One Night in Beijing

Sichuan 15/7 to 22/7

2006-08-16T21:22:00.000+08:00

It's been really long since I last posted here. I have waiting for the photos to be developed and scanned. In the mean time, I had been deliberating between starting a new blog to record the finale trip, or to write it here, or to write it at my home blog.

To save the trouble of posting a new post for each day of the trip, and still maintain some sort of logical arrangement, I have seperated the whole finale trip into two parts, documenting the time I spent at each province. The first part records the starting of the trip at Sichuan, while the 2nd post will record the 2nd leg of the finale at Yunnan.

Here it goes:

Day #1 - 15.07.06 Saturday Chengdu
Lodgings: "The Loft"
Travel companions: Jo, Jeff n Aristal

Jo and I flew in to Chengdu from Beijing. The plan was to meet up with Jeff, who took the 26 hour train from Beijing, and Aristal who arrived 2 days earlier, at "The Loft". Jeff actually reached the hostel first in the wee hours, but there were no available rooms and beds. So he dropped his stuff at the counter and went to the bus station to buy the bus tickets to 九寨沟 for us.

It was steaming hot in Chengdu!

Jo and I reached at about noon, and tried to check in. The hostel initially reserved non a/c beds for us, which were really unbearable. When Jo and I went in, the 2 chaps inside were stripped to their undies, and still perspiring. Felt back stabbed coz whoever answered my phonecall for reservation told me that the hostel has a/c. Thought about it for a while, and decided that if they could not spare us any a/c rooms, we will shift to the other hostel which I have also reserved (a sucker's move, a bane to all hostels).

Eventually, LaoCheeHong Jeff saved the day for all of us. He went and cheehong the counter staff with 龟鳞膏, and that got us a/c beds! Nvm that means some bugger got bumped off a/c beds ... hehe Felt like a true blue bastard. One of the staff (Louise) is quite good looking though. To paraphrase Jeff, 四川食物辣，四川女子更辣.

We went to 武侯祠 after settling our beds, and lunch was a fiery event. The weather was super super hot, and the food sold near 武侯祠 was super spicy.

At evening time, we went to see the Sichuan opera and 变脸 shows. We paid low price and we got shitty seats. It was also very hot, luckily got complementary paper fans. Came back to hostel to find Aristal back in Chengdu. Glad to see her again.

Ratings for "The Loft": 10/10 - Cheap and good.
Minus 10 -> if you get the non a/c rooms
Minus 1 -> super hot internet lounge
Minus 1 -> Lack of common space
Plus 1 -> for Louise

Day #2 - 16.07.06 Sunday 九寨沟
Lodgings: "??? hotel"

Today was just a damn shag 12-hour bus ride. And we dio duah into a non a/c hotel for the same price we were offered at the place we originally booked. The hotel we originally booked said that we did not call back to confirm, so they released the space to other guests liaoz. Well, we are a bit pissed about the a/c being not part of the room package. Fortunately, 九寨沟 is still very cooling at night.

Walked about the area near our hotel at night. Basically nothing to do at night lah.

Day #3 - 17.07.06 Monday 九寨沟
Lodgings: "??? hotel 2"

We started the day very early at 6am, and it ended at about 6pm. We checked out and hope to find better lodgings, somewhere else. We 'fleeced' the bag deposit counter at the 九寨沟's entrance and saved 10 Yuan. We squeezed 2 backpacks into a small locker and 'zao' just before it burst open.

We then entered 九寨沟 and negotiated for 'student price' for the entrance fees. Jeff, Jo and my PKU student pass has already expired, whereas Aristal's FDU's student pass des not have a expiry date ... darn. Our 'application' were initially denied, then I actually told the staff that our next sem's card is not ready yet ... So they relented and gave us a refund of 50 Yuan (abt 10 SGD).

So got off to tour 九寨沟 and it was stunningly beautiful. The weather was very cooling (almost freezing) and we saw smoke out of our breathe once again. We spent the whole day taking the internal shuttle up and down and walked on the roads whenever we were not caught and taking lots of photos at the same time.

Lunch was the killer. Heard of the 15 Yuan lunch box from a fellow hostellite at Chengdu, but never found it, until we had our killer lunch. We were forced to eat a 'VIP' buffet lunch that costed a princely 48 yuan. Not particularly exciting, not at all. Especially when we came out to see the 15 yuan lunch box laughing at us. Sian 1/2. In Chinese terms, 郁闷 1/2.

We looked for another hotel after exiting the fairy tale land. And the new place was slightly better. The standard lie applies; 1) Air con costs additional and 2) Hot water is provided, only at selected hours, and only revealed after u probe.

Day #4 - 18.07.06 Tuesday 黄龙
Lodgings: Hotel at 川主寺

We left 九寨沟 in the morning to head towards 黄龙. Poor Jeff kenna puke from a fellow bus passenger and had to endure 'stepping' in the puke pool. His dear tripod was not spared either.

黄龙is very beautiful as well. In fact I liked it more than 九寨沟. Did a straw poll with the Jo Jeff and Aristal and I am the only guy who liked 黄龙 more.

Then I got this headache which I couldn't shake off. Must have been altitude sickness.

Our trip (in general, not just today) has been perforated by shitty meals. We refused to eat at stop-over eateries and ate the packed food we bought the day before (I like 妙芙 muffins the most!!!). And whenever we buay tahan and wanna eat at the 'convenience stalls', we always got tokked. It can cost up to 10 yuan for instant noodles or a choc bar, where it costs only 3 yuan elsewhere.

At 川主寺, we went to a few places and finally went into one restaurant that we thought it look cheap. And our instincts were awfully wrong. Poor Jeff got 'conned' when he ordered BBQ chicken wings. “中间那边leh?”. The 4 yuan 'wings' only had the winglet, the part of the wing we never eat.

Day #5 - 19.07.06 Wednesday On the Bus
Lodgings: "The Loft"

We left 川主寺 at 7am, and expected to reach at 3-4pm. But we kenna stupid jam in the mountains, again! We eventually reached Chengdu only at 6pm. We still took the same bus predeparture activites; buying breakfast and lunch for the road. Usually it has my favourite 妙芙 muffins, 旺旺 and whatever bread we can find from local bakeries.

And on the bus, you can only sleep, look at other people sleep, and then alight heavy headed and groggy.

At Chengdu, we broke off for a while; Jeff went off to get his Tibet travel permit, I went to get bus tickets to go to Leshan, while Jo and Aristal went back to 'The Loft'.

We got worried for Jeff because he is the blur type, and it didn't help that his hp ran out of batteries. We also suspected that he got our hostel's address wrong and would not be able to make his way back to the hostel. But well, 傻人有傻福, he got it right after all!

Then we all went to eat 麻辣火锅. Shiok! But Jeff and Aristal only ate from the non-spicy half. Some how it wasn't as spicy as my first experience eating it. But the same thing always happens the next day; you get a upset tummy and a fiery anus!

Day #6 - 20.07.06 Thursday 乐山/峨眉山
Lodgings: "Teddy Bear Hostel"
Travel companions: Jo

Today we parted with Aristal, who gotta go back to Shanghai, and Jeff who bang-seh Jo and me for Louise, while being undecided about his plans. Anyway at that juncture, we don't know where he is going either.

So I went to 乐山 with Jo. 乐山 is a freaking big buddha statue with freaking many people... I cannot imagine how packed it might be during national holidays. It already took us 1 hour in the queue to get from the top to the bottom and back up to the top again. But then again, 乐山 took us a much shorter time than expected, and 峨眉山 was even nearer than we thought. So by 2pm already got our room at Teddy Bear.

Then at Teddy Bear, I got caught in a messy translation shit for an angmoh and a Sichuanese driver. It's really shitty when you are translating conflict of interests. And to make things sound polite to both sides, I always gotta lose something in translation on purpose. I bailed out when I forsee that things are already beyond me.

Ratings for "Teddy Bear Hotel": 9/10
Minus 1 -> lack of a/c. Trust Jo and me, freaking hot both in the day and at night.
Plus 1 -> Towels provided!
Plus 1 -> great cafe
Plus 1 -> great service

Day #7 - 21.07.06 Friday 峨眉山/成都
Lodgings: "The Loft"
Travel companions: Jo

Woke up at 0230 to catch the sunrise on top of 峨眉山. Damned shag already from the warm hotel room, and we were utterly shocked to see, through my groggy eyes, sooo many tiongs are already chionging to see the sun rise as well ... worsed still ... a lot of them are on tour groups ... jitao kee xiao liao.

Before we even reached the top, we had to
Queue up to get the bus tickets to go to 峨眉山.
Queue up to get 峨眉山's entrance tickets.
Queue up to get cable car tickets to get up to 峨眉山's summit.
Queue up to take the cable car.

Sooo many queues!!! Damn xian 就对了lah. Early early morning squeeze with soo many grouchy tiongs. Don't talk will die. Don't complain also will die. 不说话嘴巴会烂！

Jo and I ended up missing the sunrise, coz we were stil in the queue for the cable car. So pissed ... coz it was so expensive. Over rated and over crowded. We ended up leaving 峨眉山 without seeing much of the other stuff, coz already quite shagged from the early setting off ... We had lunch at Teddy Bear's and returned back to Chengdu.

Day #8 - 22.07.06 Saturday 昆明
Lodgings: "Camellia Hotel"
Travel companions: Jo, Esther

Finally we got a chance to 自然醒 after soo many hectic days. We had our last lunch with Jeff at 'The Loft', and took photos with Louise ... what a dangerous girl to know and take photos with ... felt that if the photos 'leaked' I could be blackmailed or something like dat.

Our flight out of Chengdu to Kunming was delayed following cock ups after cock ups ... the poor airport staff was bombarded and abused by the ever impatient tiongs. I wanted to offer him some sort of encouragement but I was in some sort of hurry as well ... we were shuffled to different boarding gates, and I didn't want to cock up either.

And so, we finally met up at Esther around evening time. We checked in at Camellia, bought tickets to Dali for the next morning.

Yunnan 23/7 to 3/8

2006-08-15T21:03:00.000+08:00

Day #9 - 23.07.06 Sunday 大理
Lodgings: "四季客栈"
Travel companions: Jo n Esther

We reached 大理 nearing noon time and we proceeded to the 古城 section where we stayed. 大理古城 is a big and nostalgic 'city'. It's a very ... relaxing and cooling place. It feels so comfy to walk around without sweating like crazy like we were in Chengdu.

After checking in, we popped over to the 三塔 but couldn't find the scene that I see in travel guides and postcards. Frankly speaking, I am a little dissappointed. The 'scene' that I am expecting to see has been 'closed to public' and I would have to go to an 'alternative which is also the same' that costs sooo much more. Luckily, we managed to pay student prices for admission.

Ratings for "四季客栈": 10/10 - Perfect!
Super ambience.
Pretty good location.
Standard rooms includes free buffet continental breakfast which is super good!
And we managed to 'obtain' soo many rolls of toilet papers that they lasted all the way till the second last day of the trip.

Day #10 - 24.07.06 Monday 大理

We went to the 沙坪赶集, which was a weekly bazaar some what at the northern tip of the 洱海 (pun: went Shaping to shopping, hur hur). It was quite a true blue local market where there were more locals than foreigners, and after all, it's mainly a wet market selling fresh produce. I tried to barter the Malboro Lights I got from BL's bf for a smoke pipe and I failed.

It rained the whole afternoon. Should have spoiled the day but 大理 is just too cooool and relaxing for that. We ended up in a cafe and watched DVDs inside for the afternoon.

Today we came up with a acronym that could summarise our trip: BMW
B for Buddha
M for Mountain
W for Water

Day #11 - 25.07.06 Tuesday 丽江
Lodgings: "First Bend Inn"

Took bus (again, again, and again) northwards to 丽江. I had much higher expectations of this place, only to see the snow on the 玉龙雪山 has already disappeared. Sian 1/2, 郁闷 1/2.

We rented a bike and cycled to a 束河古镇, which the hostel staff recommended us to go see. It's pretty nice, and if you wanna see how 丽江 was before it was infested with tourists, you can go take a look there. There is a 茶马古道 musuem in there that was very nice too. We got free 普洱 tasting and free tour guide there. The tour guide was a charming 纳西族 girl -> 越看越美丽 ... but alas ... married liaoz.

Ratings for "First Bend Inn": 9/10
Clean and comfortable.
Minus 1 -> Tiong style toilet.

Day #12 - 26.07.06 Wednesday 丽江

Today we went up to 玉龙雪山's 云彩坪. I thought that since it is the cheapest and of lowest altitute 'site' to go up to, surely, there must be lesser tiongs ... I was soo wrong. We had to queue up for the cable car, again. Xian.

The 云彩坪 is quite nice though, minus all the tiongs and the photo taking 'services' pests. Esther said it looks like Brokeback Mountain ... especially with all the horses aka XiaoHong around.

Day #13 - 27.07.06 Thursday 丽江

Signed up with a tour to go to 虎跳峡 and 长江第一弯.

I always thought that it is a waterfall-like thing ... guess I had been sadly wrong about what a 'gorge' means.

As with ... quite a fair lot of attractions in China, they are always 3 'O's; Overpriced, Overcrowded and Overrated. The watever 第一弯 is like ... popping a 'so-this-is-it?' bubble all over our heads.

We all know SG's obsession with acronyms. China also has its obsession, but it's with numbers. You have all the 八荣八耻, 三个代表, 五不出站, 十字文明, 云南十八怪 ... etc number namings with their 'policies' and slogans.

Well ... after these days in Lijiang, then I realised maybe I should not have spent so much time here.

Day #14 - 28.07.06 Friday 中甸
Lodgings: "龙行客栈"

Skipped our original plan to go to 泸沽湖 after much considerations ... it's a 10hr ride, stay overnight, and another 10hr ride back to Lijiang. So we scrapped the plan, and moved furthur up north to 中甸, the place they call Shangri-la.

We reached only quite late in the afternoon because we didn't manage to get the first bus out of the previous towns like we used to. In fact we got one that departed quite near noon. So when we reached Shangri-la, we were all quite tired and hungry liaoz.
This place of the world sits high up at 3000plus meters. So when we reached there, gotta start keep things easy liaoz.

Found a cool eatery called Puppet Restaurant, had a meal there and made acquaintance with the boss there (达瓦), who eventually hooked us up with his driver friend, 扎西, whom we engaged to bring us around the next 2 days. Do go to the restaurant if you are going to 中甸 yah?

Ratings for "龙行客栈": 8/10 - I tot I saw marijuana plants in the compound.
Minus 1 -> erratic supply of hot water
Minus 1 -> not so enthusiastic receptionist.

Day #15 - 29.07.06 Saturday 德钦
Lodgings: Nameless "hotel"

Today we went up to 飞来寺 to catch the full view of 梅里雪山. Our intend was to stay over there to catch the sunrise on the next day but turns out that the cloud cover was too thick for us to see the sunrise. 扎西 said it was because a group of Japanese had arrived, therefore no sunrise for all to see. haha! Well done, Chinese propaganda agencies!

En route to 飞来寺, we stopped over at 德钦 for lunch at a restaurant, and the 白族服务员 at the restaurant is really cute and hot! =P

Today we also had new inspirations for our BMW acronym, but we had some problems with the letter M. We had a very representive idea but ... it was not very appropriate to publish. But no .. guys .. it's not another word for DIY. So when we have the best answer, I will write abt it.

Ratings for Nameless "hotel": 7/10
Minus 1 -> tiong style toilet
Minus 1 -> no shower facilities
Minus 1 -> no indoor wash up area

Day #16 - 30.07.06 Sunday 中甸
Lodgings: Shangri-la HI

We hiked up 明永冰川 of the 梅里雪山, which was a damn tiring 2 hr upslope climb. The uber thin air didn't help at all. I was xibei shag and xibei slow loh. I was quite regretful that I didn't hire the horse ride up ... jitao 犯贱 loh ... And then on the way up, gotta siam all the XiaoHong poo. XiaoHong is really full of shit!

After the damn tiring hike for the great view, we went back to 中甸, another 7 hour ride back.

Shangri-la has big 温差. During mornings and late evenings, when you breathe, you can see steam out of your mouth. And then during afternoons, it is very sunny and 晒.

Ratings for "Shangri-la HI": 6/10 - I think I saw poppy flowers there. Shangri-la is a really HIGH place ...
Minus 1 -> tiong style toilet
Minus 1 -> lack of room space
Minus 1 -> for being far from everywhere
Minus 1 -> distance of bed from sockets

Day #17 - 31.07.06 Monday 中甸

Today is designated lobo day. So we opted for 自然醒, and went to the 松赞林寺, and went to the 古城 to jalan jalan.

I couldn't find any nice backpacks to replace my torn Lowe Alpine. The backstrap was badly damaged as we stuffed too many things (a lot of them not belonging to me) into it, resulting it being too heavy for what it was intended for.

Then we finally found a cafe that has internet connection, and ate junk angmoh food there. We had brownies with ice-cream and played Chinese Chess with Jo, and taught Esther how to play. And we burnt the whole afternoon like that. Esther felt the altitute and we went back to the hostel after a short trip to the Xinhua bookshop there.

It's also 七巧节 today. Where's my 织女?

Day #18 - 1.08.06 Tuesday 昆明

Finally we have the 2nd BMW;
B for Bus
M for Mei Nv (美女)
W for Walking

You could interpret the M part ... in anyway you wish. But my original idea for M was for the 白族 and the 纳西族 girl I have met earlier on.

And today, we rotted on the 12hr bus ride back to 昆明 from 中甸. They played 3 movies and repeated the same 口水歌 CD for countless amounts of time. And I am utterly bored.

When we finally reached Kunming, we went out to the 昆都夜市 we read about only to be dissappointed. It's a super big KTV/club/pubbing place. Not the 夜市 which I thought it is. So we had a BBQ supper and came back. Jo gotta catch a early flight the next morning.

Day #19 - 2.08.06 Wednesday 昆明
Travel companions: Esther

Jo went back to Beijing today. We had breakfast together and then sent him off to the airport. There goes my travel companion for 18 days ... He had to fly back from Beijing.

After he left us, Esther and I went to the museum and then the 花鸟市场. The musuem is quite cool and we were very very tired after all the walking and looking at the exhibits. Then the 花鸟市场 was like ... erm ... 'just like that ah?' type of feel.

So I tried to shop for a backpack since 扎西 said it was cheaper in 昆明 and 达瓦's recommendations at Shangri-la .. didn't quite interest me. Sigh, even the cheaper ones are still quite expensive and not good looking. The quality and build also does not feel as good either. Whereas the expensive ones are too expensive liaoz. I'd rather buy them in Sg instead. Should have bought the North Face knock offs at Dali man. Cheap and good looking.

I ended up walking damn lots around in Kunming, walk until leg ache. Went for foot massage at night, only to find out that it's a sleazy place after all. Luckily got Esther, if not i might have got raped inside.

I finally dumped the useless Malboro with some French hostelites. And Esther finally saw some shuai ge.

Day #20 - 3.08.06 Thursday 新加坡!!

I dumped the Lijiang postcards, shower foam and shampoo with the same French guys again. Then I gave my Watsons' Super Collagen hand cream with the attendent who was going to clean up our room. I also dumped a Chinese guidebook with a Korean traveller at the hostel as well. I must be the most-loved guy on the block that day.

And Esther said the French shuai ge is quite a inconsiderate chap by leaving his stuff all over the steps. Well ... we have told her soo many times how good Sg guys are and sg girls are missing out on so much when they hanker over caucasian guys.

And the moment to fly home finally came ... we squeezed everything we could into our bags and tried to check in at the airport counter saying we are students so that we could get 30kg baggage weight limit. We got through eventually without any weight penalty since there were so few passengers on that flight. They didn't even bother to check our visas, I said we had student visas, which we didn't. I really thought we held student visas, but Esther said it wasn't. As long as I need not pay for the extra weight, I don't care lah.

When I touched down, I was so elated and happy that I am home. It has been a long time away from home. Although the world has shrunk with technological advances, but nothing beats the touch of the real thing. The air, the smell, the familiarity just brings a smile to your face automatically.

It had been a great experience and people have been asking if I would be going back there again. I can only say, a lot of many things need to be considered first before I can commit. Besides, you guys know I have bayderophobia.

Travel Conclusion
By the end of the trip, I feel that I already 麻木 liaoz. I am not so easily excitable as before liaoz. Travel fatigue, perhaps? But I would definitely be back for Shangri-la's 梅里雪山.

Also, never never never never never never never never ever travel to China during their own peak period (April to early Oct). Everything is at least twice as expensive and it's full of tiongs everywhere. The 公认 best time to travel is on end Oct/early Nov where there is fewer tourists, and the season (late autumn) is the best for spectacular views.

If you are taking long distance bus, always add about 2 - 3 hours to the claimed arrival timing, just to be safe. And pray that you have a nice neighbour; not some chimney or brat.

The pictures on this blog are not by any means exhausive or special in any meaning. Do visit my flickr site, and leave comments if you find it nice. Keep it to yourself if you think it sucks. I have a delicate ego.

This should be the concluding post of this blog.

A short conclusion

2006-07-13T14:41:00.000+08:00

Many events or occasions in my life can be described as 龙头蛇尾. Which means, I usually have a super start and a not-so-super ending. I think it somewhats describe my time here, but it is unfair to conclude it that way just because I am not feeling on top of the world right now.

I think the reason that the cliche 相识容易，相处难 is being so overused, is simply because it reflects the truth ever so frequently. And the unhappiness stemming from 相处 issues, affected me quite a lot. Despite my nonchalent and hardlined approach to these matters, the cold front that hits us all is too chilling for me to take. It doesn't help that I am always reminded of the much cordial and happier times when we just arrived. I observed that, perhaps putting some distances literally, and letting relations warm up through convection instead of close contact conduction, long lasting friendships are usually better formed. I've thought that the people staying near me are the best people around when I've just arrived. But as time progressed, it's the people who lived furthur away, formed healthier and harmonious relations. You could also say, the 真性情 of people that manifests itself when staying together for a long time, is not as attractive as seeing one-sided-ness of friends you meet not as frequently. I cannot be so sure, but I think, when everybody goes back to NTU, when everybody goes back to a state of 'normalcy' and resumes their life in their original environment and set of peers, we will see each other lesser and lesser. Our impression of each other, be it good or bad, would be left as it is, as we depart from Beijing.

But well, everybody hates 'gei kiang' but not 'kiang' people. And there's no need to gek accent when there's no way you can hide your 'foreignness' in a foreign country. You can try to speak in their lingo so everybody knows what you are talking about, but try talking like them and failing it, irks everybody who hears it. It's just a very bad attempt to assimliate and gain recognition with the locals.

Academic wise, I have of course learnt a lot, but I would have hoped to learn even more. I don't feel like elaborating because ... it would be like writing my IA report again.

Work wise, nothing else besides the workplace politics and that, does not affect me in anyways. Well, I live by the statement that 'If it does not involve you, don't get involved.' I am quite fortunate that my department is quite harmonious and the all the ladies have good camarederie and are quite united. Plus, their looks are of good standards hehe. While it had proved difficult to get into their closed circle, we at least are not snubbed out completely. My boss treats me quite well and left me pretty much alone to finish my work or to surf net. And I recipocrate that trust with my efficiency at work.

Travelling is one of the motives of me applying for GIP and is also the highlight of my stay in China. The previous post and posts would have .. well, said them all. The NTU students in Beijing are mostly adventurous and venture out to other places of China, while those in Shanghai are happier staying in the city, and going back to sg asap. I have very little contact with those in Suzhou. I figure I would probably be bored to death but at least return to sg with a balance in my budget. I would suggest NTU send students to Guangzhou and Shenzhen for GIP/IA as well.

I don't know if I would miss Beijing, or my life here. But for sure, it is ending and I am bringing back knowledge and experiences that will stay with me. And I wouldn't miss the pollution anyway. It scares me to stay near the city centre and breathing in smoke, smog, dust, sand and God-knows-what-else that's in the air. And the air conditioning in the subway, or at least the ventilation, pls! Really has lots of room for improvement.

Travel Time!

2006-07-12T21:50:00.000+08:00

IA is ending in 2 days' time, and after that, I would be embarking on a 2 1/2 week tour to Chengdu and Yunnan.

Sigh ... don't know how i am feeling anyway. Sort of know that this dream is coming to an end liao, and I would wake up to final year and its project. But then I've been planning and anticipating this trip for so long liao, I should be feeling excited about it. Seems like I am getting bogged down and tired out by the planning and the misc stuff that comes with it.

And then there's this grant from somebody, in which its condition of award, I feel, is asking too much from me and my company. And I feel I am squeezed in between the somebody, my company and NTU. Coz the grant is applied by NTU, on our behalf, and hence the info flows from the somebody to NTU, then to us. Aiyah ... everything so last minute, and asking for ... too much.

And the end of this GIP or IA is ... as messy as the beginning of it.

In the midst of this state of mental and emotional confusion, I must still inform you guys, no matter how few this number may be, of my plans and possible whereabouts.

The red boxed places are parts of China I've been to previously before IA, and the yellow boxed cities are those I've visited, and will be visiting, during my IA.

This short period of 6 months had taken me to many places in China; Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Qingdao and Guangzhou. On saturday, I would going to Chengdu again and Yunnan.

I would be flying out to Chengdu on the 15th July. From there I would be touring 九寨沟, 黄龙, 峨嵋山, 乐山.

Then on the 22nd July, I would be flying southwards to Yunnan, Kunming. From there ... haiyah ... go a lot of places lah. I will be visiting all the main attractions in Yunnan.

Till then, I expect to reach SG in early August, earlier than I've previously planned. Things have changed and I would not be making a detour to Guangzhou n Hong Kong, so I would be back for a short break before lessons start at NTU.

似成相似

2006-07-11T20:01:00.000+08:00

在北京这一段日子里，云（雾）海里面看见的都是人影。

有些人的背影，或者正面也好，都会让你想起你在新加坡的朋友。你知道他/她/它这个时候肯定不会出现在北京，不过你还是对他/她/它（maybe not 它）的样貌感到好奇。你想知道那人是否长得像你所认识的那一位。你也或许有一点希望他就是你所认识的朋友。然后，你们可以很热情地打招呼，你也可以逗趣地骂他，问他为什么这么“无势”（bo seh），来北京也不说一声，让你来带他四处走走。

到头来，你也知道，他，不可能是他。你只不过在想象罢了。

Earthquake!!

2006-07-04T22:38:00.000+08:00

Today, an earthquake of ritcher scale 5.1 hit 文安, a town 120km south of Beijing (circled in red).

Just before lunch, I thought someone was shaking my cubicle wall from the other side. I thought whoever it was, is quite strong to be able shake the cubicle. Man, my office at 7th floor really shook quite a bit. Then I started to feel giddy. I was quite sure the building is shaking liao. My colleagues started to make noise about the building shaking or earthquake or what. Following that, SMSes poured in from their husbands/wives from Zhongguanchun and Tianjin telling about the quake they felt. And so, we concluded that there must be a quake near us.

After lunch, we read reports on sina.com.cn (where I shamelessly pulled this map off, which they have anyway shamelessly pulled off map.sogou) and confirmed the location of the the quake ... just 2 hours' drive away only. Even my colleagues got quite freaked out a bit, coz they were reminded of the T'angshan catastrophic quake back in 1976. But well, when the quake hit us, we are still in the building. If it crumbles or what, it's already too late for us to run liaoz.

Just glad to be alive this very moment.

i NOT hamsuplou

2006-07-03T21:47:00.000+08:00

Sigh ... i know i look 'chao lao' but i din know i look hamsup also

Everytime I am alone (or perceived as alone) when I walk Wangfujing, I always get approached by pimps.

Xian ... Why ??

29 June 2006

2006-06-29T20:57:00.000+08:00

Today, I have finally finished all the drafting and have submitted my IA report. I have no more reports or essays to submit liaoz!! After soo many late nights and lost free time ... now I can concentrate on the World Cup without typing on my laptop.

During the 2-3 weeks time where I had school work to do after work, many things had happened ...
We had a dialogue and networking session with Minister Tharman and a delegate of businessmen.

Chek and me, at the dialogue.

We have also graduated from 北京大学. This picture is taken at the graduation lunch.

At our table. It was Bao Zhen's birthday as well. I think she had the greatest birthday of them all who celebrated their birthdays in Beijing.

Back at work, sigh ... very pek chek. I am now delayed and dragged down by circumstances I have no say and control over. My 工作能力 already 受到肯定, but now my 工作效力受到怀疑, feeling quite in the pits over that. Then my mentor came over to 'check' on my progress even though she already knew that I could not have possibly have progressed anyway, and then whispered (really very softly) to me that I should probably not surf net too frequently. Sigh ...

I still went online. I can't possibly bring a book there and read, or worst still, watch DVD or wat right? I managed to finish reading 张爱玲's 《倾城之恋》. Here are some classic sentences from the小说 which I've adapted:

"一个女人，再好些，得不着异性的爱，也就得不着同性的尊重。女人们就是这一点贱。"

"你最高的理想是一个冰清玉洁而又富于挑逗性的女人。冰清玉洁，是对于他人。挑逗，是对于你自己。如果我是一个彻底的好女人，你根本就不会注意到我。"

21 June 2006

2006-06-21T21:49:00.000+08:00

Thinking of suitable titles for blog posts are a real chore. Naming them after dates that you write them is not very representative of the things you write.

Had been really busy these days. After work, we cook and wash up, and then it's back to essay writing. And then I have the World Cup matches to watch. I have been facing inspiration shortage (again); all my creative (and copying) juices have been diverted to complete the 6 one-thousand-and-five-hundred-word essays. I have finally finished them!!! Now I've got the final IA report to gaodim, then I can relax and enjoy liaoz. Owing to the fact that I seldom write about difficulties and unhappy things, a lot of people think that I am enjoying life here. I work hard and I play hard, although not as crazily as the others.

The short time that I've been here in Beijing, thrown out of comfort zone, away from home, helped me to learn more about myself. And sometimes, I see myself more and more like the person I did not wish to be, and lesser the man I had wanted to be.

Here are also some of my observations of people, very subjective and very unfair but I so so so don't care;

人民大会堂

2006-06-18T23:41:00.000+08:00

Alex and me went to the 人民大会堂 for a free concert with the tickets given to us by our colleagues. Turned out that the concert was actually a charity premiere of a cultural performance by some 广西 cultural group. Our company bought quite a lot of tickets for all the perm staff.

The 人民大会堂 is actually a super big meeting room for all the 代表s from all over China to hold their meeting here. When there is no 人大 meeting, the venue can be used for concerts and stuff. There's also a room for each of the other 'states' like 湖南room, 广东room etc etc.

That's me waiting to go 'meeting', lounging at the big sofa outside of the meeting rooms hehe. Felt like I was D.SP for a moment.

Then there was this 'star' in the main meeting hall that was above all the delegates' seats. Quite cool looking, very spaceship feel.

13 June

2006-06-13T20:36:00.000+08:00

Hmmm ... I really have short term memory ... I had something in mind to write as I login to post, and I forgot about it as soon as I see this blank page.

Here it is,

We have a total of 6 essays to write and submit for my Chinese modules in PKU and while the following differs for undergrads from different schools in NTU, we all have some sort of attachment report to write as well. All these on top of the hours we spend at work. I do miss the days where we can come home to watch dvds, documentaries or serials. Nowadays, I need to juggle between work, World Cup, essay and report writing.

Sigh, 排得满满. 又得安排最后的几个weekend该去哪里玩.

有些人很经典；一面在这边又whine又complain又shoot email, 另一面又作的比谁还要快. Reminds me of those who claims that they never study for exams and then still get 'A' type of *^!&@s. What a irony. It just shows that the 'workload' is not beyond your capability at all.

Then 又有另一种人, 也一面在这边又whine又complain又shoot email, 另一面又拼了命去看连续剧、看我猜、 and all the watever crap shows ... There's not really too much work, but just too much (self imposed) distractions.

Now that the deadline has been specially extended to accomodate the above type of 'not-so-geniunely-in-need-of-extension' pple, I am hearing them trying to push for all to submit on the original date. I am confused about what it was all about.

Haiz ... 等一下shoot到人, 又惹人厌 ... 还是shaddup比较好, 毕竟敢写, 就不要怕人家会看. 很多事情不再是一个抱歉就可以解决的.

Department Dinner - 2nd June

2006-06-11T00:01:00.000+08:00

Our company would be merging with another rival company, and LM would not be leading our team anymore (she got promoted). So she suggested a lunch/dinner via email on Tuesday. It was quiet on the email front (for a small intern like me) until on Thursday when we approached her to ask her to write the testimonial for us, and tell her we would be interested to go for the lunch/dinner, then we knew the the meal has already been set for Friday lunch .. We would be having lessons at PKU ... of coz we couldn't make it. Was a little upset that we were left out of the loop ..

But then there came a miracle! It was changed to a dinner on Friday! For us! Soooo happpy!!!

It was a very fun night with lots of food and drinks. LM was allergic to alcohol but she 破例 and toasted to us all. I think the drinks were helpful in getting everybody high. And it was quite a sight to see all the ladies so 'on' about drinking and not 'act 矜持' like their sg counterparts. Sigh ... pity most of them are already attached or married liaoz ...

There were lots of jokes around and we were let off from telling a 色情 experience because we were 'too young' hehe. Well ... there was nothing 色情 but it was all 初恋s and 恋爱 experiences etc etc haha It was pretty funny.

7th June 2006

2006-06-07T22:08:00.000+08:00

My colleague received lilies, again, although that was last week's addition. This set seems to be very long living, including today, it's already about 7-9 day old liaoz i think.

Lots of good things seems to be happening lately.

有朋从远方来，不亦乐乎！

2006-06-04T22:26:00.000+08:00

Mr X has finally arrived in Beijing last friday! Just like the way LJ came, it was g-r-e-a-t to see sg friends who come up to Beijing for a tour. Funny ... How come I didn't take any photos with him??

Recommended him to stay at the HI hostel near my office and took him out for dinner when he arrived. Then we walked over to Wang Fu Jing where we then met his friends from HK, whom he made during his exchange in Korea. They were May, Grace, '细佬' and Ben. They were a fun bunch who wanted to try all the 'famous food' in Beijing like QuanJude and DongLaiShun and of coz (like us), they were pretty disappointed (like us too) haha. Well ... they actually wanted me to bring them to the place I brought LJ to for the roasted duck but it was already pretty late, so they settled for the QuanJude duck at Wang Fu Jing. Haa at least they can say, 'been there, done that'. Grace later also said the DongLaiShun wasn't really nice and was very exp, she even had the tummy ache after eating it.

And then on Sat, I climbed Simatai section of Great Wall with James and Mr X. Man ... climbing Simatai will make you the real 好汉 loh ... 金山岭 ... is still quite manageable (read: nothing).
It rained very heavily when we reached the bottom of the Wall, and we waited for about an hour before we decided to screw the weather and climb the Wall in our silly looking duck-beaked pontos. Fortunately, the rained stopped while we are halfway up and the rain actually cleared the fog/dust/pollution whatever-it-is a bit which made taking photos not a waste of film. And frankly speaking, nobody wants to take photos in these on top of the Wall loh ...

After coming down from Simatai, we went over to 后海 to meet the HK gang for dinner and drinks there. Been to Beijing so long, I myself also haven't sat down and drank at 后海 before. Never occured to me that I would be drinking there with HK pple I have just met 2 days ago. But well, they were fun to talk to =P

Rem we went QuanJude? They gave me the QuanJude duck 'body' which they couldn't finish (on the same night of coz), and said I could make soup with it. Then I invited them to come over my place for dinner on Sunday so I cook the duck soup for them but May, '细佬' and Ben had to return to HK. So only Grace and Mr X came over. Cooked the 'portugese sauce' ribs, soy sauce wings, some vege and also the duck-n-tomato soup for them. Just wanted to make these travelling friends feel like home, I know how great it feels that when you are away from home, you still can find food and warmth as if you are at home. And after making new friends from HK, now I want to stop over at HK also =P Now I might wanna stop over at Guangzhou and HK liaoz.

手机简讯

2006-05-30T03:02:00.000+08:00

那一天，就我和你。吃完了麦当劳，我们坐在里头什么多没做。你凝望着我，笑了。我问你干嘛这样看着我，又干嘛笑我。你说，没什么。

又一阵冷场。

你拿出了手机，在上面按了按，按了个短讯。我再喝一口可乐。你就把手机递给我，叫我看上面你所写的东西。

“我难得终于鼓起了勇气，想问一件事情，你不要说数落我的话，可以吗？”。当然，你用英文写了这段话。你的华语，没有这么灵巧。毕竟，用手机打华文字也不简单。我心里面顿时乱了起来，她到底想说些什么呢？我也等不及想听。

“没问题，只要你不要让我‘歹势’就可以了。嘻嘻 =P”。我当然也用英文回复了你。

你接回手机看了看，又笑了，很快地，手机又回到了我这里了。

“我可以抱你吗？”

不可能吧？心里面的我在搔头皮，表面的我却不敢这样做。我的眼神和表情常常出卖我的真性情。每次老师授课时，只要到了超我脑袋领悟能力的时候，老师都能察觉。不要这么苦恼，不会很难的，老师再解释一遍。所以我不看着你，看着手机，假装在上面打字。我也不动要写些什么，打了又删，打了又删。曾经问过你最要好的朋友，知道你只把我当作哥哥来看待，且有了心上人。之间，我也进入了‘半放弃’状态，做不了情侣，做兄妹也可以，至少有多一个聊天的对象。我又不想拒绝你，不过你又是我的谁？拥抱之后，又是谁？不拥抱，原本好好的这段兄妹，会不会变质？

打了又删，打了又删。

感觉到你的嘴角好像渐渐往下坠。

结果，我写了这一段，还给你。

“可以。不过你坦白地告诉我，我是你的谁？你当我是什么？无论你的答案是什么，我答应你，一定会抱你。无所谓的，你可以对我坦白的。”

你看了看，什么也没说。我不知道你有没有再看我，我只知道看着你的手机，不敢抬头看。结果我听见了鼻涕声，我看上来，却又不敢正视你的眼睛，看见了红了的眼眶。我右手牵着你的左手，左手拉了包包，往门口出去，坐在外面的水池边。抹了抹那决堤的眼泪，没用，就把你抱了过来。

我送你回家吧，不要哭了吗。（该哭的人是我吧？）

半走半托上下车，15分钟的车程，在肩上的哽咽声里，在掺住颈上的手里，感觉漫长，感觉无比的复杂。一起下了车，你就把包包结了过去，事情发生的太快，你也没再说什么，就自己往家里方向去了。

你就再也没对我说什么了。

Adapted from bayderophobia: 失眠夜散文集

Guangzhou 26-28 May

2006-05-28T21:32:00.000+08:00

The airticket price from Beijing to Guangzhou (and back) suddenly dropped on Thursday morning. So I bought the tickets to Guangzhou. The 2-way 3 hour domestic flight costed me about s$300 in all.
My dad and my uncle went to Guangzhou to visit my ah-mah last Weds, and I have always wanted to join them but I have to go to work every Monday to Thursday. Now that both the timing and the costs form a good match, I made the sudden decision on Thursday that I will go to Guangzhou to find them on Friday and leave together on Sunday. And boy .. it was a super good choice hehe =)

It was a great great great trip.

The Main Purpose
I saw my ah-mah again, about 4-5 months since she left SG to stay in Guangzhou. I'm so glad she is happy and looks healthier. Her hair has got thicker and has darken as well. Now I know what it means to 嘘寒问暖, when now it 'makes sense' for her to ask me if I am feeling cold in Beijing, and me asking the same for her in Guangzhou. I haven't heard her for a long time, and she still tells me not to fool around and work hard for my studies, telling me that my dad did not have the chance to study and now I should not waste my chances. As long as she is still concerned (although she always look nonchalant and thinks I do not understand what she is saying), I would be very happy.

I also met lots of relatives, all I have never seen before or never thought I would have. I now have lots of cousins, lots of '老表' and '表叔表姑' etc soo distant that even my ah-mah gave up and tell me to just call them 'uncle' 'auntie' haha Really nice to have met them .. although I struggled to understand their Cantonese (I don't understand/speak Cantonese well anyway), it was a very happy experience talking to them. They are very hospitable people, they really made me feel at home. On my way to her place where we stopped for petrol, I found the Ricola sweets she liked and always had at her place when she stayed in SG, and I wanted to cry. It is this type of small small things that remind you of someone special. Somehow, this type of Ricola candies is very hard to come by in SG liaoz. I couldn't find those big big tins she had, so I settled for this small one.
If any of you guys can lay your hands on those big big tins, please tell me where to get them.

The Food and the Drinks
As a result of their hospitality, I ate non-stop ... except when we are driving .. really haha. Of all the countless stuff and names I couldn't recall nor translate into Chinese, I remembered eating the 狗肉火锅, 烧鹅, and the ‘双皮奶’, which is a super nice dessert. Something like a white custard beancurd thingy. And they never stopped drinking, unless they were sleeping haha except for the 表叔 who drove. They were always inviting me to drink with them (''yam peah', or 饮啤, drink beer in Cantonese), which I accepted for the first dinner with them where we had the 狗肉火锅. I think I might have demostrated a good hold of liquor and that was quite a nightmare haha. They invited me to drink at every meal, even at breakfast! Dimsum breakfast with beer is jitao a stun for me. I cannot tahan even half a glass and I keep covering my glass when the waiteress came around with the bottle to refill our glasses. My uncle see liaoz also know I not their level liao and never 勉强 me for beer at breakfast. But they din stop inviting, and I didn't stop rejecting, coz I still had to tahan a long lonely night at the airport, and then the 3hr flight back to Beijing. If I drank, I would be dehydrated and the sleeplessness + flying would make me feel like shit.

Getting there and back
You see, I reached on Friday noon, ate the 狗肉火锅 that night. Went yamcha dimsum breakfast on Sat morning, and left together with my dad and uncle when they had to leave to return to SG on Sunday midnight. While they took off at midnight, my flight was at 8:20am, so I stayed at the airport that night. Driving from the place where my ah-mah stayed to the airport takes 2 hrs. It doesn't make sense for my 表叔 to drive home after 12midnight to reach home at 2am, and then drive me out again at 4am so I can check in at 6am. Despite not drinking, I still felt like shit when I reached Beijing on the Sunday morning. I haven't been able to sleep the night I 'tuanged' at the airport. It doesn't operate 24hrs like Changi does; they turn off all the lights at 12midnight since there are no more flights between 12midnight till 8 in the morning. The seats at the airport had sleeping-unfriendly armrests, sleeping on the floor is uncomfy and 'xia-suay' looking, the sofa couches are for some air ticket agent promotion gimmick and cordoned up. I sneaked in and lay on it for a short while until I got so pricked about the possiblities that the security guard discover me and accuse me for tresspassing and suspecting me of trying to steal things or what that I sneaked out not more than 15 minutes ... so I stayed up reading 水煮三国 at the very pathetic lights available at the luggage wrapping counter. I finally gave up reading at about 4am and slept lying down on the counter table, constantly waking up hoping that no airport staff would come and chase me off. At 5am the lights came on and I walked about wondering between the luggage deposit counter and the e-ticket counter waiting for either one to start their operations so I could get on with the checking in. Furthurmore, I'm the type who couldn't sleep well while travelling, you could say I didn't sleep at all. And the rest of the Sunday when I reached home at about 2pm, I was groggy and slept till dinner, woke up and ate, and slept at about 10pm till it was Monday morning. I'm not young anymore, I just couldn't stay up all night and not feel very tired for the next day, and recover fully after a night's rest.

The sightseeing
While we were in Guangzhou on Friday afternoon, we went to 上下九步行街 to shop but nobody is interested to make any purchase so we headed to 陈家祠 which was simply astonishing. I saw the legendary 43 layered elephant tusk ball that 故宫 said it used to have and lots of exquisite craft works which is simply breathe taking. The architecture of the 陈家祠 is soo different from those we see at Beijing; the ceiling is very high and there are very detailed stone carvings on the beams and on the walls. So so so amazing to see the craftsmanship built into this place.

We also went to 肇庆 on Saturday afternoon to see the 七星岩, which is big lake with 7 islets in it that (they say) look like 北斗星 from the sky. The place is beautiful whether or not they have that '北斗星 from the sky' anyway. It is expensive to go into that place. It costs 50yuan to get in, and it does not include all the other 景点 entrance fees inside the 七星岩 area. You can take the 25yuan ride with tour guide or walk the whole 9km by yourself. It rained the whole day and so heavily at long stretch of times while we were on the road that I thought the typhoon chan-chu came back. It drizzled on while we were at 七星岩 and so not many people were around, somekind of sight soo rare in China sightseeing spots haaha.

Lastly...
No pictures this time, until I finish the last 10 shots in the roll. So I will upload them maybe ... in 1 or 2 weeks' time.
I am feeling so happy about the trip, that I am still feeling high today on Monday. It is like a short dream, which was a very good dream that you think about it again and again, and hope you will dream of it again tommorrow night.

Lessons Learnt, thus far

2006-05-24T23:16:00.000+08:00

I have learnt how to:

Flowers!

2006-05-24T17:46:00.000+08:00

My 妖姬 colleague received another big bouquet of flowers!!!!
Look at the sheer difference between the mug and the vase of flowers ...

Even I got excited and happy and I found myself smiling idiotically at my own terminal even though the flowers are not mine haha It's the uber big 百合花 again
See how it towers over my cubicle!

Sooo nice! Smells so good! Sooo envious!

22 May 2006

2006-05-22T23:23:00.000+08:00

有朋自远方来, 不亦乐乎!

Last friday, LJ popped over to BJ for a trip! And I hosted him at my place (of coz). It was great to see somebody whom I already know in SG coming over, while other people had their family or relatives to visit them. It was always great to have friends visiting. And now I look forward to meet Mr X when he pops over to BJ next month.

Also the past weekend, we hosted a potluck dinner at our place. We had hell lots of fun! The chaps from WDK gave us a lot of face and made themselves really at home haha Well, it's the spirit of having fun lah, it's not like anybody got injured or wat =P We 干掉ed 34 bottles of Tsingtao and Yanjing ... broke 2 chairs and a sofa bed, and got Eng Beng to speak his mind haha. He will be my hero of the week! My Steph Sun's HK concert dvd became the best dvd buy; it repeated many times and still entertained everybody for hours straight. Our place turned into a Steph Sun ktv session for quite a long time. We also opened up (cleaned up) our balcony 'to chill'. Hailiang n James helped bought a small disposable bbq pit from their walmart and we bbq-ed sausages and chicken wings and drank beer at the balcony *that's life! But sorry, no pictures to show! Eveybody is too happy and crazy to take pictures =P

我是好汉！

2006-05-16T21:14:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday I went to climb the Great Wall!

We went to the 金山岭 part of the Great Wall as arranged by the folks from 北大. Mary Ma went with us as well. It wasn't as xiong as 香山 and the best part is that there isn't too many other tourists around. That made it much much much more enjoyable.

The bulk of the guys. I'm the only guy wearing cap, fyi.
From Left, Jasman, Guoliang, Alex, Joseph, Ly, myself, James, Jeff, Shiangjing, Kejie, Alan.

The GIP pple are just crazy on the Great Wall last Sunday. Soooo much horsing around ... stripping one another (the WDK guys with lotsa help from Ly) ... JH and JR took off their clothes and taking pictures of themselves on the Wall and gayed with each other ... and took pictures of it as well.

Now I am 好汉 liaoz!

Photo courtesy of Ly.

11 April

2006-05-11T23:31:00.000+08:00

I had done nothing productive for the whole of this working week. Nothing at work I mean. Not that I am inactive in getting assignments, but there really is nothing for me to do, and anything that is to be done, is greatly beyond my capability already.

At least 3 pple has expressed their 'concern', with replies like, 'you very eng izzit?'

And this week, my '妖姬' colleague received a gigantic bouquet, again.

I don't know if you can call this a wise crack but here it goes;
"结婚就是被动、冲动和感动，有时让人后悔的一个举动."
anyway, it's the fruit of lobo-ness and inspiration.

Labour Day Holidays

2006-05-08T23:53:00.000+08:00

My Labour Day Holidays is 9-day long. (羡慕吧? haha)
I packed my bag off to spend the Chinese' golden week at Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Zhouzhuang and finally at Nanjing.

1st May - Monday (Shanghai)
Shanghai is damn hot and humid, compared to Beijing of course. And then Shanghai is bloody packed to the brim ... super xian on the first day loh. Somemore I was still quite shagged from the sleepless night before the trip, by the time we battled it out of the Xiangyang Market and the Bund, I was already quite 'hin' liaoz. So after dinner with GM boy and girl, I gave the night Bund a miss and went back to the hotel to rest.
The sardine-fied Nanjing Pedestrian Walkway.

But I still gotta kancheong for my passage home; I cancelled my Friday flight's air ticket home last minute, so I can add Nanjing to the back of my itineary. I got news from Shilun who was at Nanjing at that time that there was no more decent train tickets back to Beijing liaoz *gasp, so bobian ... I paid full air fare from Nanjing back to Beijing.The Pudong river bank.

2nd May - Tuesday (Hangzhou)
We left for Hangzhou early in the morning. Even worsed than Shanghai, Hangzhou is jitao super duper packed loh ... 人头is xibei xibei多! The weather is much more cooling than Shanghai but foggy. Haiz ... dunno what 朦胧的美. Reminds me of the Wubai song though. In short, Hangzhou was too packed to be appreciated. I was already damn tired just by squeezing past the crowd from places to places.
难得清静on西湖，Hangzhou.

After settling my air ticket home from Nanjing, I still gotta gaodim my lodgings and my way to Nanjing. Turned out that the hostel I originally wanted to stay in has ran out of beds for me, and the person did not want to promise me any places for the coming Friday night. Panic xia ... gotta mafan Baoling back in Beijing to help me check out on the Fuzimiao hostel which I eventually stayed on for two days while in Nanjing.

3rd May - Weds (Suzhou)
Today we've got a chummy chubby chio guide! Though she's a bit slack compared to the slave driver on Tuesday, but I like her more. We've got more time on our hands anyway. It was sunny but the winds were still cooling. Suzhou is comparably less packed than Hangzhou, and that made touring more pleasant and memorable than Hangzhou. Personally, I think Suzhou is more beautiful as well.Me, 寒山峙，Suzhou.
Boat ladies, Suzhou.

At night when we returned from Suzhou, I popped over to the Bund to take photos of the Pudong river bank. And I've finally bought the train tickets to Nanjing. So now I can relax liaoz, I can make my way to Nanjing, I've got my temp place of rest, and I've got my transport back home to Beijing liaoz.Night shot of the Pudong river bank, Shanghai.

4th May - Thursday (Zhou Zhuang)
Zhou Zhuang is also another crazily packed place. And today's guide is the slackest, although she had the most regurgitated narration. At night, I went over to Pudong and took photos of the Bund at night. Unfortunately, none of them turned out decent. I could not get the panaromic shot I wanted to do.Zhouzhuang.

5th May - Friday (Shanghai/Nanjing)
Early this morning Pris and Kev checked out and went shopping while I stayed to meet the Shanghai GIP friends in the afternoon and then scoot off to Nanjing in the evening. Unfortunately, Pris n Kev packed my t-shirt into their luggage. I was left with just one polo tee for the next 3 days. Gotta try to make do with it liaoz ...
After breakfast I went to Xintiandi - Uber cool place! It's like Clarke Quay and Holland Village in one place. Took quite a lot of photos and then went to meet Jingyi, Chunjie and Shilun. Starbucks, Xintiandi.
Va Bene, Xintiandi

We wanted to go find the HRC in Shanghai, but we first heard it was closed already, and then we called to find out; it was really closed. The world is really a small small place; I actually met Adrian and cal at the MRT station where I wanted to meet Jingyi and gang. Turned out that they were meeting other friends from GIP Shanghai as well haha. So the whole gang of us met up instead. And we had choc/hawaiian/banana prata at a roadside stall and dimsim lunch as well. After lunch we popped over to Shilun's place and he gave me the best thing I would ever need; a city map of Nanjing. Had a good time with them but I wonder why they keep kajiao me with funny questions haa. But well, it was quite an honor to have the whole lot of them seeing me off to Nanjing =P And that starts my 2 day solo to Nanjing ...

The soft seats on the train are quite shiok, much more comfy and more leg space than airplane seats, in my opinion. The girl beside me is quite pretty and pretty 'dao' as well. It rained on the way, from SZ to HZ then to 常州, the ground were visibly wet and whenever there were roads, I could see people carrying umbrellas; a sight I have yet to see in the 3 months I've been in China.

The rain carried on shittily to Nanjing also, and I was down to my last piece of shirt! Jitao xian 1/2 loh ... Somemore, I have no idea where the hostel is, I only have the address .. gotta keep asking for directions in the stupid rain. The receptionist at the hostel was right about the room I asked for; it was pretty lousy as well. It's simply a comforter, a window, a light, and a nail on the wall. But I can't be bothered liaoz ... I was drenched in perspiration and rain .. I just want to bath and sleep and get ready to tour Nanjing the next morning. So I showered in the bath with the faulty heater where the people queueing didn't want to bath in. Fought off the mozzies which talked to me at night and then bit me through the night and then it was Saturday.
My 'cell', Fuzimiao International Youth Hostel, Nanjing.
Me in my 'cell', Fuzimiao International Youth Hostel, Nanjing.

6th May - Saturday (Nanjing)
Woke up earlier than I planned to; the 隔音 was 'superb'. I am beginning to suspect that the room is actually converted from a store room. So i went over to 夫子庙 for breakfast and then tried unsuccessfully for empty rooms nearby. So I gotta stay on for another night and went sightseeing.
中山陵, Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum, Nanjing.

明孝陵，Nanjing.

I could have finish Nanjing in a day, but I 总得 leave something to do on Sunday right? Nanjing is pretty small (as compared to the megalomaniac cities like Beijing and Shanghai), one end to another is only a 45 minute bus ride. It has also much lesser tourists than the few spots I've been to a few days before.
夫子庙夜景, Nanjing.
View from my Hostel balcony , Nanjing.

And I felt lonely, esp at night. I haven't talked to anybody and nothing meaningful; I only asked for directions and to make purchases.

7th May - Sunday (Nanjing/Beijing)
Went 总统府 and the 大屠杀纪念馆 and furthur convinced me the importance of field trips for history lessons. Shilun is right about Nanjing cabs.
大屠杀纪念馆, Nanjing
总统府, Nanjing.

They are damn expensive. Luckily I only need to take it once to the airport. Then I realised that when I have nothing better to do, I spend money ... And I think of food all the time =P.

Conclusion:
- The Shanghai MRT is very much like SG, so are the commuters -> shitty and inconsiderate haha. Everybody dun wanna move into the centre of the cabin, and people would rather wait for the next train. Beijing is the other way round, everybody wanna move into the centre and would always try to squeeze up the train, pretty civic minded although they are always grumbling.

- In Shanghai, I saw quite a few of old-man-couple-with-young-chio-bu case, something seldom seen in Beijing. Maybe when you have $, you have love. In Beijing, I thought that it really is 真爱是不用外貌和身家的.

- They should ban kids below the age of 12 from golden week tours. Parents who spoil their kids or have kids who demand and shout for attention should never bring their kids out unless they can behave. They should make it a law or something that other people who kanna noisy kids to have the right to knock the kid's head or order the family off the vehicle. Kids that cry should be slapped until they stop crying, then they will fear to cry when they are touring outside hehe *evil grin. Besides, they dun even appreciate the scenery and the architecture of whatever attractions mah ... why waste money, time and effort, end up not enjoying and annoy every other people?

- I enjoyed myself =)

故宫 II

2006-05-01T00:07:00.000+08:00

Yesterday's yesterday on Saturday, we (alex and me) were supposed to be working, because of the Labour Day week-long holiday 'compensation'. But we got the day-off instead, coz we finished our work early. Too bad to you all red-eyed bugs, we deserved the day-off. =P

So Alex and I went 故宫 again, to see what the 北大 tour didn't show us. We wanted to see for ourselves, the palace's treasures and the structures we've seen in various television shows like 金枝欲孽, 雍正皇朝 and CCTV's 故宫 documentary. Now we know the 北大 tour couldn't have brought us to see everything anyway. The world's biggest palace is very the big!

We've spent a total of 2 afternoons and we could only finish 2 thirds of the palace. I've now seen the 中轴线 and the 东后宫 area. I gotta go there one more afternoon to finish the western sections of 故宫. Fortunately, this time I managed to see the long long red corridors of the Forbidden City.

I will definitely spend one more afternoon to see 故宫 again. Maybe with Alex and Mr X, when Mr X comes up to Beijing as part of his 'Great China tour'.

Bon Voyage, Mr X!
And Happy Labour Day! (it's 9 days long for me hehe)

I'd be off to Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing for the rest of the week. Will blog abt it when I come back =)

Google Me

2006-05-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

You guys can try google 'Beijing MRT line' and you will get my blogger site at the top of Google's search.

Courtesy of Guomao =)

25th April

2006-04-25T21:35:00.000+08:00

Sometimes I do run out of idea how I should name my posts.
Maybe because the collective stuff I want to say, is too short to be a independent post on its own, and too unrelated to be grouped as one.

Let's start from work bah.
Work is ... constantly having new challenges. And I'm pretty glad to be out of the gloomy shadows of being cast as a stupid intern. At least my immediate mentor thinks I am working faster than she expected and is pretty impressed. I still turn up at work on time, finishing my lunch on time almost daily, and leaving office on time, most of the time. I am happy working at where I am now, although I have to increasingly independent, the colleagues I should turn to are always busy. My colleagues are quite a good lot; the ladies are attractive and get along well with each other. The guys are also quite nice although they tend to be more quiet and 'dao'. Feng Huan bought us strawberries and other fruits while Luo Ling bought all of us ice cream when it got really warm inside the office. Xiang Xin was uber helpful, if not my work progress would still be 2 weeks behind. I just find it difficult to communicate with the higher levels, but well, I don't need to do so often anyway.

And we celebrated Guomao's birthday.

And we played badminton with Vietnamese and Laotians in 北大 last Sunday, just a friendly game organised by the SSA.

I have been feeling so 压抑 again. And I am getting sick of my limited wardrobe haaha, I even thought of going clothes shopping (omg).

I am also listening too much Mayday that it starts to freak me out haa. I listen to them at work and at home when I come back from office.

And 我想念你, 你, 你, 你们 and 你们.

And I feeling lousy about my capabilities to take good pictures. It doesn't help that people keep thinking that I must be a good photog since I own such a 'good' cam. Thing is, my cam is not as advanced as the digicams that everybody own over here, and I've barely started out. I'm making do with cheap lens, struggling without in-cam adjustments, and my post editing skills are limited to auto-correction with Photoshop.

And today at work, it struck me to think of this;
Is it better to 嘴硬心软 or 心硬嘴软?
Both are ... somewhat 表里不一 ... And 23 years later, I can't generalise, less decide, if I am 嘴硬心软 or 心硬嘴软. I just know, I prefer to give people just-one-more-chance, and usually they take it.

Qingdao Trip!

2006-04-24T22:24:00.001+08:00

I went Qingdao last last week and I've finally going to write about it!

Qingdao is a 9.5 hr ride (both train and bus) from Beijing. We spent a total of 2 days and 3 night on this trip; of the 3 nights, only 1 night is at the Hostel (Kaiyue International Youth Hostel; great place =P). The first night is on the train ride to Qingdao, the last night is on the stupid bus back to Beijing.

I have actually wanted to make a trip to 崂山, but later decided that it might be too rush to do so. Eventually, half of us made the trip to 崂山 on the second day but the other half of us stayed in Qingdao.
For those who might be interested, the ~~itineary~~ ~~itinanary~~ itinerary is as follows:

Day 1 (15/4 Saturday)

Day 2 (16/4 Sunday)

Something like dat lah, we made adjustments of coz, but still went all of the places mentioned. And the 海军博物馆 sucked, don't even bother.

The train ride was shiok! Simply because we invested (very correctly) on the best seats money could buy. The 9.5 hour trip was damn comfy. We were in 4 person cabins and we all had beds. Poor SJ and Jeff who joined late ... they had to squeeze with the standing crowd for the night. My conclusion, it is always worth the money.

Hmm ... I wanted to go Qingdao because it simply doesn't look China. It was once German and for a short while, Japanese. Therefore, it retained a lot of German architecture for the majority part of the tourist area. The 基督教堂 looks great, so did the St Michael’s Catholic Church. Think we coulda seen the same things in SG as well, but it is German essentially, and have history significance in their very prescence. I should have been celebrating Easter inside a church, but I end up touring churches only.
St Michael's

Artists, drawin their interpretation of St Michael's.

基督教堂.

The 栈桥-回澜阁-小青岛 cluster is ... hmm representative of Qingdao bah. U see it in front of the Tsingtao beer labelling and on all icons representing Qingdao. Hmm ... quite ok lah. Must see but also can don't so serious about it. U can see the whole cluster from the Mac (it's 2nd storey) by the sea.

迎宾馆 is pretty majestic, feels super extravagrant, and take a special look at the very odd Mary and 2 kids glass painting. It had Oriental facial features but Western dressing. Then you can 偷偷 climb the shed at the shed beside to get panaromic view of the Qingdao shore line. And get a shot, something like this;

八大关 is a pretty big area to cover on foot. And tonnes of people take wedding photos there *&%$, taking turns and sometimes together! And u thought even ROM dun have so many couples at one go. Parts of 八大关 is nice, very euro look, it's a much cheaper alternative to take wedding photos at Qingdao then at Europe itself. Plus the weather, floral and fauna are very 配合 during spring.

花石楼 is within walking distance from the 八大关 area, which explains why they are here, again...

It was a tiring first day, as we started the day early, and most of our time are spent walking walking and walking, waiting waiting and waiting, and picture taking taking and taking. The so-called seafood paradise of China ... hmm ... jus put it this way bah, I still prefer SG style and variety of cooking seafood bah. Perhaps, it was too short a trip, too little meals to generalise.

The Brewery was fun and interesting =) There was supposed to be 2 free drinks but they gave us more than what we should get, explains this spastic look at the bar, at the end of the tour. We also got a free Tsingtao glass each, quite cool and I like it a lot.

The sucky part of the trip was right at the very end. We couldn't get train tickets (there's only standing seats left) back to Beijing, and we almost bought air tickets, which is twice the price of the soft sleeper seats for the train. Luckily (and unluckily) we found bus tickets which had beds instead of seats. It was 240RMB per 'seat'. The soft sleeper train ticket was 316RMB. The air ticket was 790RMB before tax and fuel surcharge.

This is only a-third of the bus. We thought we could it was something like a coach or wat that we could talk and makan chips and we bought quite a bit for the road. End up, we could only lie down .. machiam like coffin like dat. I think even coffin have more space for one than this bus bed. But there's niceties to the bus though, the bus conductoress distributed goodie bags that had biscuits and sour plums in it. She also walked around (when there was still space, you'll read why later) like air stewardess with a pot of water asking if anybody wants a drink. When I thought my nightmare should end just at that, the 'bus stewardess' laid comforters on the pathetic corridor space. At first, I thought 'how come so hoh seh, walk also soft soft so shiok'. The truth came a few junctions later ... the bugger bus let even more people board, and they slept on the corridor!! I had 2 faces right beside mine! Guys somemore! And when things fell off the upper deck, the two buggers woke up, made noise and of course woke me up as well. I gave up trying to sleep and tried to watch 霍元甲 they were showing. Then one of the buggers sat up and watch the show as well, effectively covering the already puny common screen. Pek chek xia ...

But well, the trip on the whole was fun and amicable. I wonder if I had witnessed the birth of the first Beijing GIP couple. Most importantly, the air was fresh and the sun was comforting. It was although somewhat rushed, but still a great great getaway from the Beijing. Somehow, when we returned to normal life (Beijing), we came back to the heaviest sandstorm in 5 years *&^$

Raining sand/mud/dirt

2006-04-18T23:29:00.000+08:00

As you guys might have heard and read, there was a sand storm in Beijing yesterday. We've also read in the papers (over other pple's shoulders) that it was the worst in 5 years and over 30万 tonnes of sand/dirt/soil has landed in Beijing from the west ... sigh Well ... we've already seen snow in April liaoz, already 见怪不怪.

But it is really damn pekchek loh ... the skies are yellow in color, the cars are yellow in color, the buildings are yellow in color, the floor become yellow in color, KT's white jacket become yellow in color also. The sky color is quite a departure from the gloomy dark grey it usually is, but I would have prefered it to be Qingdao blue or green instead. A colleague taking the company bus joked that there was no need to put on 粉底 for make up haha

I went Qingdao over the last weekend. Will probably write abt it in a few days' time when I manage to get the photos, and have the mood to write. Been quite tired after work lately, lazy to write. Nonetheless, Qingdao was great! =)

Some pictures.

2006-04-11T21:51:00.000+08:00

Time to upload some pictures liaoz. Somewhat arranged in reverse chronological order. Most of them are my 'work'. Only a few are not taken by me and they are those with myself inside =P Still got somemore ... upload them at a later date.

大观园.
Beijing have no lack of artists of all sorts of talents. This old man is practising water calligraphy, writing with both hands together, mirror image of each other. 大观园.

光天化日下，筑起四方城. 不必像我们一定要在夜深人静时才能玩. 北京胡同.

Staff making excellent use of break time, with no 顾及 of how others may see her. 鼓楼.

Choir practicing revolutionary songs. 天坛.

Water calligraphy of Chairman Mao's poem on the floor. 北海公园.

Artist 陶醉 in his own pursuit of excellence. 北海公园.

It's about self fulfillment, not about the audience, right? 北海公园.

The monster is here to change the face, and the fate, of the very things that made Beijing special. 胡同, in front of 鼓楼.

A dance troupe musicians, providing music accompaniment for a folk dance. 鼓楼.

Old man selling malt candy handicraft. 烟斗斜街, 后海.

Old man by the 'Window'. 烟斗斜街, 后海.

Old man's hand, moving the pieces, orchestrating the defeat of Alex and me. 后海.

小美 and me. 清华大学.

Chinese Culture module lecturer, Prof Liu, and the SHDers. 一教，104室，北京大学.

Cheryl and me (posing, of coz). 圆明园.

Me in front of arch to 清华大学.

My last weekend

2006-04-10T22:34:00.000+08:00

It's been a week since 香山 ... then I realised I haven't blogged for a week ... been rather busy at work, and after work gotta write my '论文' for the Chinese Culture module. So it's been work during daytime, pondering what to eat for dinner during lunch, ending up splitting for dinner almost all the time, and then reach home to do some more research and writing for the '论文'.

All the way like that, till it is Friday.
Coz my package from SG came!!!

Friday:
Went to pick up the parcel from the post office after lessons becuase when they tried to deliver on Thursday, nobody was at home. Ooooh man .. I couldn't wait ... couldn't wait for my taste of home; sambal chilli and bak-kwa, and also my jersey which I bought in sg for this GIP trip but forgot to pack in my backpack. And since I came home alone, I cooked maggi noodles with the sambal chilli. And I caught 5 episodes of 金枝欲孽.

Saturday:
Some of the SHD-ers went 春游 with the SSA people, those who didn't go wanted to shop (erm ... again) , so I decided to cycle. Actually I wanted to cycle from SHD to 古城 ... something one end of the mrt line to the other end. But as I tried to get used to the clips inside our own estate's carpark, I already fell off twice liaoz ... I sustained a bruised shoulder, both my knees grazed and cuts on my calves. Then my handle bar got crooked, and I wondered if my rear derauler's hurt or not. Most importantly ... I didn't feel confident of riding that far and coming back ... I'm also feeling some discomfort because of the previous two falls. And I need to get to 日坛 first to fix the bike, which I didn't know how long it would take anyway. I got the bike fixed up and bought a handpump there.
Aye ... I made it to 天安门 still, and almost never made it back ... I didn't even have time to have that 'flashback of your whole life played back in front of you' that pple say when you have a close shave. Left turns in left hand drive countries are different -> please remember that. This makes it the second time in my life, I got hit by a car while on bike, and I got away unscathed. I didn't even fall off the bike ... I must be the most blessed guy in the world.
苟且偷生, I made my way home and cooked (dinner for 1 again ...) sambal sotong and prawn-ball 盖饭. Shiok ah!
And I caught another 5 episodes of 金枝欲孽.

Sunday:
Went to church after a long hiatus and then I realised it is Maudy Week. I'm certain it wasn't by chance, it was by guidance. Walked around 西单 after service and found the 'can-bargain' street the SHD shoppers like to frequent soo much. Then I bought something for my Dad at the shopping mall beside. And then after I went home after lunch, I played table tennis with alex, then helped pris prepare dinner.
And I caught yet another 4 episodes of 金枝欲孽. I finished it at last!

香山

2006-04-04T00:00:00.000+08:00

Climbed 香山 last Sunday with HL, James and Alex. Well, I was expecting it to be full of flowers but it seems that the best season to see it was during autumn, where all the maple leaves would be red. The aim to see the hill full of flowers is ... sort of impossible ... or so I would psycho myself to think; I cannot understand how all varieties of flowers can bloom at the same time. Surely there must be some sort of 'season' for each type of flowers. Like you would expect the best durians in June and December like dat.Picture of me, at the top of the 香山, posing in front of the .. erm .. tree.

The climb up was tougher than I've expected. And for the first time in Beijing, I perspired profusely. We climbed up a '野山', meaning a hill with no proper path. But we could not give up and go down; because there was a ah-ma climbing along; James said we cannot lose to the ah-ma, so we didn't lose to ah-ma haha Sigh, we saw 3 puddles of puke, one of which was a 'live' merlion performance. Poor things ... climb until vomit. We all also 爬到脚软.

Picture taken at the bottom of the hill. Look at the difference in the clothing before, and after.

Great day out with the chaps =)

亲爱的，你怎么不在身边？

2006-04-03T23:18:00.000+08:00

这里的空气很新鲜
-> No way
这里的小吃很特别
-> Yeah! Exotic stuff
这里的latte 不像水
-> depends. Office 的nescafe machine就很棒!
这里的夜景很有感觉
-> ok only lah

在一万英尺的天边
-> on the flight
在有港口view的房间
-> 看不到海 ...
在讨价还价的商店
->真的什么都能讨价
在凌晨喧闹的三四点
-> 北京没什么nightlife

可是亲爱的, 你怎么不在我身边?
-> 谁是我的'亲爱的'?
我们有多少时间能浪费
-> 没时间浪费
电话再甜美传真再安慰
也不足以应付不能拥抱你的遥远
-> True ... true. Webcam is the next best alternative liao.

我的亲爱的你怎么不在我身边
一个人过一天像过一年
海的那一边乌云一整片
我很想为了你快乐一点
可是亲爱的你怎么不在身边 ?
-> 唉 ... sad. The writer is panning and yearning for his/her loved ones so much, so much in excess of how I am feeling.

Chip off the old block

2006-03-30T23:24:00.000+08:00

Squeezed myself inside a small talk at my cubicle section at office today. Partly because it is one of the very few conversations that is reasonably audible (nothing to hide), very casual, spontaneous and 'funny' at the same time.

Xin talked about herself feeling that she is getting more and more like her mother. All of the things that she had said to herself that she'd never be, she eventually grow to be the same. The influence of her mother on herself is so strong that despite her resolution, she can't help but be the same. And then her mother would be ultra friendly with 'outside' people but very harsh with herself and her family.

Then Huan said it's the same for her, just that when she was in her 青春期，her mum was in her 更年期 ... etc etc and we all laughed.

I didn't say much, partly because I will 词穷 in front of them (I speak Chinese, but not up to the local standard) and stammer (one is a hot babe, the other is a '妖姬'). After all, I wasn't supposed to be in the conversation anyway. But they did speak something I've held in my mind for soo long.

Although it is not fair to generalise, everybody is still, a chip off the old block ... and sometimes 偏偏 the 'unwelcomed traits' are the ones you inherit from both sides of the gene pool.

And oh, I recovered my cap. The 师傅 saw it and left it where it was. It is the 2nd time I dropped my cap in a 'tour bus' and recovered it liaoz.

28 March

2006-03-28T22:28:00.000+08:00

Sigh ... dropped my beloved cap of 10 years in the company shuttle bus ... hope the 师傅 kept it for me ... tml will try to get it from him ...

On another matter ... I have spent a few fruitless trips to major, minor, original and pirated CD/DVD shops and could not find the '伍佰 - 2005厉害演唱会 DVD' that tyw has told me about. Damn pissed about not finding something I want badly when I want, and am able to pay for. Man ... what happened to the DVD?! Where have they all gone to??

I used to think that I am a PR disaster. When I am supposed to talk and mingle, I have nothing to say, or say the wrong things or make myself look/sound stupid. I am just lucky not to have offended people I shouldn't have offended. Last saturday, at the Beijing Singapore Student's Association (SSA), I believe I have found at least 2 PR nightmares that made my PR skills look like a good dream =P

千里走单骑

2006-03-26T20:26:00.000+08:00

I finally said goodbye to a wad of 100RMB notes in exchange for my Merida 904 on Friday. I left her at Hailiang's place and then joined them to explore 北大 and 清华 on wheels today, before cycling back home. I am excited at the new purchase but at the same time worrying about the economical sense of it all. In fact, I am really wondering when would be the next time I would take it out for a good long ride before I ship it back to SG.

I am always like dat about big purchases, but then I spend little amounts like a tap that cannot close completely; trickling away unknowingly, steadily.

Navigating through Beijing streets was not as hard as I thought it to be. As long as I know where the sun is, I could figure out my NSEW and then heard in the general direction till I hit the landmarks or the major roads. There's only one gripe though, the 四惠桥　is probably designed by a idiot.

This is one of the first times I rode a road bike, using the clips as well. I fell sideways once because I couldn't unclip (that was when I first got the bike from the seller, and making rounds inside 北大). On my way back home today, I rammed into another biker because I couldn't reach forward in time to squeeze the brakes. Luckily I was not on clips (i took them out after I reached 北大 with Hailiang and James, the cycling shoes were too small for me), if not I will look damn silly.

Btw, 清华 is soo soo beautiful! I can't believe it is actually a school. Man ... there are parts of it that looks as if it's a garden instead. Chinese Garden is so no challenge to 清华's campus ground. That being said, 清华 is also very multi faceted ... some parts of it don't even look Chinese; some parts look American to me, some just look European. And their 'SRC' is disgustingly big, I would think they could have hosted SEA games there if they wanted. And if by any chance any of you will get to study in 清华, do invest in a bike, don't bother to walk.

It took me 1.5 hrs to get home from 北大 by cycling, on a Sunday, starting at 1530hrs. Distance covered to reach 四惠东 is 23km. I'm not exactly dead tired from the cycling but the cold weather did get the better of me; my skin was feeling cold but my body is heating up and perspiring. The Columbia jacket was soaked and did not 'breathe' as promised. (Screw u all who sell counterfeit jackets at genuine prices.) Map.sogou did a great job plotting the shortest route I should take, which, although I did not follow, served as a great reference material.

Super high! 五月天掀开北大百年纪念堂的屋顶！

2006-03-24T23:44:00.000+08:00

Super happy to catch Mayday at 北大！！ Definitely shiok man! Pity the dumb dumb organiser disallow standing in the concert, threatening to halt the concert if anybody stand etc etc ... so dumb. But heck lah, when Mayday returned for encore, I couldn't take it and stood up and rock liaoz. And I totally love it when their 'security' was lax, we ran up the aisle and came very close to the fab five for their last song for the night. HIGH ah!

Ok ... thanx B*nq ...

Photos courtesy of Alex's digicam =)

19 March

2006-03-19T22:11:00.000+08:00

Last night mum called me at my Beijing abode, feels great to hear voices from home.

Went to walk the hutongs recommended by LP, not bad really. On the long way to the place they recommended, we happened to pass by a few buildings with some sort of history significance. A really welcomed surprise anyway. Then it occured to me that a history lesson should always be complete with a field trip to the places mentioned in the lessons.

The walk ended at 宋庆龄故居. A really nice place, and she's really a great woman who worked for the good of the people, whom also never took sides in politics that would render the common folks at the losing end.

Then as we back track on the 后海 area (looks like boat quay!), we walked past a 公园 where there was a lot of elderly and children doing all sorts of activities. There are people playing table tennis, those exercise stations, chess and even swimming across the river (mind you ... it is still cold loh).

And then bo dai bo ji, got a ah-pek 'challenge' me to Chinese chess. He wasn't even playing in the first place. He just looked at me and then said I got the Chinese chess look haha and asked me to play with him. Then he got the people at the table to move away so we could play chess. Of coz I 奉陪 loh ... give him face also mah. It was pretty fun, coz I have never played chess in a park and certainly not with many ah-peks watching and commenting at the same time. Well, I conceded the game with only 1车, while he still had one set of 车马炮 ... surely no fight one lah.

Today was quite dissed about last minute changes that screwed things up a bit. Other than that, it was a great sunday for me.

Heard there is going to be a 五月天校园演唱会 at 北大 this Thursday. I WANT TO GO!!! Hopefully Esther can get us the tickets to the concert!

Wally Me

2006-03-16T23:27:00.000+08:00

If you guys read Dilbert, you guys will know Wally is the slacker in the company who drinks a lot of coffee.

Except for the balding top, I think I am very much like Wally. And I didn't choose to slack.

Yesterday

2006-03-15T22:07:00.000+08:00

Yesterday.
That's how the beginning of the show, 'Crash' started. I have tried to watched 'Crash' twice, because the DVD just gave up playing smoothly; the first disc at scene 8, the second at scene 17. (roughly lah, I can't really recall ... was quite pissed liao)

Yesterday.
Went back to office late from lunch, as usual. I don't know ... it's not out of mischief or wilful in nature; I needed to go to the bank to pay for our electricity bills. A lunch time trip to the bank is usually a half to a full hour affair.
The bad thing is, Alex and me returned to the office block's lobby at the same time with the company's CEO and all the French big shots on level 8.
The good thing is, Tracy shared the same lift as me when we went up. And she was not having lunch with them =) So I know the French big shots are not ... erm ... hitting on her or wat hehe

Yesterday.
I hit a bottle neck at work; although all I needed to do, is to figure out what I'm supposed to know. Quite mind-boggling and quite a mouthful right? I am sort of at a dilemma. If you ask too much, are you not as independent as expected to learn by yourself? If you don't, you risk misunderstanding the whole thing altogether. Sigh. Although we are assigned a mentor each, the mentor 毕竟 is not your fulltime tutor. Even NTU tutors have consultation hours. Besides the people in our department always look busy. Today then I knew how late they went home these past few weeks when I asked Xiang Xin about it; about 11pm daily.
And here I am stuck in the cubicle feeling bored and useless, acting busy most of the time, and practising my stealthy alt-tabs.

I have began to cut down on my latte intake. I have been taking one per day, usually first thing in the morning when I reach the office. I substitute my afternoon coffee with Lipton tea, thinking it might still be less caffeineted than the lattes. I have also began to eat less, and more in moderation.

I also want to get a decent road bike so I can go on weekly cycling trips with the 北大bike club, something I can ship home and use happily back in SG. But then I will have the 周转 problem again sigh. I still got a DLSR to buy, a huge China to explore and ultimately my own mouth to feed and an air ticket back to SG. In fact, I've began to feel that I would never be able to see the world in one lifetime. The world is too big. I would never be too rich, or have too much free time to see it all; especially if I want to do them while I am still young and mobile.

Snow pics

2006-03-13T23:07:00.000+08:00

It really snowed!

paiseh ah Pris ... u were caught with ur eyes closed, again. In the other grp pic, I got 排挤ed ... so gotta use this instead...

下大雪！

2006-03-11T23:59:00.000+08:00

It snowed like mad today!!! The history lecturer knew our hearts are not in the tutorial room liao, so he gave us all an early dismissal.

And we played soccer at a 北大'field' gazetted as a national heritage area, while it snowed! I somehow knew we were not supposed to play soccer on that field, but we played anyway. Good thing is that we (Alex, me and Yizhuang pple) won the game against the Wudaokou pple. And our banter attracted the 北大photographers to take shots at our crazy antics. I remembered at least 3 photographers fully armed with telephoto lenses came down.

Man ... it was damn fun loh. Only the few of us can boast that we played soccer in the snow, and on a Chinese National Heritage 'place'. After we won the game, the Wudaokou pple stayed to play another game within themselves. But they were sent for lunch earlier than they actually planned to, coz the campus security surrounded and chased them off the grounds.

Needs and Wants

2006-03-11T23:13:00.000+08:00

I now know that I am not as adaptable as I would like to be. And I dunno if I prefer to be in some sort of routine life, or one that is ever changing, always receiving new challenges. Whenever I am unsettled down, I yearn for a routine to stablilize my life. Then whenever I have settled into a routine, I have a desire to break out of it.

It seems that I am one of the first to reel from the effect of missing SG food. All the imposing weather, the sickening pollution and the sucky rush and tension of city living ... makes me feel very deprived. At least I am the only vocal one about missing SG food.

I WANT:

~~a new mouse~~

I NEED:

Heard sandstorm is going to hit Beijing in a day or two ... damn ... there goes my weekend. Might gotta stay indoors liao ... And 黄老师reminded us that a cold front is hitting us also, prepare to dip 8C to 10C.

38 妇女节

2006-03-08T22:55:00.000+08:00

38 妇女节 is more than a lip-service in China.

There's actually a stipulated half-day holiday for all women. Despite the fact that I am not a member of the fairer sex, I thought I would stand to benefit from it; my dept manager and my 2 mentors are all female! But circumstances turned out otherwise, they all had something very important to finish, while all the other women in the rest of the company all left after lunch. So busy, I didn't dare to ask them why they are not going off.

Somemore, I hadn't much luck when it comes to asking for advises from them. It seemed to highlight to them my ignorance (maybe not to Luo Ling), and my capabilities in understanding something so basic to them.

Sigh, I was thinking of going off at about 3pm, if all 3 of them went off for their half day holiday. I am super cranky for a big part of the day. I also forgot that most of the women already left company by afternoon when I went up to lvl 8 for pantry meeting. Set aside a nice cookie for Tracy (if she pops in for a drink) then I remembered she probably left liaoz. Then I ate it up anyway.

Lattes today: 1
Lipton bags: 1

Temperature:
-1C to 10C
(I'm pretty sure it was something like 27C or 28C in the office, it is really very stuffy and hot.)

四季

2006-03-07T21:42:00.000+08:00

Nice Song from 陈珊妮 - 四季
(sorry ... old habits die hard =P )

秋天摇着尾巴
说它其实爱着夏天
但已经是过去的事
冬天又来了

要秋天多给一点时间
还偷偷想着春天
春花秋月最寂寞
冬雨不讨人喜欢

你要夏天只爱自己
我却等你一个四季
你要夏天只爱自己
我却等你一个四季

I will miss the outgoing winter in Beijing.

Met Tracy at the level 8 pantry today afternoon hehe Definitely made my dull day bright =P Thanks to Ly!!

Uber LM Day

2006-03-06T20:58:00.000+08:00

Right from the start of the day, nothing went right for me.

I kept waking up in the middle of the night. I didn't really get to start the day quite awake.

Then I tried to pay for my air tickets from Shanghai back to Beijing, and I got my password wrong 3 times. My atm card and IB account got locked up.

Then I asked my mentor about some work related stuff.
“你怎么会没有问题问？”
*gasp
“OTA应该不容易懂得,你有什么问题要问,我找个人找个时间跟你们讲解.”
Well, the tone sounded like, "Have you been reading the things I've given you seriously?"

Sigh.

Then the internet connection at work failed intermittenly again.

The SG dinner I craved for was too exp to eat in Beijing. I had to postpone my home-food-sickness, again.

Lastly, I had a churning/gastric-aching stomach just before dinner time, and after it as well.

Uber Low Morale today.

Lattes today: 3
Milo: 1

5th March 2006

2006-03-05T12:14:00.000+08:00

fyi: Bucky is the egoistic and sadistic cat that always bully Satchet.

It has gotten warmer, hitting a high of 16C yesterday afternoon. I have taken my rip-off Columbia jacket off my back and running around only in long sleeves + a polo tee on top. But of coz, still uncomparable to Ly.

Getting sort of low morale becoz the food here. It's starting to taste all the same to me liaoz. Whenever I ordered from the menu, I tend to stick to the stuff we always ate. Even the 小吃s all look and taste the same to me liaoz. And I am running out of ideas of what to cook. I also made rubber ribs last night ... so xian. Luckily, Ly was kind enough to be the very few who patronize.

The weather is getting kinder to me now, but I sort of miss the freezing weather liaoz. So 矛盾, I can't wait to see the real spring arrive, and yet when winter starts to leave, I can't bear to see it go. Maybe I should buy more rip-offs winter clothings, one for my sis, and one for my vanity. The changing weather should be able to help me force the vendors to lower the price.

By the way, quite a lot of photos I did not post them on the blog itself. You guys can click on the 'Flickr Badge' to goto my photos sharing page. Or you guys can click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/yaohui/ to take a look at them.

Today's temperature:
-2C to 12C

Nescafe 'Intense':
1 for the breakfast

Looking forward to the 胡同walk with Hailiang and his roommate in the afternoon today. Hope his gas meter man turns up quickly so we have more time together.

冤情雪！

2006-03-01T23:40:00.000+08:00

Ly and his icy-muddy shoes. Remember why we left 颐和园 early?

While it snowed lightly and intermittenly for most of yesterday, it suddenly turned into a heavy snow storm at about 4pm. We gathered at the window to look at the sudden snow storm that eventually lasted about 20 minutes. They were joking that with the type of sunshine and the magnitude of the snow, there must be some sort of 冤情 some where. Luo Ling said that there must have been that on payday (which is today, on the last day of every month, everywhere in China), somebody must have worked his ass for the whole month, and yet the boss never pay him a single cent.

Somehow, snowing is not as romantic as many would think. It is freezing, it makes the floor slippery, and when the snow melts, it gets disgustingly murky. Quite a sight to behold, not a condition you want to live with everyday.

Freakshow. He can perform sweating for you in the snow.

Share with you guys some snippets of conversation art pieces from Alex.

Snippet #1
Context: The girls broke their key in their home's keyhole, hence requiring the services of the locksmith. So Alex called the locksmith.

“哈罗？是开锁的吗？”
Followed by some conversations that we don't include, coz they dun matter.

Locksmith: “那你们住家在那里?”
That was our first day in Beijing, obviously not very oriented yet.

Alex:“er ... 圆明园”
Locksmith over the phone:" ??! "
The rest of us: " ! !! "

Snippet #2
Context: Alex and I commenced on our Operation Pineapple Tart (codenamed O.P) to remind our colleagues of our prescence, as well as to bring our relations closer.

Our dept manager:“这个是什么来的？”
Stammering Alex:“凤凰酥”
Dept manager:“？？”
me:“是凤梨酥”

-----------------------------------------
Temperature today:
Forgot to check.

Lattes today: 2, again.

Lipton tea bags: 2.

Just a sidenote: 圆明园was burned down eons ago by the invading 八国联军. It was never rebuilt but instead left 'as is', a 'live' historical site for educating the future generations.

Trip to Tianjin ... gone ...

2006-02-28T08:12:00.000+08:00

Sigh ... blogging from office at a time only the cleaner Ah Yi is around in the office.

We supposed to go Tianjin for the factory visit this morning. While it was pretty exciting to see it snow in the morning, it was disappointing to hear that the highway to Tianjin was closed because of the snow. So end up, we all are going to have 'OT' in the morning. Btw, I din get to see Tracy around early morning .. perhaps she don't need hang around today. Sigh .. double disappointment.

Temperature today:
-3C to 5C.
Light Snow from the sky, heavy snow in my heart.

Lattes by 0830 today:
2

26 Feb - 颐和园

2006-02-27T20:23:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we went to 颐和园, partly because Guomao boy said we should go see the frozen lake before it thaws into water again. Another part is because I would be in the area in the morning, and I wanted to take photos of the 'Summer Palace' in winter instead.

Will upload the photos soon when my scans are out tml. Doing them at the processing shop near my office. If it cocks up again, I will give Beijing one last chance at scanning my pictures, at the PKU photo processing shop.

Alex and me.

The 6 of us who went to the 颐和园. From the left Guomao boy, me, Alex, Pris, Kenny and Ly.

The emperor's summer playground is sinfully big. The 昆明湖 is a man made lake. The whole Summer Palace is so so so big. It is calculated that the funds 'misappropriated' for building the 颐和园 can actually advance China's navy (at that time) by 10 years and then perhaps China wouldn't lose the Sino-Jap war.

The Lion, the 17 arch bridge, me and the frozen lake.

We only explored half of the 颐和园 on Sunday. Because we reached at 3pm, and the grounds would be closed at 5pm. Another reason is because our walk on the frozen 昆明湖 ended up with Ly ankle deep in icy mud =P

Ice Skating ... on 未名湖！

2006-02-26T21:16:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, we went to 北大 for our first instalment of the weekly lessons we are scheduled to attend until end of June. 北大 is beautiful! It looks like a beautiful old town instead of a world class university.My 'matric card' from 北大. It's basically a little red book ... a legacy of the communist past I guess.

After the half-day introductory lessons on Friday, we went to take a look at the campus' lake, 未名湖. It is still frozen! Of coz we didn't give up the chance to go ice skate on the frozen lake. It's quite cheap anyway, 10RMB for a pair of skates until you are satisfied with it. And it is fun!
Alex, me and Cheryl. Alex never ever pose properly in all of his pictures.

Me wearing the skates.

Someone caught me looking like a penguin.

Then on saturday, after lessons, 北大 brought us to 天安门 and 故宫. There was a guide for all of us but it seems that most of us are more concerned about taking pictures instead of listening to him.

Fortunately for me, I finally had a decent shot of myself with Mr Mao at 天安门.

故宫is beautiful and sinfully large. It's a great damn pity the 太和殿 is under renovation. I thought of finding the 钟粹宫 as depicted in the show 金枝玉孽 but didn't want to sound stupid in front of all the NTU people as well as the local tourists there. I also wanted to see the long long corridor with tall red walls on the sides but didn't get to see or walk through them.

Din take much photos inside ... so so so so many people inside. And it's already considered some what off peak period.

It was also much colder than usual these few days despite the weatherman saying otherwise. Chek said that it was because of the wind that blew from Siberia.

23 Feb 06

2006-02-23T23:45:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I mentioned about not worrying about not getting up the train. And fate has it that today, I got bumped off the train home, and the guys gotta wait for me at 四惠东 till I got unto the next one that came.

After lunch today, I went to the photo shop near my office, only to discover the neighbourhood developer is not always cheaper ... and that imbecile bugger actually charged me 3 times more than the one in town. Haiz ...

Also happened today, 白姐姐 from GIP office called to say they have arranged bus transport to bring all of us from our place to Peking University. She thought I was the rep for our area. That does not really matter. The thing is, I might have stepped on Mary's toes by not going to her to 'clarify' the transport thingy. Our previous understanding was that, the transport for us tml would be arranged by the office and would be foc. But then midweek, the office emailed us, telling us to make our way there ourselves, or they can suggest a charter that costs about 400plus RMB. I didn't make my enquiry with Mary and instead emailed back to SG to Tim to 'clarify matters'. All of a sudden, the bus arrangements came. I did not hear from Tim anyway. Sigh ... I feeling a bit bad about this whole thing. 毕竟，Mary did a great deal of work for us. If I get to see her tml at PKU, I think I should apologize to her.

Temperature today:
-3C to 6C

Lattes today:
2 shots

and we cooked dinner for 9 tonight. It was lovely. From a sample size of 4, 75% of sg women either don't cook, or prefer not to step inside the kitchen; to cook or to 善后.

Selected pics

2006-02-22T23:46:00.000+08:00

Below are selected presentable pictures from my eos300v. As explained in the previous post, so so disappointed with the scan quality of the most of them. If the rescans elsewhere also suck, I gonna send them back to SG and ask Splutter to scan for me =P I refuse to accept that my skills, my cam or the film sucks instead!!!

Woman flying kite at Tiananmen. She's very game in being natural while I was taking shots at her. She even invited me to try a hand at flying her kite (really ... and literally btw), but I turned her down.

Women practising Taiji in the morning at the open space near our block.

The ever busy Beijing Subway.

Stunned and angry roadside vendor.

Pre-dawn 故宫. 30second exposure to get this picture. Lucky no bugger walked past.

Rare moment with no people on the Subway platform. I am still wondering if the woman in the ad is actually Cheer Chen.
Wiltering bushes.

Zig zag

'Train'ing -> 伤心地铁

2006-02-22T23:10:00.000+08:00

Don't ever think of sitting on the Beijing Subway, be thankful you can get unto one. But well, if you are on the platform, chances are, you would be shoved up the train anyway.

The good thing is, nobody ever worries about falling or stumbling on the train. And even strangers communicate well on the train. '下车吗？下车吗？'. A nod will grant you the same spot you are standing on, otherwise be prepared to be shoved to another part of the cabin. If you are lucky, you would somebody to lean on. If not, either leg of yours will have to support your weight and another person's weight. Whatever the case, just go with the flow, you wouldn't miss your stop.

I have seen a half blind busker playing the sax in the cabin.
I have seen a blind man and female helper trying to sell tissues, but got shouted at in the next cabin by angry commuters, calling them to get off the train.
I have seen a man carrying a sling bag full of magazines, pedalling them inside the crowded train.

Sigh, today got back my last roll of scanned film. The neighbourhood photo developing shop sucks. The scan quality is so inconsistent and lousy. I will confirm it by sending my roll somewhere near my workplace to confirm that it isn't my shooting nor my film that is lousy. So so disappointed ... I want a DSLR now!

Temperature today:
-3C to 6C

Lattes taken today: 2 shots

21 Feb 06

2006-02-21T21:14:00.000+08:00

Today, the Beijingians broke their silence after their initial awe and shock at the 怪兽 (aka Lysander) who is clothed nothing more than cotton short sleeves. Somehow I was always the one whom they usually approached as the spokesperson for the latest attraction and happening in Beijing.

Also on 21 Feb 2006 today, I've added one more 'gabra' to my 'Beijing gabra list'.

Today's temperature:
-3C to 8C

18 Feb 06

2006-02-18T20:17:00.000+08:00

For this 2nd weekend, we went to a few places.

The first was 国贸, where we passed our passport photos and copies of visa to Mary for her to do our Peking Uni registration. Then I poped over to 西单 to shop for the books Yunxin wanted. Din manage to get all of them though ...

Then we went over to 老舍茶馆 for tea and a afternoon matinee performance. Not bad a place really. The performance was quite good, got 相声，单弦，变脸，magic .. but the best was still the 口技。

Cute waitress at 老舍茶馆 =P
Exquisite 点心 at the 茶馆.

After the performance, we walked over to Tiananmen for the flag lowering. Pity we were not able to jostle for a good place to take photos of the ceremony. It's crowded almost everyday loh ...
The 5 guys at 四惠东.

And the 4 girls.

After sunset and the flag lowering ceremony, we walked over to 全聚德 for the famous Beijing Roasted Duck. Me in front of the shop:

A whole duck would have costed RMB198 (abt SGD$40) each and serves about 2-3 persons. But we opted for a RMB70 set (serves 1), as below:
A plate of roasted duck skin, fresh spring onion, sweet sauce, a cup of duck bone soup (not in picture) and popiah skins (not those eggy skins you see in SG, and abt twice thicker than popiah skins). It was the most expensive meal we've had in Beijing. Was it really very nice? Is Beijing Roasted Duck really nicer in Beijing? nah ... It was very 腻 at the end though. No wonder the waitress kept trying to push us to buy juices and beer to cut the oilyness.

Today's temperature:
-2C to 8C

Super Static Me. 16 Feb 06

2006-02-16T21:13:00.000+08:00

Almost every morning, I will wake up with 'piak piak pants' .

My fingers will get pricked by the discharge from cubicle wall edges, window grills, door hinges, car body, handshakes ... etc. It doesn't help that I have larger surface area and extra bristles to rub with the cold and dry atmospheric air.

And I really hate this type of surprises loh ...

But I like our company's pantry =P despite the fact that I need to scan and open 3 doors out to the pantry, and then scan and key in my password 3 doors back. All the effort, for a good cuppa of machine brewed latte .. FOC!! and a short getaway from the cubicle. Also, the cookie stash is always seems to be well stocked with 黑白黑 hehe =P

Me and Yanzi poster =P

2006-02-16T20:58:00.000+08:00

As promised ... from kevin's digicam (finally)

Tempearture today:
-6C to 1C
Coupled with constant wind blowing, it was a bad idea not to eat at the staff canteen during lunch.

Valentine's Day - 14 Feb 2006

2006-02-14T22:06:00.000+08:00

Beijing today is quite warm for a winter day, maybe because of the feeling of love in the city.

Today is the 2nd day of work and thankfully I got decent stuff to do besides trying to stay awake. Managed to move my PC from level 8 to my cubicle on 7th floor and got the internet up. After lunch, Alex and I had to read data sheets and some ISO standards stuff for our work. Apparently they already know that it would take us a long time ... so they planned our training to be on next week =P The rest of the week, we would have to 'digest' the files they gave us to read.

My neighbouring colleague was called '妖姬' because she was the winner of the most-flowers-and-gifts-received girl in the office (she got 2 bouquets and 2 boxes of chocs) . Her cubicle section is their favourite gossipping corner anyway. I just grin at their news and jokes from a short distance. They manage to find out that the special purple roses lined with shiny studs in her bigger and more exquisite bouquet of flowers at 100RMB per stalk today ... together with the surrounding pink roses (going at about 20RMB, they say) and baby breathe etc etc. I estimate the bunch smelly smelly to be about 1000RMB, for the flowers alone. Furthurmore, the flowers didn't come from Beijing, it was from Guangzhou! A colleague said, it was better off single than married.

Temperature today:
-4C to 7C
(signs that the weather man is probably not very accurate ... Kenny remarked that it in fact hit 12C in the noon.)

First Day of work

2006-02-13T21:56:00.000+08:00

Finally went to work today, in a totally overdressed mode for the technical department. Although we already know that we need not wear shirt and pants, we wore it just to impress on our first day.

Wore the trenchcoat-like jacket bought at 雅秀 to go with the shirt and pants and sort of regretted. Coz it wasn't adequate against the Beijing weather, and I didn't wear my snow cap or ear muffs becoz they don't match the 'look'. As a result, I got a throbbing headache at the end of the day because of the congestion in my nasal passageways. Thankfully, we caught a cab back home from office and not walk 20 over minutes in the cold to the train station, jostle for standing space in the MRT for another 30 mintues, and walk another 10 minutes withstanding the elements back to our home.

What we did at work today, was simply to keep awake. Most people are just back at work for the first time since the CNY celebrations started. So Alex and I did whatever we could to stay awake .. like reading 2003 Chinese technical publications found inside my drawers, talked about our courses in NTU, photography and theory of TCP/IP .. etc. Still ... we both paid Uncle Chow a visit.

Temperature today:
-1C to 8C

and it was super foggy

Pictures taken on 元宵 at 雍和宫

2006-02-13T21:14:00.000+08:00

Show you guys some of the pictures I took yesterday using Kaiting's D50.

Temperature today:
-1C to 8C

元宵in 北京 12 Feb 06

2006-02-12T22:36:00.000+08:00

元宵in China is happening!

Ever since they allowed fireworks again in the city of Beijing after 12 years of ban, all the Beijing residents are taking advantage of the 'un-ban' and 拼命放. And they really really 的拼命 loh. From nightfall at about 6pm daily, they have been at it until now that we are pretty xian of seeing fireworks, and they have until 12midnight tonight to finish all their load. The best thing is, our neighbours are so xiao on, that they fired so closed to our block, that the sparks from their fireworks landed on our balcony. Never in SG, will you ever get to see fireworks so close. And the fireworks explode just about one imaginery level above our 7th level 'mansionette'.

No joke, that's how close we were.
It was today when we saw so many fireworks, that we realised what are the 'bom bom' sounds that we have been hearing. They sounded pretty much like rifle shots and grenade explosions of kind.

Anyway, we accidentally chose 元宵 to go 雍和宫，the biggest lama temple outside of Tibet. Super lots of people, that the 民警 barricaded the usual way and we have to make a detour around the whole temple to the entrance proper.

Big temple anyway ... holds some record for the biggest statue carved out of a single sandalwood in the whole world.

We also popped over to HRC Beijing today, for our lunch and to pick up some HRC shot glasses. Quite exp but ... these type of things ... is must buy one loh

I have lotsa of pictures taken using my cam and on Kaiting's D50. But i need to do some editing ... will post them later when I have time to. Gotta work tml morning, and gotta look sharp for the first day of work =P

Temperature today:
0C to 7C

11 Feb 06

2006-02-11T23:48:00.000+08:00

We are still holidaying in Beijing ... honeymooning period since we've not started work. Work will only commence on this coming Monday. And possibly ... will get boring. But well, we will look forward to the 'course' at 北大 to bring us around to all the historical sites.

Splurged on 2 more turtle necks today, although considerably cheaper than in SG, still feel a bit pain in the heart. Coz it was the last few pieces of hundred dollar notes in my pocket which I brought out today. Gotta ask my parents to send the money over liaoz.

Saw another of Stephanie Sun's advertisements for clothings in China. The previous one I saw was at Chengdu. Now 2 more in Beijing =)

10 Feb 06

2006-02-10T10:28:00.000+08:00

For the past few days, we walked about to pick up home necessities and also spent money to buy stuff just like any tourist would. Sort of a ritual, to be tokked. Being the poor and tokked before vegetable head, I tarikked and bought nothing personal that is expensive and bargainable. But I would love to buy another pair of gloves, something that would be waterproof and breatheable. I am having sweaty palms inside this one I am using and it is not exactly waterproof, my hands gets terribly cold esp at night.

I sort of like the Beijing pedestrian walkways. Very pleasant to walk on. And I like the barren trees lining every single stretch of it.

Me trying fried scorpion sold by roadside hawkers.

Taste? Oily and salty. Like most stuff in Beijing anyway =P

Weather today:
-6C to 2C

9 Feb 06

2006-02-09T01:03:00.000+08:00

I'm sharing a 'mansionette' with another 4 guys, 3 of them would be my colleagues at Gemplus, while the last one is with another company. This is my roommate, Zhaoyan, the chap with another company.

Show you all the pictures of my humble abode =P

We also have a balcony, where we can hold a bbq in the summer.

And our view from our room.

Really like this place, although I have to climb 6 stories up, and another one more up the 'mansionette' coz I and Zhaoyan sleep in the room above. And boy ... our room upstairs is a love nest. Our attached bathroom has a bamboo door that cannot be locked.

I can watch tv while crapping. I mean, if I want to.

Arrival! 7 Feb 06

2006-02-08T13:48:00.000+08:00

We finally arrived at Beijing. After months of waiting and anticipating, now we are really doing it. And it is super cold!!

First thing to do getting off the plane on 0615hrs in the morning .. coffee!!

It snowed the day before we arrived (6th Feb). According to Mary姐，it seldom snows and the coldest days are those right after the day it snowed.

And boy is she right. Thank you jc, von, derrick, roland, annie and char! For giving me presents of the earmuffs and handgloves. If not I think my ears and fingers would have dropped off on the first day already.

Well, I wasn't without any first day jitters anyway. Although I felt calm about the trip, I left my handphone at home and found out in time to turn back to pick it up. The same happened to my handcarry bagpack in Beijing International Airport. Our 四惠东 ladies neighbours had it worsed ... they broke the key in the keyhole, and all of us never got back home until it was 11 plus at night. And then we tidied and unpacked our new home until quite late. And that was first day.

Today's Temperature:
-8C to 3C