anything else, but just try to work hard to make ends meet. It’s a thumb-lifting act in fact, as they live on their own, without depending on others or do anything illegally.
But, I don’t know why, when I saw this, I felt heartbroken.
I pitied them, in a sense that they have to work in such a cold weather, wearing thin. At first I thought to let them wipe my shoes to earn more money, but then I cleared off my mind, because I scared I might hurt their prides since I am only a 19-year-old girl yet they’re already in middle age.
This is another photo sneakily taken outside a shopping mart. It’s a public street and the barber just put a chair there in order to do her business. Still, the weather’s freezing cold and the lady’s wearing thin.
So what comes into your mind when you saw all these scenes?
To me, I really don’t know how to put my feeling into words. But what I can say is that the Chinese is really a nation who is very determined in pulling through hardships. They have a “never-say-die” spirit which we don’t have. Maybe their attitude is trained by the harsh living condition they have, but what I can say is their spirit is really admirable.
They never complain what is given to them (maybe they did complain? I don’t know about this. ), they just follow the route they are supposed to be in, and carry on their daily life. They are able to tolerate all the hardship and determined in doing what they should do.
I think this is an element which we, the Y-generation, are very lacking of. We always complain what we have in Singapore is not good enough, we always think we are not blissful enough, we always demand more and more, but, did you ever think of the others like them, who may don’t even have 3 proper meals a day?
So, I tell myself, stop complaining what you have, just cherish it, as you are already lying on the bed of roses now.
Labels: Maple's Special
9⁰C - Windy
Hmm, my first night sleep was a disaster. The freaking cold weather just drove me mad. I was tossing here and there throughout the whole night. That’s why I am having dark ring now, become the treasure of China already (panda @_@). Sob.
Anyway, we had a campus tour today. The Student Union* brings us walk around WUST campus and shows us our future classroom. Well, I must comment that although their facilities are not that modernized as compared to Singapore’s, their school is really green. The lush and trees portray a very relaxing scenery, it resembles those school we watched in the TV series, the very similar feeling. I extremely love the Wu Tong梧桐 as its rattled leave resembles a lot with my beloved maple leave.
And I discovered a special part in WUST today! There’s driving-license available in school itself! Can you believe that? And there’s a place whereby the student can have their driving tests in school too! It’s just located outside my dormitory. Amazing right?
Besides that, they have DJ broadcast around the whole campus, something like the Radiowave in our school atrium, is just that they can broadcast to all areas in the school. Hence there’s always music in the campus, soothing our feeling.
Oh yah, their school has a very advanced system in payment too. Every student is required to have a “Cash card”. It’s something like our “ez-link”. You can buy anything in school with that single card. It is meant to smooth the payment system and also prevent any sneakily stealing of money by the staff. I guess it’s a nice system, but the only bad point is, once you topped up, you can’t refund, which means you must use up all the credit inside.
Their canteen is quite different from ours too. They called their canteen as Dining Hall, so classic right? :P And guess what, they categorize the rice into 4 different groups according to weight in the unit of两liang , (1两 indicates 37.8grams). As for the dishes, they grouped them according to prices. I find this is unique and nice system, so if I’m broke, I can always go for the cheap food. Smart me. Haha.
One more one more! Their newspaper reading style in Campus! They paste several newspaper headlines page on a transparent notice, so if you want to know the news of the day, you have to stand and read. Actually, this is quite good if you are early for your class. But, if you are always a latecomer, hehe, I bet you will never spare your time on it.
Anyway, this afternoon’s was extremely boring to me and Journey (local), cause we have been spending our whole afternoon in China Mobile Prepaid Card sign up. I must really comment that their work efficiency is really low. There’re only 31 lines for sign up and yet they took 5 hours to accomplish it. I bet this can never happen in Singapore service area which extremely focuses high efficiency. So I guess in the area of business and service, China’s still lagging behind Singapore, particularly in term of work efficiency.
PS 1. Almost all Chinese students here have English name. This is for the lecturer’s convenience as some can’t pronounce mandarin properly. So don’t be shocked next time to hear them introducing their English name like what I did! :X
PS. Yi Sheng sang in front of the whole class today, including local students. Somebody praise his voice still.
Still, no snow is flying around.
Labels: Maple's Story
Looks carefully! This is their traffic condition.
Their traffic situation is quite horrible to see in fact. The vehicles do not really obey the regulation and just try to squeeze every single space that is available. And due to the congested situation, my bus driver just stopped the bus in the middle of the road, went down and quarreled with other drivers. They spoke in a very harsh way, and I guess maybe this is the reason why they always say the Chinese people are very fierce and rude.
This situation leads me to think, are Chinese people too straight-forwarded in expressing what they want? Or they’re too inconsiderate when they’re adjudicating their problems with people?
Seriously say I don’t know which the main factor is. But I guess it’s very much related to their living environment. As their population is 1.3 billion (which’s almost one-sixth of the world populations), they’re forced to compete among themselves in order to survive. And due to the stress of life, they’re very quick-tempered. And you know that, when people are stressed, they tend to lose control in their emotion management. However, the Chinese themselves don’t see the way they spoke as harsh as their communicating culture’s always like that. However to us, the outsiders, we misinterpret them, as according to our culture context, they’re categorized under “rude”.
I don’t know if my sense of thinking is correct, but this way of thinking makes me feel that they’re so true (not hypocrite.) in expressing their thinking. Although it’s offensive and scary at times, still, I think I can tolerate it.
I believe that, since I am here, I must learn to adapt every single things of China, including their “art” of living! :X
Labels: Maple's Special