Korea trip

Yoz.... Finally I have time to sit down and write abt the trip to korea

Day 1==== Everland
Temp: 1 to -1
It was the first day, and I am super cold, cos I think despite of all the clothes that I wore, one t shirt, one small jacket + one down jacket, I am still shivering. Conclusion is that the leather gloves were of no use. Pple next time just wear woollen gloves, cheaper and warmer. Despite of the coldness, we managed to take plenty of pictures of that place. There is a small safari there and we can take a bus to view the lions and bears. Altho I almost get frost bite, my hands were swollen, I am excited to try all those thrilling ride.I was screaming like hell for the last ride. Everland is the site of one drama, 红豆女之恋。the first korean drama show that I like. It is also shown in Lee Jun Ki newest movie's fly daddy Fly. But I am too scary cat to try the ride shown in fly daddy. Hmm, but still happy that I am in the same place as 이준기. Yeah!!!

Abt 10am, the place start to fill up, then managed to take a ggod looks at those korean. Conclusion is that Korean girls at age 15 -18 are not so good looking, unlike Japanese teens. The boys are better. I got see at least 2 that look like Garfield's oopa Hyun bin and got one Jun ki look alike albeit 17 years old.　Haha anyway, korean are taller than average Sporean. The males are at least 175cm and the females are at least 168cm. Female are mostly fair and Males are quite fair as well (ard my shade of colour)

Day 2 === Skiing
Yoz. Finally the day of skiing. We stayed in the famous Winter Sonata resort; Yongpyong. The instructor only taught us the starting and the stopping. After practising for a while, we are on our own. I can manged the gentle slope without difficulty. Then the guys in our tour group ask us to go up the slope. I dun want to go as I am not confident, but hoh, R seems confident, so we went up with the guys. When I　reached there, before I　can stablised myself, Already down I　go as it is v v steep, I can't stopped thus I sit down as I　am really scared. After that I continue to go down in a slower pace as the the slope is less steep by then. Garfield is really courageous as she zoomed down the slope without stopping or falling. R being less fortunate fall and decided to give up after 2 falls. But then we gals are really gungho to try. Still I managed to learn how to change direction by myself in order not to knock into others. Thru this exprience we make friends with the other pple in our tour group.

Idol sighting
Saw two guys who looked like HYun Bin again... Aiyoh, he is the common face in Korea.



Day 3 === Shopping day in dongdameum
The Four of us bought lots of face shop stuff... Majority of the cosmestic is cheaper than spore. But then hoh, I din bring much $$$ out to buy lah, so bought a few masks, a few eye shadowss that it. Unlike Singapore, the Man here went to face shop to buy masks for themselves not accompanying their girlfriends, as I seen them taking the Homme range of Skin care products. No wonder, the Hallyu craze over the Korean actors.. haha I also bought a heart shape earrings at the shopping mall. Too bad we have no time, else we can shopped till dropped. But then hoh, language barriers prevent us from sneaking out in the middle of the night. If it is in Japan, then I can 血洴

Day 4 === Lotte World
Lotte world is the sites for the staircase of heaven a teary korean drama that I din watch. It is the coldest day abt - 5 degrees. The queue for the rides are so long, that we abandoned quite a number of rides. As we are queuing for the hot air ballon ride. A 13 year old catched my Attention... He looks like a Junior Jun ki. R tot he is a girl, then he seems v shy as we auntie were looing at him. All of the sudden he seems to tok to a few girls abt his age in front of him... haha so young already 泡妞。Hahah it remind me of the "Grace" video where 이준기 invent a new machine for a hot air ballon, before soaring th esky with it. Thus Hot air ballon = 이준기
I am so sad that I not a Korean, Else I chase after the 준기 look alikes. Why is there no Jun ki look alike in Spore... Think Garfield also like to stay in Korea as there are so many Hyun Bins for her to choose.

Idol sighting
Just as I　was commenting that there are no Joo Ji Hoon look alike, I turn and saw a guy that look like him, except that JJH　is much taller. Garfield agree that the guy do resemble JJH, then he moved a bit and I take a look at his girlfriend, then OMG, that gf look like Yun En Hye. Haha think that this guy purposely go and find a girl that look her lah so they can fakeco "goong"

Day 5 === Daejanggeum
The is the exact film site of Jewel in the palace by the MBC studio. I really like this film sites as I　went through familiar scenes in Daejanggeum.




All in all this is a good trips. Spot various idols look alikes, taste those korean food. The shopping could be better tho, but stuffs there are more expensive than Spore.

We Learn, Lead and Serve

The Girls with me in the confined space resuce where we crawl into a maze in darkness. See they are all so pretty right... Except for moi.



Me and my fire fighting buddy aka cadet Teo.



The guys who all help me as I noe nothing abt drills and first aid.



Look Encik is so popular with the Girls. He is ex DART and HAZMAT... Super shuai.



More of ENCIK... Handsome???



The best training, my Major and me who is uber small fry.



My first aid Buddy aka Ai.

To Cpt Liang and all the AFI who support us... Heartfelt thanks... This course really made a difference in my life and I will go for the fire fighter and CPR instructor course soon... 是対に。

3rd OBC training course

3 weeks of intensive training finally end last week... YO! I graduate with no scratches and no scars and meet lots of heros in the training... Yes, heros as in saving life and make a great difference to the country. Let me make a quick recap of wat zoom by these 3 weeks

Week 1 (14/11- 17/11)
An apprehensive start of my Officer Basic training course (OBC) for National Civil Deference Cadet Corps (NCDCC). For the uninitiated , it is an entire new CCA of three years old. The LCP told me to polished my boots and iron my field dress till the lines on my pants can be seen. My pockets have to be starched (heck it, starch if for wat... durhh)I am wearing gutters for the first time. Dun really noe how to spell, it is a thin green thingy that is elastic to hold your pants so that the legs will not touch the boots.
So mah huan I think. I am never in the uniform gp before, thus really noe nothing.
Went to the meeting place and was surprised to find many female teachers (all pretty pretty kind... I look the most garang compared to them, but boy I was wrong) instead of males going for the course. My course was held at the Home Team Academy for the first week, (HTA)together with the NPCC officers. Hmm see lots of Botaks NS man there. For an absolute newbie in foot drill, the first week was sheer torture. All the kanan, kiri, beklang, hedapan pusing. Heng the guy behind teach me how,(thanks ah John) else I die in the hentakaki cos I dun noe which leg to bang during Berhenti. We have to learn all the basic footdrill in 3 days time... SIONG ah as this include sizing and hormat. The NCDCC officers were more stressed than the NPCC ones as we have to have a method of instruction test on first day of week three. I freak out when I realise that I have to teach Sizing. SO LONG ah the command. Heng Got Help from JF and S as they are both parade commander before, else I am already died.

After all the foot drill, we went to Civil defence Academy (CDA) for our Hazard Material training class (Hazmat)We have to dorn a suit and wear face mask. This is same as the gas chamber treatment for those NS guys

Week 2 (20/11 - 24/11)
The Adventure training camp (ATC) I named it the camp of instant noodles. I like this camp very much except of the food... SUCKS!!! we eat instant noodles until I felt like puking. Having a chef among us did not help when he dun have a kitchen ( he is a ex raffles hotel chef who become a teacher) But this camp really teach me that nothing is impossible as I jump down from the Jetty, get my hand caught in a raft and still get up and paddle. Knees like jelly still want to try the rope crawl like 3 storeys off the ground, all thanks to YY who urge me on and the best NPCC officier who guide me steps by step). It is a test of limit, not to say I run a mild fever due to sore throat.

Week 3 (27/11 - 1/12)

Last week is a real siong week, we learn so many stuff and has so many tests. We has a MOI for footdrill, another MOI for any SCDF topic, I chose fire hazard and Prepared all the ppt slides ,read up from SCDF websites. We have a First aid practical and theory test (I dun noe we had a theory test until the day and I spent like 15 min studying) For the first aid, we have learn on Mon and tuesday and Wednesday night is the test. We learn CPR on Wednesday and thursday morning we have a CPR test.
Beside all that, we have to learn Rescue in confined space, stretcher drills, fire fighting skill in furnace (a buidling full of stimulation of different kind of fire, the fire fighter also use this buidling to train)We used water hose, 10 - 15 kg of fire extinguisher of various kind to fight small fire (small means whole room full of fire but still containable). All thanks to Ai (my first aid buddy for her head and body during the practial and practise session) To Cadet Teo, whom I fire fight and practise CPR together.

All in all
Greatest thanks to my ENCIK . You are the best and definately a hero in the eyes of all of us...

It is a tough decision

I was thinking of whether I shd write my blog? Since I was up early on a Sat morning at 6.30am, (curse my bio clock for waking up on a Sat morining), I can choose between doing my scheme of work (SOW is totally school related, not my resolutions for next year, pls I am a procrastinator okie) for next year or writing my blog. Being the Uber slacker, I chose to slack off my time by writing the BLOG.

HTML
Ah Gen is learning HTML now, I am asking him to learn really fast and give me a new blogskin full of photos that I like.

Youtube MTV
For those who like kendo, the king and the clown. pls watch This MTV Jun ki is definitely more manly here... He so かこいい Make me want to go and dig out my old hakama. For those who like the first mtv can proceed to
the next. Else pls dun watch as this is a super duper fan worthy MTV. I have watch this MTV for countless time espically whenever I feels sad as this is a happy happy MTV. The song is sang by Jun ki and it is really cute as he will always put his hand on his forehead whenever he did something wrong... CUTE!!! destressed ah...

Bridemaid HORROR
For those who has ever comtemplate to be a bridemaid. Advice from a bridemaid of last week. DUN BE ONE. I noe it is your good friend, but hoh, pple like me who dun noe how to do make up properly and who dun noe how to style hair, it is torturous. I am so embarrassed by my incompetence that I practise the eye make up on my own until I get it right. はずかしい。

Feel that my blog is too plain. Thus put some photos of Rain and Jun ki for enhancement.





(note: they are both in traditional korean costume)

You know Korea Craze has really HIT when...

Evidence that I have watched too much Korean Drama
~can memorise some of the korean words,not just sah ran hye yo, can also detect those honorific terms (maybe because Japanese also has honorific terms), For name calling, eqivalent to the Japanese さん is shi in Korean( eg: tanaka san = tanaka shi)

~ have the burning desire to buy those product placement products like the samsoon pig in my lovely samsoon, the Alfred bear in Goong...

~ Can sing the " 3 bear song" in full house. (can find the Flash in youtube, very the cutie)

~ Watch KBS, MBC tv award despite not understanding Korean language.

~ Watch Nonstop a korean spoof on various famous drama like " samsoon" Some episode are without the subtitles.

~ Watch thoee entertainment news about Korean Actors in Japanese, as they went to Japan... Note: Rain 's English and Japanese pronunciation are very accurate... Parrot みたい！！！日本語を分かて意味がよくしって嬉しいはつです。

~ want to visit those filming sites of "samsoon" " full house", and " goong"

Forbbiden City - the gossip

This is the first time that we sat in the first row seats. The view was excellent, we can see Kit Chan and the other actors very clearly, in fact so clearly that we can spot microphones on their forehead, which I am not sure whether this is a good thing or not.

Kit chan gave a fabulous rendition as the Cixi... This woman has really power lungs. The song sang by her was resonated with passion and despire as she can't do much to help her dying husband and son.

The inaccuracy of the historical aspects spoiled the otherwise spectacular performance. I am so perturb by the inaccuracy that I have to check up my texts and internet for validation. Turns out that we are wrong in some part of the Messy Qing history.

Eg: We know that Pu yi is the last emperor of China. But we thought that he is the nephew of Cixi... Turn out that Cixi 's nephew is Guang Xu. Stoopid me tot that Guang xu is the father of Xuan feng. Nah, Xuan feng father is called Dao guang... Turns out that the musical is right abt Guang Xu being Tong Zhi 's successor. Aiyoh. After Guang Xu die, Pu yi then ascend the throne. (Pu Yi is supposed to be Guang Xu half bro)

Ahhh... Headache ah.

But hoh, the interesting fact that I have encountered is that all the last 3 emperors of China did not have any children. Pu Yi and Guang Xu are known to be impotent. Even Xuan Feng, Cixi 's husband got prob with producing a heir. Tong Zhi die early due to STD. Garfield and I discussed and conclude that qing blood become too thin after all the inbreeding of those bannerman. Aiyoh, must be lah.

A tale out of nothingness

Wham, had been a long long time since I last blogged. Reason is I have nothing to blog about. Lament abt my job; same old stuff that bored even me to tears. Interesting pple; I din get to meet any, unlike garfield.

Okie I do meet pple, but hoh, not the totally glam and foreign kind.
I went to a course recently and meet a Primary school teacher, what interest me is that like me, she can tok lengths on Classic books. The batter is comfortable and we actually know what each of us are toking about.

We actually tok abt Mr Darcy and Elizabeth conversation in Pride and Prejudice and whether Keira Knightley shd be the one who protray Elizabeth based on the novel.

Hello, how many of us will make such a conversation? Perhaps u may say that it is boring, but then the rarity of finding such pple makes me feel understood all of sudden. The bond is there, surely.

As this course is a small class, we get to tok to the lecturer too. Interesting biology lecturer who is a Hawaiian. Can see that he took effort in coaching non-bio teachers on the dissecting of cell. While we are doing the dissecting of a fig fruit, we managed to get the wasp whose whole life is embedded in the fig;like a microecosystem.
Well, we din managed to learn that in the textbook, or perhaps, not the right textbook.
He is really exhilarated on the few wasps as he claimed that he had learnt abt them in the books, but never ever saw any inside the fruit before in his life.

Yah, the wasps were quite difficult to find as they resembles black spots in naked view, you have to really break open the fruit for us to see it under a microscope.

This is real learning moment. If we never bothered with the details, we cannot "discovered" what has been already there in front of us as we are too used to routine, which is just cut, sliced and look at the seeds.

Thus opportuntity is out there, our obession of getting from one point to another prevent us from seeing it. Maybe we should just slowed down and relax, more things can be revealed to us if we are in less stressed state of mind.

The best things that come out from this " discovery thingy" is, Dr Hawaii want us to be part of his team for making learning materials for teaching purpose.

Yuppe, can write that down for my CV and portfolio liao...

(ps: okie, Dr Hawaii is foreign, with a Japanese mother.)

MBC drama "宮"궁

This is a super good drama, pls watch after my lovely samsoon...

I have just finish episode 9. Too bad, I can only watch it every weekend, cos 岡様 want to watch those channel 8 drama... Durhhh. But very happy that 궁 2 will be shot next year yipe... The protagonist 信君 acts very well despite being in his second drama onli

Another good VCD, that I have just bought today is " my girl" Hmm dun noe whether good or not. Shd be good lah. Cos nowadays, korean drama has deviate from its usual soapy style to those fun romantic kind... I can't stand those winter sonata, stairways to heaven type of show. (watch winter sonata for less than 20 episode and then skip to the last one at episode 40) I only like the my sassy grlfriend, Jewel in the palace (this one cause lot of tears as well, but hoh, at least the story background is good), my lovely samsoon and now I am smitten by "宮"궁

I am definately going to buy the U mag this week... Cos the leads are all on its cover.... Wahhh



信君 looks like a crown prince, doesn't he?

I noe I am pathetic, yet nowadays only this drama and weekend blading can lift me up from my bleak mood.

Us, the strawberry generation?

Unable to take hardship, this is a tag that we have to carry with us. The inability to take knocks cause us our nickname, the strawberry generation.

Yes, there are pple who changes 3 jobs in 3 years; the job is tiring, we are bored? Or was it that we are given the sack when we are unable to perform up to the standard? Who will like to go through the hassle of interviewing for job after job and get a ego crushing session? Our older generation think tat we have a crush life, no world war, no civil war, no kampong days, can study till university. We shd thanks our ancestors for our good life.
Thus we are always been protrayed as an ingrates for complaining. We shd be thankful to all those rubbish hurdle as us. Sadly speaking, I can never do that.
To be destroy by someone who are more competent is sad enough.
To be destroy by someone who are less competent is even more wretched.
I hate this kind of feeling. It makes me feel powerless.

Garfield as my model

I recently feels like asking pple to pose for me for outdoor shots...So any volunteers? =)(Veez,Eve and Long?) Too bad I din has an DSLR, else I can have less depth of field. Haiz...

Well, thanks to Garfield for helping me out as model of the day... Too bad I din capture her on blades.

Instead of fireworks

What Women want ...really...

This week 's interviewee is a successful banker (dun noe what bank lah, it was nv stated)

She looks like Karen Mok, except shorter,drives a Mercedes Convertible, practices Ballet at least 3 times a week, Worked for 12-14 hours every day and Chilled out in Balacava after a hard day at work.

Despite her apparent success, she admits to a failed marriage and the difficulties in commiting to a relationship for a life time.

According to her colleauge,she is very determined and a go getter.

Last Saturday, Garfield asks me what makes a successful women. This Programme gave me an answer; cool, calm, rich, beautiful, drove a big flashy car and the abiltites to let go of certain things such as relationship are what constitute to a real successful woman.

左右为难

您问，要我答吗？
什么样的答案才会和您心意。
不想踩到地雷而学会了无声的抗议
决定的事，是不会因为我的啼声而改变。
明明是自私的，却让他人觉得崇高无尚
真是英明阿，英明。

Shape Run 2006

Finally, the day of the run is here... I dun feel like going as I have not being training ever since I come back from China. The last time I trained was before my 2.4km run by organised by the MOE so that I can get my $100 bucks... Which is like more than a month ago... Jialat, I had not been diligent, I had to pay my due by exhausting and embrassing myself during the RUN!!! I so feel like not going until I realised that I shdn't waste my precious money just like that. Imagine how $15 can be the annual school fee of someone else in Guizhou! Okie, go lah, at the most, I will run for 3km and then walk for 2km loh. I nv run more than 3km for these past two year, thus I dun noe how I can pulled if off by running for 5km non-stop.

Surprisingly, I run comfortably for these 5km. NOn-stop, tho I had to sacrifices my timming. My own timming is abt 30min, but my official timming is abt 35 min.... Argh. Still I din relese enough of lactic acid, thus is aching over all today, but then I felt absolutely fine yesterday... In fact So fine that I went and watched Movie with Hui and Garfield after my run. The crowd was much less intimidating as compared to the Big Walk as I could run comfortably without bumping into anyone accidently. Thus no need to say SORRY all the time and feeling like a stammering idiot throughout the run.

All in all, it was a nice experience and I was thinking of joining 10km run next time. Meanwhile, I need to train for better timming.

麻了

有点麻麻的，是提不起，还是没感觉
风吹打着，想必那只是颤时性的不意，而不是真永远
可怜自己还在做无畏的挣扎
音消云散的斗志，回不来了。

东方明珠===上海

We have reached Shanghai on the fifth evening, as majority of the streets were curfewed due to the Russian leader summit, we did not manage to do much except shopping ard the neighbouring shopping centre The merchandise are more expensive than other town, thus we did not spent much there.

On the sixth day, we have been bought to 新天地, an area where it resemble our clark quay, filled with foreigners. There are plenty of pub and night life been seen. Next we went to the Xiangyang road and shop in the famous 向阳市场. This market will be closed after tomorrrow. The whole streets used to sells\ cheap counterfeit goods. It used to sells those class A fakes, but since China wants to join the WTO, they are to eradicate all those places that sells those goods. Still we managed to find some cheap goods such as "puma" Bag for 30 rmb ($6), and cheap braclets and earrings for 5 rmb. I did not buy any on the first time, but then return on my free and easy day to buy some home. Xiangyang street also has a very nice restaurant that serve 豆浆油条。The soya bean milk is not as sweet as the Singapore's. It was hot and authentic. The doughstick is elastic and yet crunchy. The size of the doughstick is double the size of Singapore's. The restaurant also provided free sunny side up or 荷包蛋。Yummy ~_~!

After lunch, we were being bought to 南京路。Although it is called nanjing road, this road is in Shanghai. The best thing about this street is that it has a very big book shop; 上海书城。The Shanghai bookstore is very new and it resemble the kinokuniya bookstore in term of decor. Too bad the book store did not sell English books, but if you want to buy any Chinese book, it will be available. I managed to buy a few books that cost between $3 - $5 (after the conversion)I really regret of not bringing a bigger suitcase so that I can hurl more books home. I bought about 7 books in all. （ I went there the next day too)The book store also sells CDs, DVDs and VCDs. I bought a movie known as " The Music Box" or 理发师 by 陈坤。He suppose to win the Shanghai best actor through this movie. Fortunately I bought this movie in Shanghai as I can't seems to find any of those Chinese arty movie in Singapore, except those starred Zhang Ziyi. There is a Taiwan styled vegetarian restaurant in Nanjing road itself, thus after 6 days of Vege only diet, I finally have the taste of something more closer to home. Honestly I dun mind those vege only diet as I will be quite thankful to any morse given.(it was hard to find vege food in other part of China)The food was quite good and cheap, all Chinese restaurant will give complimentary tea and watermelons.(We eat watermelons during every meal, no other fruits available)

On the evening of the Sixth day, we cruise the HuangPu river,黄浦江 and enjoy the full night scenery of Shanghai.


This photo was taken on the boat. This picture shows us Pudong, 浦东，which is full of hotel such as Hyatt and the orient tower. 浦东 was developed much later than 浦西, (This is the site of the peace hotel and HSBC, Citibanks)浦西 was part of the French concession in the early 20th Century. According to the guide, pudong symbolise the male as it was the east, Puxi symbolise the female, thus due to the fact that Pudong was developed much later than Puxi, the female was stronger than the male in Shanghai and Shanghai male has to do all the housework... Dun noe how true is that though, although my guide say that her husband does all the work... Hmm maybe I shd go and find a nice Shanghai man... Haha， Just kidding, I will rather preferred a certain Chongqing man *wink*



This is a photo of the Orient Tower, it was the third highest building in the world and the tallest in Asia. We have to take a lift up to 260m tall and view the whole of huangpu scenery. Hmm very breathtaking. After the tour, we take a underground train knowned as sight seeing tunnel, which run across huangpu river to reach the other side;Puxi. The site that we alight is known as the The Bund, 上海滩。

On the seven and the eight day, we are supposed to have free and easy day. I planned to visit the Shanghai museum, but then heard that the entry fee is quite expensive, thus we spent the two days shopping.

The first stop that we go is 七铺路，it was like a big complex fitted with whole saler priced clothes. There were a lot of baby doll dress found. Not quite my style, thus din buy anything except scocks for my brother. You will have to negotiate for a good bargain, although it may looks cheap, you can still bring down the price further. The price of the bag can be brought down from 120 to 35 rmb after some "disscussion", but then you have to have the thick skin in order to do that... (Finally, my skin come in useful on those days) The complex is quite crowded and there are 6 floors for you to shop in. The complex is extremely crowded in the morning and even the local exclaimed that this is quite a dangerous place to go. We go despite of the hearsay and find it quite okie. It resembled our far east plaze with greater variety and cheaper price.

The worthy stop that we made is to 城隍庙,this is the street that look like Chinatown. It has quite a lot of famous local restaurant in Shanghai. One of them sells the famous 小笼包. The queue there is long from 9am, the restaurant only start selling the 小笼包 at 10am. At 10am, you will probably need to wait for an hour for your 小笼包. In China, all the restuarant has two pricing, the first storey will be comprise of the cheapest menu, thus it will usually be crowded with people. If you prefer peace and quiet, you can proceed to the second storey with pricer items. But the 小笼包 restaurant is so famous that the 2nd storey of the restaurant was also packed with people. The next famous restaurant in the street is a vegetarian restaurant.(It was famous because, it appeared in the LOnely Planets) As usual, I only took a look at the first floor menu, as I was too full I only managed to buy some vege bao from the restaurant. The vegetarian is unlike any that I have taste before. It was more authentic as it contains spinach and mushroom.(the bao is 1 rmb, I bought 2, and it was v filling as it was quite big;double the size of our veg turnip bao) Its seems that the Vegetarian food in China are devoid of those mock meat. I rather like it as it feel more vegetarian to me... Durhhhh. But then there are not many vegetarians in Singapore as they equate being vegetarian as being poor, if rich, they shd afford to eat meat.

All in all, I love 江南,it was fabulous and is full of rich history for us to learn. There were so many famous food to eat as well such as the Suzhou dessert, Hangzhou salted duck, Wuxi braised meat, Nanjing 东坡肉。 上海小笼包。Good for the rest of them, I din taste any of those food except for those dessert tho. @_@

It was a remarkable trip... as you can see that I remembered quite a lot from the tour guides explanations without any notes taking.(there is a TCM　recipes from one of the guide regarding cough, I copied that one down though)

I think I wld visit other parts of China such as Beijing and Xi an for the Qin Terra Cotta army and its tombs,I am also interested to visit my ancestor hometown;Chaozhou. Thus I am actively seeking for travel mates for the Dec holidays.

远游江南， 在南京

After Hangzhou, we reached 南京，a town full of historical richness and grievance.

南京

We reached Nanjing at night and we start off with 夫子庙，this is a shopping street that used to house the chinese scholars in ancient China so that they can prepare for their imperial exam in Nanjing, which is the captial city of ancient China. But opposite this street is a street of brothels, no wonder so many of the scholars cannot be the 状元. Too much of the "temptation" maybe.
Now, 夫子庙 is a vibrant shopping street, with cheerful motivated salesgirls who encouraged each other via PA systems when one of them closed sales. Super ONz ah!!!
This is best place to shop as one polo t-shirt cost abt $8 and female one is even cheaper at $5(after the conversion) This is cheapest place to shop among all those town that we had visited. DVDs, Juicy peachs are plenty and good. Too bad, I didn't manage to buy the Peaches, my mum say I shd have bought, yah as if it was real light for me to hurled it back. =P



The place that we take the photos is where scholars lived, crossing the river will be the brothels.

Early next morning, we went to this bridge 南京长江大桥


This may seems like an ordinary bridge, but it uphold the dignity of the Chinese at that time. This bridge is designed by those Russian, who used to sent their engineers to China to help them to rebuild their cities after the civil war. But the Russian retreat and refused to help the Chinese due to some politicial issues, in short they left the Chinese to fend for themselves. Thus without the help of the Russian, they build the bridges with lots of sacrifices as they have to dive underneath the yangtze river to build the beams as there is no great machinary available in China in the 1960s. They took 8 wholes years and was completed in 1968.

南京大屠杀

This event was known as the forgotten holocaust of war world II, being a Singaporean, we are aware of the deeds done by the Japanese in the world war II, but when compared to the atrocities committed in Nanjing, it was pretty small scale. More than 300,000 people die in 6 weeks during the invasion of Nanjing, starting from 13 dec 1937. The killing does not stopped totally, but then subside after the 6 weeks. Maybe there were not so many civilian to kill after all. Or prehaps, the Japanese was busy invading other countries after 1939. The whole group of us was brought to the 大屠杀纪念馆。You can see a lots of Corpses and photos inside the museum. I did not feel much personally after the tour, because the description was not as comprehensive. The most absurd things that the Japanese have done was the killing competition。 They saw killing as fun and killed more than 100 civilians at one go for own ego sake. This prode me to read The Rape of Nanking and after reading that book (Ｉstill have 30 pgs to go)I really felt like puking, when I read about how the Jap soldiers raped those women, it is really grotesque, I need to shut the book for a short while to continue as I was really affected. No wonder the writter;Iris Chang die from depression after the publish of this book, The strand of getting all those information really get to her. After reading, I learnt that I am so fortunate to be living in Singapore at this period of time.
Maybe I was one of the civilians in my past life, I dun noe

After Nanjing, we stop at a town surrounding the taihu called wuxi, it was a beautiful town and it has a Movie Shooting Sites for the warring states. It was a short visit to this town though.

争霸传奇

范蠡



modern photos of 陈坤



Wah, finally can post pic.... thus can post my shanghai 's pic in my next post liao.

远游江南，漫苏杭。

苏州
Suzhou is the first place that we visited after we alight from the Shanghai Pudong Airport. 苏州 is a place that famous for its gardens. If you think that it was like chinese garden, it is so far from it. The gardens are the 后花园 of those rich men in ancient China as women are not allowed to go out except during the 初一十五of the lunar calender, thus the rich men has to emulate the world outside and create a inner world in their own garden. No wonder the women there are called 大家规秀.I wonder how does the poor girls survived in olden China. Maybe they are allowed go out to work. Thus can never imagine myself to be those 大家规秀 playing in those garden. The hotel that we lived in also resemble those 后花园, those I think it is the nicest hotel among those that we lived in. The air is fresh and the sky is already bright at ard 5.30am. WOW!!!



杭州
Before Hangzhou, we took a mini stop at wuzhen. This is the place when people want to flim the olden china like the old street that you see in Misson impossible 3. There are still pple who still live there. Amazing. I wonder whether I can lived there too... The place is as pretty with tint of ancient beauty, yet I dun think Singaporeans will like to live there for the long term. It is too rustic.

HangZhou is a really pretty place and its streets are filled with all kind of restaurants. The air is also quite cool there. Suzhou and Hangzhou is really the prettiest among the cities that I visit. There is a saying 上有天堂下有苏杭。Hangzhou has beautiful garden, but not the 后花园 kind, the prettiest things there is 西湖.


There is lots of beautiful stories surrounded the west lake like the 白蛇传 and the 梁三博与祝英台。Beautiful fables and long bridge which all couples should cross 13 times in order to 白头到老。This is because of another love story. Thus according to the guide, Hangzhou is a place for couples to visit and it has a very slow pace of life and pple in Hangzhou like to take time and relax. Hmm good for those stress out. It is refreshing to walk along the west lake early in the morning drinking the special brew of 龙井茶。Longjing is the tea grown in Hangzhou. The leaves are big and pretty. Hangzhou pple are very particular to their tea. They catagorise their tea to many different cat. Cat A is called 女儿茶; picked by those girls who are young and unmarried (max is early 20s) Cat B is called 媳妇茶, the tea is plucked by those women in late 20s to early 40s. Cat C is called 阿婆差,pluck by granny of cos. The top notch is the 雨前女儿茶。That kind of tea is v v exp woh. I managed to buy the 2nd grade one. Not so exp, but good enuf.


吴越之战
In 460s BC, Hangzhou is called 越国 and Suzhou is called 吴国. The two countries are constantly in battle with each other. There is a show shown in 浙江卫视regarding this. It is called 争霸传奇. The casts are mainly from hongkong, but the lead actor 范 蠡 was a mainland actor called Chen Kun (陈坤）. Quite a good show as it remind me of Jet Lee 's hero. This is a classic history legend that consisit of a lot of 成语,like 沉鱼若艳 to discribe 西施， 卧心尝旦 to describe 越王勾践's determination to endure the humilation caused by 吴王 夫差 so that he can upstage the latter after 10 years thus there is a saying, 君子报仇，十年不晚。. I am so hooked by this show that when I leave china, this shows was my greatest regrets. Hope that this show can be bought as soon as possible. (Durhhh I search for the whole of Shanghai oso cannot find this shows as it was the newest)*sob*


Dun noe why, I can't seems to upload my photos... Haiz... Thus no photos to see lah

Poverty, what a scary word!

Both Great Singapore Sales and issue of poverty of the next generation, are featured in today ST.
Wat an oxymoron.

Do they want us to think about those pple who cannot afford to shop while we are splurging? Durrhhh.
Is it just a harmless coincidence, or, meant for deterrence?

Well, maybe I am scared, I even felt guilty of thinking about the white flowery skirt that will made a nice addition to my wardrobe after reading such articles on poverty.
There are people out there who can't even have a full stomach, who does not get to see parents regularly, who has no pocket money or a table to study.

Yet here am I, complaining, whining on stuffs, when worse can have befall on me. I shd have known better, yet I don't. I shd be thankful to all that have been bestowed.

I am so ashamed of my material indulgence especially when I noe so many of them; the people of poverty.

So here I am, staying in, spending the first day of GSS, without Shopping.

N.B.: This transient feeling will promptly dissipate by tmr.