Day 16 (19 march 2010)

Had McDonald’s breakfast and bought some pastry for snacks during the 3 days 2 nights cruise which we’ll be heading this afternoon around 1pm. The croissants at Crown bakery were simply delicious! I regret not buying more to eat during the cruise.

saw the beautiful view of freshly bloom flowers on the bus (:We took 7 hours from our hostel to the jetty which we will be boarding our cruise. Along the way to the jetty, we stopped by shi jia chuan restaurant to have our dinner. The food there is so far the best I’ve eaten since I come to Wuhan. So happened it was a lady’s 60th birthday and the whole family was celebrating with her. It was a total joy to see that she was still strong and happy with grandchildren going upstage to wish her happy birthday. Reached the jetty around 8pm and it was very crowded. The situation became very messy and half of the group checked in first leaving the other half outside. The ticketing staffs refuse to let the other half to enter due to some reasons and end up creating a quarrel with our tour guide. As more tour buses arrived at the area, more people came in and squeeze their way through us. It was like a human stampede and trying to keep as close together to each other, we were being pushed in all directions. Some of the people were even smoking which made the area polluted with smoke. Finally we managed to get in and we hurried check-in to get our room keys. The outlook of the room is pretty fine but actually it is very dirty. The carpeted floor has patches of algae and the toilet is so small that it is very difficult to bathe.
Let the pictures do the talking:

corridor

the drainage system is very poor! the water can cover your toes when you bathe. AND! they switch on the hot water in the early morning and at night. And! only have hot water after the boat move for half an hour! :S

Reflection:
I felt that the grandma whom birthday was celebrated by her relatives and friends was really blessed. She seems so happy and overjoyed with so many people attending her birthday party. I hardly see such grand occasion in Singapore as mostly, birthday celebrations were celebrated by teenagers together with their friends and parents. From the party in the restaurant I can tell that the family really put in effort to bless this grandma with a happy 60th anniversary.

I also wonder how do that cruise is able to attract so many customers with such facilities. Is it that the people there were already very satisfied with the conditions there or they simply just can't be bothered? We'll I guess even Singapore's public toilet is better then that.

Day 15

We did our presentation in the morning and Ms Neo cancelled lessons in the afternoon so that we have time to pack our things for the cruise tomorrow. We will be setting off around tomorrow afternoon to the 3 Gorges (simplified Chinese: 长江三峡大坝; traditional Chinese: 長江三峽). During presentation Ms Neo also gave us advice on how we can improve our projects. We had to finish and submit the slides by tonight and so my group we were trying our best to correct our mistakes.
In the afternoon we went to play badminton with the china students. The weather is perfect for playing badminton as we don’t feel sweaty after playing. Although we find the weather is perfect and we wore t-shirt and shorts only, the china students there wore long sleeves shirts and long pants. Some even wore a jacket and play! I wonder why they don’t feel warm at all.
Oh and we did a little adjustment in layout for our room. (:

Reflection:
If we had started our presentation preparation during the weekends instead of Monday, we would have been more prepared and do a better job. And it will be even better if we can choose our own group. I’m sure it will be easier to discuss the project since we all stay in the same room. But thankfully, I’m fine with my group members.
Tomorrow we were going to the 3 Gorges but the tour agency still can’t give us a confirmed timing. We only received the timing for tomorrow cruise around 6pm today. In my own opinion, I think Singapore’s planning in terms this sort of stuff is better.

Day 13 & 14

Day 13- 16 March 2010
Class as usual. We learn in Project management how to crash cost and which activity can be crash and which cannot be crash. Comparing this chapter to the previous one that we learn, which is about resource scheduling, this is so much easier although it is tedious. Well, nothing interesting today since we did not even get out of the school. All the groups were so busy rushing the PM project which is supposed to be submitted by this Thursday. My group is cracking our brains on how to come up with the work breakdown structure and the AON connections. It seems our group AON is very complicated and I hope we were on the right path.

Day 14- 17 March 2010

I’ve no idea why am I feeling so stress this few days. I felt that there is lots of undone work but the problem is that I don’t know what the undone works are. Oh well, just see how the rest of the week goes. For project management class we learnt about project control and we had a little quiz. Ms Neo quickly finished the lesson and let us has more time to do our project. Tomorrow is our presentation already so we are all rushing for the deadline.
After class, we went to the Wal-Mart to get our “goodies” for the cruise. We heard from someone (either the teachers or the tour guide) that it is quite boring and we should bring snack and games to entertain ourselves.

Day 12

Second lesson for IS module and taught by Ms Grace. Our first lesson was some introduction and history of China, and we learn deeper in detail of China.
"Thoroughfare of nine provinces”
- China’s population of approximately 9,100,000 people, including around 6,100,000 residents in its urban area. It is divided into three parts and commonly called the “three towns of Wuhan” they are WuChang, Hankou, and Han yang.

What we had learn:
1. Administrative units: China consists of 4 metropolitan cities, 5 autonomous areas where the national minorities (55) are in a majority in their respective area, 2 special zones, and 23 normal provinces.
2. Neighboring provinces: “Province of thousand lakes”; Lake Liang Zi, lake Hong Hu, Yangtze river , Han river; Population: about 59.878million;Minorities: Tu Jia, Miao; Nickname:”nine headed bird” which means strong, cunning, smart and clever.
3. Tourist resources: home of the powerful state of Chu (spring and autumn period 770BC-476BC) thathad a splendid and unique culture.
- Wudang mountain (simplified Chinese: 武当山; traditional Chinese: 武當山)
- Three gorges 三峡
- Shennongjia 神农架
- Chibi(red cliff) 赤壁
- Jing Zhou 荆州
4. Climate: Humid subtropical with abundant rainfall and four distinctive seasons, and the best times to travel here is in spring and autumn. That is was why the weather can change drastically at different timing.
5. Transportation:
- Bridges:
First bridge, Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge built in 1957.
Second bridge, a cable- stayed bridge, completed in 1995.
Third bridge, Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge completed in September 2000.
In total, one Yangtze River tunnel, 6 completed bridges, and one bridge still under construction.
Three railway stations: Hankou, WuChang, Wuhan
6. Tourist sites: East Lake; Hubei provincial museum, Jiqing Street, lute platform (learn about Yu Bo Ya playing over the grave of Zhong Zi Qi for the last time and then smash his lute), yellow crane tower (built during the 3 kingdom period. And as a military tower), Riverside (Han gan)
7. Economy and major industries: About 50 French companies and other major industries are WISCO, DongFeng- Citroen, coke cola, Wal-Mart, metro, Carrefour etc.
8. Popular foods in Wuhan: Hot and dry noodles, Re-gan mian; Duck’s neck or Ya Bozi ; Bean pan or Doupi; Soup dumpling or Tangbao ; Salty doughnut or Mianwo;and Wuchang fish or Wuhang Yu.

this is our IS teacher Ms Grace

she drew the map on how to go to the Hou Bu Xiang

Reflection:

We were curious about the Hou Bu Xiang and so we find our way there based on the map that Ms Grace drew for us. However, after walking for around half an hour we couldn’t find the place and we decided to have our lunch at McDonald’s. In McDonald’s, we saw this boy around 15 years old or slight older, was eating leftover food left by others. My personal opinion was that if he could find a job, he’ll not have to eat these leftovers by others. Although I’m not sure how easy or difficult is it to get a job in China, but I’m sure if there’s a will there’s a way and I also see quite a few teenagers working at road side stores, or shopping malls. So maybe if he is willing to take the initiative to find a job, he will lead a better life.

day 11

Plans for meeting up with our Ngee Ann china classmates to go theme park together was dashed due to the rain. So we meet them up at a new shopping mall with our local china friend, Wudi. He brought us to the new shopping mall and did most of the arrangement for us with our NP china classmates. Well so the whole day was spent on shopping. But surprisingly, I didn’t buy many things although I went to almost 4 or 5 shopping malls. So far I’ve only bought two leggings, and one t-shirt. That’s all! The rest of the money I spent on necessities and food.

our "breakfast+lunch= Brunch" @ Pizza Hut

Reflection:

Learning how to tolerate the way people in China act is important. In crowded places, no matter how hard you tried to keep to the side, someone will somehow bang against you. Accidentally hitting me is fine, but not apologising is rude. Within a day, getting hit for more than 10 times is not suprising and non will apologised. Not only that, they can spit anywhere and anytime. Once this guy spit on the bus just in front of me and my friend, and another time, another one just spit in the shopping centre. I really can't understand why can't they do it properly in the toliet, or at least in the drain which is not as bad as on the floor where people are walking.

day 10

Times flies and before you know, it is Saturday already and we visited the Yellow Crane tower (Huáng Hè Lóu). Being one of the most famous and historic tower in China, it is located at the top of Sheshan which is near the Yangtze River. Another site that we were visiting after the Yellow Crane tower is the Gu Qing Ta.
Yellow Crane tower was fully packed with tourists when we reached. The scenery looks like the olden day China with shop houses everywhere. Beautifully carved wooden doors and windows were visible in all angles. As we entered the inner court, there was a lake and lots of Chinese writing everywhere. It is most suitable for people to stroll and sit to chit chat. There were much wood curved or written poetry hung all around the compound. There was this really huge bell at the top of a long flight of stairs. And finally we entered the Yellow Crane tower. A totally splendid view as we reach the top of the tower. The Gu Qing Ta is also very attractive as our tour guide explain about the history of these two places.

one of the stores along the path to Yellow crane tower getting nearer to the yellow crane tower entrance of the Yellow Crane Tower RMB $2 for using the swing!:S

taking the lift up the yellow crane tower also cost RMB $2!the words look like it's convex but actually it is concave... cool right?!

we saw some folks playing cards in the garden of the Gu Qing Tai.after the visiting, we went for lunch in a 5 stars restaurant Finally Bus back to hostel (:
*photo shop credits to Amanda (;

Reflection:

I've never heard of the Yellow Crane tower and Gu Qing Tai, and after this trip, at least i get more idea on how it come about and what the people believe in. The only "not so good" thing about this trip is that the tour guide speak in Chinese. We have some Malay classmates who may have difficulty understanding what the tour guide might being talking about.

day 9

The class meets at 8.10am at block 4 to prepare for the field trip to the steel making factory. It’s my first time going to a steel factory and I’m really curious on how it will look like. The factory was very big. It is around 1.5km long and when you walk in, you can feel the heat. We wore helmets just in case any accidents happen. Sadly they don’t allow any photography inside the factory and so we were not allow to take the steel making process. But once we get out of the production area, everyone start taking out their cameras and took pictures of the factory.

After the field trip, we went to grab our lunch at the backstreet behind the school and then went for our first IS lesson. We were taught by Ms Hong. She teaches about the olden days China and how it come about to the current day and also she said that China look like the "hen" on the map.

Ms Hong also said that she's joined the communist party since she was in university and I think she's quite proud of it because only people who do well in their studies are able to be accepted. After IS class, we went for dinner at another place. Then our China friend brought us to Chang Jiang to see the night view. It was pretty.

Reflection:
A new impression of China. I have never seen such wide river in my life and I am truly impressed with it. However, the sad thing was that the China friend told us that people jumped there to commit suicide and every year at least one. That was really sad and why can't they think of the people who cared for them before committing suicide.