Monday, September 08, 2008

It was Nicholas's birthday, we bought him a large cake and we celebrated with him. The candles they used were different from Singapore, it's a very thin stick wax candle which only last about 2mins or so. After we sang a birthday song for him, we took the 1st piece out of the cake and offered it to Lee to share with the rest of his roommates (not sure if he did took the whole thing out by himself).

Our slice of cake did not go to waste, because Lee decided to extend our journal dateline by 1 more day. (haha)

Nicolas's birthday


Offering the lecturers the birthday cake


Tuesday

It was our 1st interaction with students from School of Foreign Language Studies. We got to know a lot of china friends during the ice-breaking session, i found out that most of them are going to Singapore to study, either in NTU or private colleges. They are only lending this place to learn English for a short period of time before they come Singapore.

The most warm-welcoming friend was Terry, he was always in high-spirited and is very open and friendly toward us. That night, we had lots of fun with the locals. We played 2 games organised by them and 2 games organised by our side. We had musical chairs, octopus entanglement, 3 legged run and captain's ball. I don't feel any difference in the way we feel like we're part of them and they are part of us, we work together as a team and enjoy every moments.

We also had performances by the locals; singing, dancing and chinese calligraphy. The whole interaction session ended at about 10p.m, we went out to get dinner along with our new friends, Winter, Terry etc who happened to live next door from where i stayed.

Our new friends

Calligraphy lesson


teach kugan how to write 'milk' in chinese

Performance by the locals


Excited group of boys cheering for the cute girl who is singing


Wednesday

Our next IS lesson in the morning. This time he taught us communist, politics etc. It was a great lesson, we learnt about how China/Wuhan develops since the great revolution and how the government controls its people.

Then we all went back to our room and start our revision for tomorrow quiz (10%).



Thursday

Our 1st quiz day, was kind of unexpected for me. Not very sure how well i did, hopefully can score 70% and above.

Week 2 Day 5-7 (weekend outing)

Friday

We visited the Coca Cola factory in the morning. Basically, we went to see how they manufactured the container to store the beverage, Coco Cola company doesn't only comes in one type of drink as what i always thought. In the factory we visited, they also have Sprite & etc.

After watching a short film of the history of Coca Cola, we went into the factory and see how they, using high pressure water spray, clean the containers. Although we didn't get to see how they actually mix the chemical to create coke or other beverage, but it was a eye-opener.

We received a 2.5% research report from Jian during the afternoon SDC tutorial, after that we had a early sleep after packing our clothings for tomorrow's water rafting.

Pictures of the Coca Cola factory





The drink they offered to us (coke in glass bottle)


Saturday

We took 3 hrs ride to the water rafting area, the bus driver was quite reckless in his driving. It's almost like riding on a roller coaster, doing a slightly more like 90 degrees turn on the edge of the cliff at 40-50 km/hr. The whole ride was rather exciting as the driver overtook all the vehicles in front of him, he even cut through a bus on a single lane road. The annoying thing is that he keep honing throughout the whole journey.

We reached Lülin (Green Forest, 绿林) Resort. We had quite a heavy lunch, making sure we have the strength to finish up the 1hr+ rafting. After lunch, we head to the nearby stall to get ourselves straw shoes which cost 2 RMB. Although the straw shoes are a quite uncomfortable, but we're able to experience how the people in the oldies wear as their footwear.

The water rafting was very fun!!! although it's a bit tiring after rowing for a while, seem impossible to make it in 2hours. Shortly after we set off, Shengsheng dropped his paddle and we had to stop by the shore and wait for someone to pick it up for us because the current keep flowing and we're unable to row backward. The best part of the water rafting is the fast streaming river, really exciting and fun, but the water is very chilling... After resting for a long time, letting the current lead us toward the goal, we found ourselves reaching goal in no time.

When we reached land, we took a shower at the bathroom. Our next location is Beauty Valley which is another scenic site. Some of the people took the Bamboo Sampa or raft over a distance of 300m, while the rest of us walk our way there, we saved RMB$10 by walking ^^

The water is very clear and cold, it comes from the mountain top and you can't drink it yet because it haven't been distilled. We saw a few waterfalls on the way which is incredibly beautiful. We walked through the whole valley for about an hour after that we headed by to Mandarin Duck Mansion for our stay.

Lunch before white water rafting

Straw shoes (it hurts initially, but i got used to it after a while)

Roadstalls after the rafting

Jian caught flirting with some girls instead of rafting with us

Bamboo Sampa

A gate locked, it's to ensure that people don't U-turn back or else there might be a jam because the path are quite narrow and the water is quite dangerous if anyone would to fall off.

Waterfall


Some 'steak' we saw before we head back at the end of the day


Sunday

This day is one of the most tiring day, we started our day to

Lülin valley which there is a carving that wrote "13 heroes were created from lulin valley" There is also a poster showing the names and informations of these 13 heroes. The first task was vertically 800 metres stairs which really put a lot of us into test, but it was surprizing to see everyone clear that without about problem. The stairs are rather dangerous but it was adventurous.

Our last location is the ancient army camp at lulin, which is at the peak of the mountain with a history of 1000 years. The air on the mountain was rather less-polluted, and we can see how the people actually live on high places. They have a few watchtowers to guard the main camp from enemies and chariots was found on the field. The grass are rather long and some of them, if you use ur hand to rub on them, actually smell quite nice.

13 heroes from lulin


Walking through the 'cave to heaven'

More 'steak' we saw from the top

Gate to the anicent army camp (north gate)

Chariots

Watch tower

Fragrant grass

secretly in love_____