China trip (part 3)!

the final part (3)

29 OCT, Wednesday

Today, had no lessons, instead, we went to keyan, another scenic area in shaoxing. it was a large tourist park which had many lakes and rivers within. however, at the time when we went, it wasn’t a bit crowded, so it was a breeze walking through the park. on top of that, we had 2 boat rides (again) and were sight seeing. this place was great, fresh air and all the green. after walking quite a lot, we came upon a few rides that were stationed in the park. they were namely the Viking ship, bumper cars, archery etc… the teachers allowed us a ride on the Viking ship! so I bought a ticket for 10 yuan, sat with sherilyn and had a whale of time on the ship swinging from end to end. I was a little surprised that I did not few scared of the height at all, instead, I was screaming with joy.

the walk in the park took up the whole morning, so it was time to eat lunch at the park itself. it was more good food. haha. subsequently, we headed for anchang and I forgot what happened there… L but since I forgot, it probably wasn’t very exciting. hehe

after that, we went back to school where our buddy’s parent once again picked up for the second night of home stay. I remember being half anxious and half happy. anxious because I was afraid of the language barrier that was impossible to ignore, and I was happy cos it was the very last day that I had to endure. haha. anyway, the home stay today wasn’t too bad. lemme tell u why.

mrs xu decided to eat out for dinner, with yijia’s friend and her buddy sam ang. so I had company who could speak english. I was appeased. this was although mrs xu had said the previous night that she might eat out with melodi’s buddy’s family, but in the end, the plan did not materialize. so we went to some posh western restaurant adjacent to a hotel. we took a little while to decide where to sit, in the vip room or in the common area, whether we wanted privacy or ventilation. but in the end, ventilation was preferred. I was given the chance to order what I wanted. I ordered chicken porridge as I was quite full alr and knew that I couldn’t down large portions of food, furthermore, I the chicken porridge was one of the cheapest on the menu, so as to not tax the person footing the bill. the food was okay..

this night, I didn’t meet melodi at all, but im glad I managed to have some quality time with yi jia. we managed to have decent conversations and we had fun together. I taught her how to play the piano, pachabel’s canon in d and she was so happy to learn it that she picked up the first part in about 15 mins! she’s a quick learner, and her little history with music definitely played a part here. the rest of the time was spent watching repeated telecast of meteor garden on tv and watching variety shows, in chinese of course with no english subs. but I tried hard to follow and more or less managed to. im glad that we watch meteor garden together as it was a common interest and as a result, we had more to talk about. we also exchanged gifts. I gave her a souvenir and a bottle of perfume. she gave me a ‘souvenir’ that would make me really remember her. haha, it was a little memento of her pic when she was young and one of her dogs. additionally, she gave me a picture book of a bog would had a real life adventure in Africa, interesting huh. after that, we went to sleep.

30 OCT, Thursday

it was our last day in shaoxing. we went for tour in lan ting. we toured this park that had a magnificent Buddha effigy out of a solid rock that was easily 100-150 metres high! though im not Buddhist, but this craft was an impressive sight to behold! and I cannot imagine how many people risked their lives to carve the Buddha out, it was probably done when the sea level was higher (the park was claimed to be once covered by water, I dunno how, but they say so.) furthermore, there was a soft side to the seemingly high and mighty Buddha statue, there was a beautiful blue bird perched on buddha’s right index finger. it was a sweet sight. the park was home to also an interesting looking piece of boulder that had a very narrow base, but a very big top. it was like a pyramid turn upside down! it looked a little intimidating as it might topple and collapse, but good thing it did not. on the rock, there were inscriptions in Chinese which mean: the no. 1 rock under the sky. okay… haha. we walked further and then we encountered a over hanging canopy of trees with pink leaves. it was breathtaking! yun yun, jin ting, shariel and I did not take a second thought at taking a classic picture.

lan ting was enjoyable due the fresh air and the green. after the morning there, we went for lunch and then went to da yu ling. the story behind this memoriam for this guy da yu was because he was an upright official that cared for the peasants, esp the flood problems. so he built drains and dams for them and the people from then commemorated his deed for them. at the entrance, there was a high wall that had 9 large cauldrons location on top of it. the guide explained that the no. 9 was only reserved for the king as it was the largest single digit number, but because of the high admiration and honour the people had for da yu, they gave him the honour of the no. 9. and the water caudrons ( I forgot the real name for this) were in remembrance of his help in solving the flood problems. inside the da yu ling, there was a temple for da yu and outside, there was a large bell. mr lim paid 5 yuan to ring 5 times, and he was wishing us students and teachers good fortunate in studies and career. thanks mr lim for being to thoughtful. lol.

I guess that da yu ling took up the whole afternoon. then we went to some posh restaurant located in some high end hotel. we were to have our farewell dinner there. unfortunately, it wasn’t really a students’ affair, cos our buddies were not present. instead, it was ma xiao zhang and her band of teachers. so it was more of the teachers saying farewell, the students just ate to their hearts content and nothing more. anyway, there was crazily wide range of food there. from seafood to meat to veg to western food to desert etc. I even ate flower crab there and mussels. I really loved the seafood. haha. after dinner, we went back to the hotel for the night’s sleep.

31 OCT, Friday

we departed for Hangzhou early in the morning. on the bus, the teachers allowed us rest, that was good for us, if not we would not have the energy for the rest of the day. at Hangzhou, we went to the yue wang mausoleum. Hangzhou was yue fei’s home town, and thus they had a temple for this famous warrior. when I was young, I rmb reading a comic on the life of this patriotic war lord. his story is so sad and really makes people sympathise with him. he was so loyal to his country, and had inked on his back 4 words that signified his total loyalty and devotion to protecting his country, yet, he was accused as the disloyal subject and hence executed. I really admire this guy, but his ending is just too sad.

after the tour at the yue wang mausoleum, we ate lunch and then we headed for the west lake cruise. the west lake was really beaut! we viewed the lei fong tai, where the legendary madam white snake was trapped by the monk fa hai. we also so saw a few other pagodas, and along the trip, there was a constant breeze filling into the boat. it was a pleasure traveling on the west lake.

next up was the flower garden at the west lake park itself. this flower garden didn’t really impress me much, but there was vibrancy of colours present in the flowers. so it was quite an eye opener.

after this, we had dinner and then we transited to the cultural performance park. this place was super cool. the park was a in the setting of the dynastic era, it was as if we were in a city, with the high walls, and there were even ‘soldiers’ in costumes guarding the gate. on the walls, we occasionally saw some imperial edict kind of thing and the most wanted list. these things added all together made the place seem like it was an authentic historical ground. in the ‘city’, there were many mini stalls, and since we had about 30 mins before the cultural show started, we were allowed to roam about, buy things and look around this interesting place. I walked around with sherilyn and we took a few note-worthy pics! there was this waterfall, probably man made, but it was so scenic!

soon it was time for the show. since we didn’t purchase the best of tickets, we were seated at seats which were a few rows short from the back. the characters in the show appeared really tiny, nevertheless, the show was enthralling enough! there was acrobatics, dancing, singing and all that u could name. haha, it is some world class performance and not some cheap show made up of any kind of actors. there were even eng subs! haha! they potrayed the stories of the historical greats, like yue fei, madam white snake, and others.

after the show, I still rmb the pl group scurrying to stay together in the midst of the sea of people. there were easily 10 thousand ppl! fortunately, no one got lost and then we were fetched to our dinner destination. with that, we checked into our hang zhou hotel.

1 NOV, Saturday

in the morning, we set off to the Hangzhou bookshop. there, the prices were more costly than that of the shanghai bookstore. but they were still affordable. I bought the good earth, my mum’s lit text last time, so I was quite curious about it. also, I bought about 7 dvds! haha, including 2 of Charlie chaplin’s works. hehe. I felt very happy. LOL!

after that, we went to the mei jia wu tea plantation. here, I spent a good sum of money on buying tea leaves! 300 yuan! that is S$60! wow, I can’t believe in myself, but then I couldn’t bear not to miss out on such a ‘miracle’ item. why do I say so? it is because the sales woman gave a demonstration on how the tea drink could neutralize some black liquid in ur stomach, the black liquid was a result of starch (from rice) and water. also the sales women said that the black solution was the culprit of the black/brown spots under our skin as we grow older. heh I was so grossed out at the black thing, so I decided to buy one premium grade bottle for my family. :) haha, im so nice! and I bought it too cos I saw the teachers buying, so I thought, at least it is safe enough for the teachers to believe in it, and it wasn’t a sham.

after that, we had lunch and then travelled to Suzhou. haha, I must admit that I was quite excited about Suzhou, for their mei nϋ. I wanted to see for my eyes what beauties the Suzhou women were. haha. on the bus, the teachers gave us some quite grueling lessons and we had the qiang da competition again..

at Suzhou, we had the privilege to do more shopping at the guan qian street. I bought chestnuts again! but Suzhou chestnuts aren’t the best! L they were freaking hard to shell. L and the taste wasn’t all that fantastic, although the stupid store keeper recommended that particular type of chestnut our of her 3 kinds. I bet she was having me on! I didn’t really buy anything else as I was quite tight on money after buying the tea leaves!

after shopping a little, we had a tour along the old canal. it was quite beautiful as there were floats about the canal and they were lighted. other than that, the cruise was okay… oh! before I forget, I was utterly disappointed at how ‘beautiful’ the Suzhou ladies were. they weren’t at all! maybe that was all those that I had set my eyes on, maybe all the pretty ones were shut at home and not allowed to set foot outside their homes, in fear of being abducted, but who was so old fashioned in thinking, maybe all the pretty ones had gone on holiday, and left the ugly ones behind. lol, or maybe my taste is too eccentric. haiz, but the term Suzhou beauties is an over statement, that is in my opinion. I bet the Koreans a tones more ravishing, be they fake or not. :)

yup, so after cruising and walking down the canal, we checked into the Suzhou hotel.


2 NOV, Sunday

the first place we were brought to was this silk embroidery factory. there, we had a tour around the showcases of silk embroidery products. they were terrific! I couldn’t take my eyes off them. my group was scheduled to do shopping first. I was thinking that I needed to get at least something back home. the problem was the prices. the cheapest nice product was 150 yuan. I managed to get one thanks to mr lim, lending me money, even though that wasn’t the best resort. L but the design on the product was very nice, and it depicted 2 lover birds on a tree branch. I could say that I bought it for my parents, even though it was using their money (I paid mr lim back at the airport in singapore) after that, we had a hands on session on embroidering silk! it was very tedious to me, I had to sit still and the only action required was the up and down movement of my right hand. my body was so restless! haha. but my end product was quite well done lah, esp with the silk thread red in colour, what more could I ask for!

after the embroidery factory visit, we had lunch within the vicinity and then we went to the tiger hill park. it was nothing spectacular, on the sword testing stone caught my attention. :) it was a piece of large rock that had a fine and even slit in the middle, which was supposedly caused by a sword. it was quite cool and I even got the chance to stand on the rock! lol..

with that, our time at Suzhou was done, and we travelled back to shanghai. the teachers, as usual made use of this time to have qiang da. I wasn’t very interested cos my group was losing in the point system. oh, maybe I should reprimand myself for saying that cos it was probably because I didn’t participate that my group did so badly. but I was sitting at the back (the seats were allocated according to groups, so I could protest for the front seat cos it w as cause too much trouble for others), and my voice was so weak, esp when I spoke chinese, that even if I shouted with all my might, the front couldn’t hear me. I tried once on the 2 trip from shanghai to shaoxing, I wanted to answer mr lim’s maths question, but was too soft, so I made a blunder. L from then, I just shut my trap whenever there was this qiang da thing.

when we reached, it alr dusk. we had dinner at one of the restaurants that we had visited earlier. this time, we were to sit in our groups! it was a very fun time with all my group mates. we had a lot of funny incidents, with invoke laughter throughout the rest of dinner time.

following dinner was the visit to the pearl oriental tower! it was definitely exciting! our group went up to a height that could see the whole of the city of shanghai and its suburbs. but I guess I couldn’t see much cos it was dark at night, haiz, we should have gone in the day! L anyway, it was at the opt when someone was being mean me and I had to sms to ah heng for her comfort. that woman, I dunno why she like that but she like always bore some stupid grudge against me. I didn’t do anything to deserved that lor, she just broke up with my clique and then all because she had friends on the trip, she was throwing her weight around. haiz, I have almost forgotten this matter as I abide by this idiom: live and let live! but she was seriously mean! sickening!

that night in the hotel room, I asked her why she was so bad to me, and then she gave her excuse, “oh, because I’m no longer with ur clique, so I not so close to u anymore…” weak excuse! this would probably have gotten a measly 2 out of a 25 for a lit essay! in me, I was thinking, “so what, does that mean u purposely don’t want to be nice to me? sickeningly… anyway, tmr, we will be back in singapore, u have ur share of friends, n I have mine, so we are fair and square! n then u will not be able to act high and mighty!!!” from then, I was quite lonely for the rest of the trip. but at least I was going home soon!

3 NOV, Monday

we left for airport at 4! slept on the bus. when we reached the airport, we checked in and then waited to board the plane. I rmb watching a little soccer on tv while waiting, it sure beats talking with the people I dun wan to.. on the plane, I watched 3 and a half movies during the 5h flight! they included angus, thongs and perfect snogging, the dark knight, corbardes (a Spanish movie), and a Korean movie, and another which I forgot. haha! on the plane, I also got a few sia souvenirs and I even brought the pillow home! LOL, so kiasu me! at the airport, mum and dad were there to pick me up. I bought a medium fries to eat. :) and then the following day, I had sore throat! lol. okay, so my journey to china and back ends here! :)