My Trip to WUHAN!!!: My First Day!!

Hi everyone!!!
I hope you enjoy my blog about my experience in Wuhan!!:)

So we boarded the plane at 9.05am at Changi International Airport.
This is the first time I am going overseas on my own without my family members but at least I have my friends so I won't feel homesick.

We landed in Wuhan around 2.15pm and when we stepped on China ground it was really cool and breezy. We had to take a bus from the plane to the immigration checkpoint. This was a new experience as usually if we land in foreign countries the immigration is just a stone throw away from the plane landing. After collecting our luggage, we boarded our bus which could fit our luggage just right. The journey from the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to Wuchang University of Technology took around 1 hour. The scenery during the journey was mostly empty fields, barren trees and a few rivers. I also noticed that the steering wheel is on the left the left of the car compared to Singapore which is the right.

Upon arriving at Wuchang University of Technology, the first building we saw was very colonial looking. I am not sure what building it was but I intend to find out over the next few weeks. On the way to the hostel, we had to drag our luggage down a large flight of steps which was quite a bother as it was a large flight of stairs. The hostel was below my expectations as it was quite run down and looked like it had not been maintained in a while. When Mr. Vincent started assigning us our rooms, my roommates and I were shocked to find out that we were on the fifth floor. The worst part was that there is no lift in the building!!! And it has 6 floors!!! The guys helped us carry our luggage up and all the way up the 5 storeys they were complaining like asking what do we have in our luggage or how did we manage to carry our bags in the airport. One of them even wondered what do we NOT have in our bags. :P I quite thankful for the guys as if it weren’t for them, most of us girls would be have died trying to carry our luggage up the stairs. After painstakingly carrying our luggage, we settled down in our rooms by unpacking.

Later around 6pm, we went out. Dr Sujit and Ms Mikia, our beloved lecturers, showed us the stretch of shops right next to the University. There are many stalls outside the shops which are specially catered for the University and its students. To get to this street, we had to take a shortcut through a hospital which honestly, even if I was dying, I would never trust. There were many makeshift food and clothing stalls set up. I'm not sure if this is only a custom of Wuhan or the rest of China, but as Dr Sujit was briefing us about the shops and stalls, the locals have a tendency to think that something is going on and the want to find out what's going on and join us. Many of them stopped and stared while some rushed over to us. We found many a large supermarket, a few provision shops, many food shops and even a KFC!! We had dinner at a Halal shop because we have Muslim friends. We had a problem ordering as the menu was in Chinese and I don’t speak a word of Chinese and neither can I read a word!!! Even my Chinese friends had trouble reading the menu as they could not understand what was written on the menu due to the cultural difference. We ended up ordering fried noodles. Later we headed to the provision shop to buy mineral water as we can’t really trust the water supply here in Wuhan even though we boil it. We also bought some bread from the bakery for our breakfast. As the night progressed, the temperature decreased and we all started wearing more layers of clothing as none of us were really used to the weather. All of us had problems contacting our parents due to the slow internet connection as we were using either Skype, Viber or Face Time.
It was really a new and different experience for me. It’s really different from what we have in Singapore. It has thought me to appreciate and treasure what we have in Singapore. I would really like to learn more about this city and its customs which seem interesting.

Now please enjoy the photos of the day!!!:D