Final Day!!!

So it's our last day here in Wuhan. It's really sad to know that we have to leave as I can remember the first day like it was just yesterday. How we struggled to carry our luggage up the stairs with the help of the guys how we all were picking our rooms, how we were exploring the hostel, how we had our campus tour and yet today we were all carrying our luggage in the opposite direction, down the stairs. The only similar thing was that the guys still helped us with it. Moat of us were really sad to leave as not only have we grown to love Wuhan but Wuhan will also forever have a place in our hearts. It's the place where we made new friends an have many fond memories of. We had our last meal at our favourite Halal shop which we have frequented almost everyday. It was really sad to say our goodbyes to the server but we had to and we even gave him a postcard with our well wishes to him in Chinese of course. Then we bought our last drink from our favourite milk tea stall. We then grabbed,  or more like dragged, our luggage to the bus and we said our final goodbyes to Wuhan and China on the plane. It was a really sad moment for us when the plane took off but we all made a pact that we will come back to Wuhan a few years later. I really enjoyed my time in Wuhan and sad to say there can never be another moment like what we had. I would like to thank the locals in Wuhan for their hospitality and friendliness. Ending my last blog post on a high note, I'm glad to have met Joel, Wei Seng, Gordon and Samuel on this trip who I have become very close too. Xenia and Shan Hui our awesome apartment mates who we had KPOP parties with and of course Irfanah my awesome roommate who took care of me as I took care of her. Tricia, Nazhifah, Rachel and Priscilla who I am glad we got to go on this trip together on. I think we had mixed emotions when the plane landed as we were not only happy to be home but also our journey together ended as soon as the plane touched down. And thanks to everyone who made this trip enjoyable to me including the lecturers: Dr Tan, Dr Sujit, Mr Lee and Ms mika and the TSOs: mr Vincent and Ms Chuah for taking care of us and putting up with us.

Our last meal in Wuhan

Us at the airport

Our last breath of Wuhan air

Last few days..

The common test is over!!! And thus ending our Forensic Science module here in Wuhan!!! We had our Forensic Science presentations a day before and the various presentations were quite fun. I enjoyed learning about blood spatter, fingerprints and handwriting analysis. On Friday, we went to Han Street. A new experience we had was that on our way there we booked a van as we had a large group of us. Turns out the driver didn't know where to stop and he just told us to get off in the middle of a highway! I think most of us were in shock when we realised this as none of us have actually walked on a highway but we tried our best to stay to the side and finally got to the actual Han Street. It wasn't all that great as it was mostly branded goods that we could have got back in Singapore and the prices were over the top, with some being more expensive than what we buy back home. I think however, the one thing that really caught my attention that day was the wind!!!It was so strong that if you held your umbrella directly over your head, it would turn inside out! So we all had to hold our umbrellas facing the wind with our views being blocked. It was really funny to see some of my friend's umbrellas getting turned inside out multiple times and how they made these 'umbrella formations' in order to protect themselves from the wind. All in all it was a good day of window shopping.

Photos:

Us abandoned in the middle of the highway

Han Street

Just a few international brands in Wuhan. H&M

Haagen Daz

Even a local Singaporean brand.. Charles & Keith

Gordon, Priscilla & Wei Seng making an 'umbrella formation' to protect themselves from the wind

Business Development and Certificate presentation

We had a business development lecture today. I learnt that E-commerce means to do business online. Also, I learnt that there is an annual business fair held in Guangzhou called the Canton Fair where businessmen from all around the world come together and make business deals. China also has the largest economy in world, with the USA being the first largest. It’s such an irony that USA has the largest economy as I have read somewhere that USA owes China USD$1 trillion!! We were also taught about business etiquette. For example, if you are meeting a person for the first time for business you have to shake their hand at least 3 times, greet them and give an impression that you are glad to meet them. When giving your business card, the card must be professional looking, given with 2 hands facing the receiver and if you are the one receiving the card, always read the card as courtesy and also to know how to address the person you just met. The Chinese especially are very particular about how they are addressed. Later on, the Dean of the Foreign Language School came in to give us our certificates as a token to acknowledge that we have taken part in the Chines Culture IS module. The certificate was really nice and fancy looking.

Photos:

Our business development lecturer

Asaph giving a short speech on his experience here in China

My certificate

The certificate holder

 

Three Gorges Trip

Off to The Three Gorges today!!! We headed off around 12.30pm and travelled for about 4 hours and then had dinner. We couldn’t take our bus to the wharf so we had to transfer to a different bus. That took another 1 hour or so. By the time we reached the wharf, it was already dark out. After we got assigned our rooms, we paid a deposit of 20 yuan to get our key. I think a lot of us were shocked when we entered our rooms. The room was really small and the bathroom worse!!! The room had 2 beds, a desk and a chair. The bathroom was only a tad larger than your normal cubicle and the toilet sink and shower were all in the same place but I think this gave us a new experience as even if some of us have been on cruises, the rooms weren’t as small and tiny as the ones we encountered before. It really showed us the insight of a sailor’s life. The cruise didn’t really have much. There was just a convenience store and a dining room where all of our meals were served. The rest of the cruise was just guest rooms. There was also a deck but it was too dark to see anything at that hour. The next day, we had breakfast and headed to the deck as we didn’t have much to do until 4pm. The view of the gorge was so amazing. I still couldn’t believe that I was in the legendary Three Gorges! It was so breathtaking. Lunch was slightly later than what they had told us and most of us were starving. Another new experience for us was that while our cruise was docked, there were these sampan like boats that stopped by our boats and sold us seafood such as fried fish, boiled baby shrimp and tiny boiled crabs and they were all quite delicious too. After lunch, most of us studied since we didn’t have much to do. Around 3pm there was an announcement that we were passing a famous part with nice scenery. Turns out it was one of the Three Gorges. I have never felt so honoured to be anywhere else in my entire life. Around 4pm, we stopped at Bai Chi Dang, one of the islands off the gorge. The weather was really hot and it made me feel like I was back home. For the first time since I’ve arrived in Wuhan I was walking around without any form of winter wear. Just my shirt and jeans. Later on, I even showered in cold water. There wasn’t really much to do on the island, just that the scenery of the gorge was really nice. Oh and one thing that I have to mention. When back at home, we go to the tourist attractions such as The Singapore Zoo or Jurong Bird Park and they employees there get us to take photos with a fake background and then charge us S$30 for each picture. Here in Wuhan, instead of using green screens they use the natural background and they charge only 20 yuan which is about S$4 so most of us bought pictures of ourselves and even if you don’t want the large photo they give you a tiny free one as a souvenir. Later at night, looked out of our cabin windows and happened to glance upon a beautiful city night sky.  Some of us rushed up to the deck and took pictures and me and Irfanah the decided to star gaze from the deck of the ship. The view was so amazing and it was a once in a lifetime experience. I mean how often does one lay on the deck of a cruise in between the legendary Three Gorges and star gaze? On the third day, we got up earlier than usual to watch the sunrise. However, we were quite upset when we realized that we couldn’t see the sunset due to the fog. Anyway, we headed out to take a motorized dragon boat that took us to a floating island. The walkways of the island were floating plastic platforms which reminded me of The Floating Platform back at home at Marina Bay.  The purpose of this island was to allow us to walk along the gorge. Upon coming to this island, I finally realized the true reason as to why I took Geography back in secondary school. The landforms all around were truly amazing and I was in awe as I walked along the gorge and was breath taken by the scenery. I was glad that the Three Gorges trip was the last weekend trip of our OIP as it ended off China for me on a high note and it was a truly amazing experience for me which I will forever hold in my memories.

Photos:

The passageway of rooms

Our tiny room

The even tinier toilet

The lobby area

The convenience store

One of the Three Gorges featured on the 10 yuan note

The Gorge

A group photo of us

View of Bai Chi Dang

More views of Bai Chi Dang

Night city sky line view from the cruise

The motorized dragon boat we took

View of the Gorge

Another angle of the previous photo

The floating platform

The amazing view

Calligraphy & Tea Ceremony

Calligraphy is a first for me. Though I’ve heard of it but I’ve never done it. It’s such a coincidence that I came to the birth place of calligraphy to do it. We also learnt how to prepare tea for a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. We split into our tutorial classes and our tutorial class did calligraphy first. The calligraphy master taught us that we control the brush not with our thumb but with our middle and ring finger and the brush has to be perpendicular to the paper when writing. I learnt from my friends that the way Chinese calligraphy is different from the way normal Chinese characters are written. Certain points are stressed more than usual. It was definitely a new experience for me as I can barely write normal Chinese characters but now I had to write a more complicated method of Chinese characters but I manage to pull it off somehow and even wrote some complicated Chinese characters using the Chinese newspaper we had below our calligraphy paper. After that, we switched we the other tutorial class and we learnt about the traditional Chinese tea ceremony which is usually used in weddings and Chinese New Year. The more traditional Chinese people in China may still use it to serve their guest but it is a dying tradition in most parts. I was quite shocked to find out that there were many different tools part of the Chinese tea set. Like for example, there was a wooden curved dish to place the dried tea leaves, wooden tweezers which are used to carry the hot tea cup, a wooden scoop to scoop the dried tea leaves and a wooden spatula to transfer the tea leaves from the dish from the dish to the teapot. Different teas are made differently. First the set has to be sterilized with hot water poured over the set. The green tea was prepared by placing it in a pot with lid and hot water and then poured into the teapot, using the cover to prevent the tea leaves from entering the teapot but the teapot also has a ceramic strained but it’s just to ensure that no tea leaves enter the tea pot and they are then poured into the tea cups. When pouring the tea, one should only fill the cup to 70% of the volume. The remaining 30% is used to shoe sincerity. Red tea is prepared by pouring a quarter cup of hot water into a tall glass and transferring the leaves into the glass. The teapot is then filled halfway with plain hot water. The glass is then swirled to mix the tea leaves with the water and then poured into the teapot through a strainer. There are 6 types of tea: Green, yellow, red, black, chrysanthemum and guan ying tea and each have a different way of serving them. I really enjoyed learning about the various Chinese culture and traditions over the past few days and it has really expanded my knowledge on Chinese culture. I’m really glad that I came for this trip as I don’t think I could have learnt most of the things I learnt here back home. Even if I did learn them back home, it would not have been the proper traditional techniques.

Photos:

The calligraphy master demonstrating how to write the strokes.

Our materials

One of our 'masterpieces'.

My name in Chinese. Direct translation means Big You Down (Ta Ni Sia)

My calligraphy buddy, Gordon.

Our second 'masterpiece'.

The instructor teaching us how to pour the various teas

Joel trying t be serious and pour tea