Day 38

Morning woke up to prepare to visit a new shopping district called the fu bu xiang (I don't know the Chinese characters for this) which is near the 司门口 shopping centre. It is basically like any other street where there are shops and shopping centres all around. Very nice place with lots of stuff to buy and see..



I wonder what event is occurring today.. the water fountain suddenly works. haha!


on our way, ZW resumes his sleeping mode.


JAM PACK today as it is China's National Day today! =)


one of the four main shopping buildings over there.

So we walked around as we had about 4 hours of free time. At first we thought we will have alot of free time left, end up... NO. haha! so we went to one of the shopping centre and saw this ice-skating thing. Was super excited and wondering how their ice-skating ring looks like. I mean, compare abit with Singapore. Then can decide which place is even better. Facility wise of course.


This is the entrance to the ice-skating ring. looks so nice and cool..


well, here's the ANTI-CLIMAX part. when we went up, what we saw is a big marble flooring space where people are skating.. -.- so much for being ICE skating. haha! it was super turn off that Jacob and I didn't even bothered taking a photo of it. CHEATED OUR FEELINGS!!! I feel so cheated. haha!

anyway, after being cheated, we went off to the last big building to shop around as it looked the most decent ones. went into this Topman-like shop where they sell quite a lot of clothings and bags. ZW was even considering the bag-pack over there which we feel that it is quite worth the buy. well, 128RMB!! after which, we went out of the place and walked along the pathway. Saw this very interesting 火锅 place. I felt that it is the most obvious building and easiest to remember out of everything! haha!


Jacob trying out their jacket


The 三国英雄火锅 building! VERY OUTSTANDING RIGHT??!!


the BUSY street.

oh yea. we went to the arcade of one of the shopping centre and saw this drum set game. The drum set is REAL drum and REAL sound.. where u hit is according to the thing that shows in the screen. it is very cooL ok. Jacob was commenting why Singapore doesn't have such nice games.. well, back to my main point. we saw this girl of age around 10 at max playing the game! she was AWESOME I tell you. she even had 200++ combos ok.. SUPER POWER PACK!



after which, we explored further and saw this store that sells alot of leather items. and it is having A SALE! haha! Jacob and I were trying out the leather coat like mad and decided to buy one each after like 30minutes inside the shop?? haha! I could sense the pek-chek-ness of the shop keeper as we keep on trying while they keep on putting back the coats we tried. and we took it again to try it again. Cause we were comparing mah. So cannot blame us. haha! ended up, we spent 100RMB on each coat! =) BEST BUY OF THE DAY and even the WHOLE TRIP! haha! ZW bought two shirts from there which I thought it suits him alot.. and hopes he likes it!

walked around with SK and Jacob.. we saw this alley with the name called 自由路. haha! interesting name. we turned in with the option thinking that we will get terribly lost. well, it wasn't in the end. Anyway, it is a food street that has one thousand and one food stalls selling different things. Of course there were repeats here and there, but that's not the point. We tried things like squid, chicken wings, this white sugar kueh, 饼with shredded chicken, spring rolls, spicy wings, beef meat balls, and many more. haha! we practically eat and eat and eat for the 30 - 40 minutes inside the street. From slight hunger, all the way to FULL. haha!


the entrance to the street


stall owner cooking rice.


squid stall.

met up with all the people at around 345pm to head to get on bus. Jacob, ZW and CT went off to walk around somemore before meeting yang Ting to go to her house for dinner. haha! Looking for tomorrow's outing too! haha! I wonder they got poison already or not. haha!

anyway, while on the bus we get to know that at 长江大桥 area would have a firework session. it was initially planned that head to the bridge to watch the fireworks. However, the driver told us that there will be alot of people and the traffic will be very congested, thus the cancellation of idea. -.- nevertheless, you will be SURPRISED at the amount of people over there standing by at 4pm!! haha! very POWER!




SEE THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE OVER THERE!! I've managed to capture about 1/10 of the amount of people over there I guess. and it is only 4pm man! imagine once it gets dark at around 6pm?? I think it will look like some ants gathering if i were to look down from high above!! =)

nice day today! =)



REFLECTION OF DAY 38, WEDNESDAY, 1st OCTOBER 2008:

Time: 9:12pm

As what I have mentioned yesterday, shop keepers of China strongly believe in building good relations with their customers when they enter the shop. This is so that it will increase the possibility of the customers buying the items from the shop as there is a closer distance (not physical) between both parties.

However for today, I observed a deeper meaning to this theory. I notice that a small amount of the shop keepers aim to build relation with customers with a short term goal, which is to make sales. Not that it is wrong, but I feel that their mindset is not very feasible in the long run. As relation is only build for that short moment, they would somehow rush their customers to make purchases. And when the customers tend to be fussier or taking a long time, I realized that a number of them tend to become frustrated and treat their customers in an unfriendly manner. I feel that they do not look for a longer term goal because they just want to ensure a sale being made at that point of time and they would not stay in contact with the customers.

For others which I’ve encountered, they would either exchange telephone number with us or even ask us out on other days. This is so that a lasting relationship can be built so that in time to come where we need certain products, we would turn to them instead. This I feel is a better way and is able to sustain business for a longer term. This would also ensure better business opportunities in the future as the customers feel more comfortable buying from those shop keepers and trust them more. There will also be a higher possibility that such shop keepers would sell 真货 instead of 水货 (which means fake goods).

In conclusion, I am thankful that I have meet better shop keepers during the stay in Wuhan. Also, I feel that certain shop keepers can adjust their mindset when doing business so that they can better alter their business opportunities. This will ensure that customers will have a better shopping experience in the shop which will make them come back again.

Learning in progress: Serving

Nope.. not John legend's album.. but it refers to me going to 群光 once again today! haha! this time round, went with all the guys in ICT.. especially to accompany those who didn't went the last time; Zheng wei, Guo Yuan and Cheng Teck.

DAY 37

Today is the DAY! the day where we take our last 30% of our PM module. Test 2. well, I would say that the paper is pretty alright since it didn't test much on theory understanding but more on situational thinking. Hmm. Hope I perform well for this paper so all the efforts in front will not go to waste. and FINALLY! NO MORE LESSONS TILL SCHOOL RE-OPENS!! but one sad thing is that I will still have to do report and presentation slides for OIE -.-


this is how everyone looked in the exam classroom.


Cheng teck and Guo Yuan behind me!! =)

after test, went back to dorm to prepare things and POOF! out we went! haha! took the "bread car" to Qun Guang area. went to eat pizza hut ONCE AGAIN but tried different things. seriously, their pizza hut has ALOT OF VARIETY!! I can't seem to finish eating one of each! haha!


me trying Jacob's watch


my squid!


my chicken baked rice.. NICE MAN!


Sheng Kiat's lamb chop


Ordering food.


I like this Pizza Hut. serious! why? here are some reasons..

1. The waitress here is very nice. REALLY VERY NICE! she serves willingly. and provides extra service! cause she allowed us to pay the bills individually!! I mean like collect as according to individual expenditure!

2. the place really has a nice atmosphere.

3. Food is NICE and has a wide range of variety.

4. WE CAN WIN PRIZE! ok.. this last point refers to Jacob only. haha!


the kind and nice waitress.


the winning ticket!


and look! Jacob won......20RMB! hahahah!

anyway, went into the plaza to look for some stuff while the newbies went to walk around. haha! was playing around at some shops taking pictures. very funny and fun!


in the plaza's lift, there will be a lady in each lift who will like operate the lift. very interesting as they will step out when they stop at level one to tell you whether it is going up or down. haha!


Jacob and I trying hats


his new jacket.


and the jacket has NEW FUNCTIONS!


waiting for lift. SIAN AH! haha!

after which we continued walking around here and there. buying like one million and one items in total. haha! I think I spent quite alot once again today. haha! sian. but its ok. so long my friends like it will do! =) then we headed to eat at the food court in 群光. the food court is really nice, like wisma's food republic and it was many stalls that sells different food. also, they adopted a card system like Singapore's Marchie.


the food card.. ok. more like food PAPER. LOL.


the inner food court


inside of food court


guo yuan and zheng wei looks kind of SHOCKED by the food. haha!

similarly, we headed to the shopping street as our last station of the day. went to buy a few stuff from the previous shops which we went to on Sunday. as the shop owner knows us, they gave a better price for the items we buy =) haha! well, that's pone advantage of knowing more people i guess. haha!

headed back at around 10pm and get settled down. slacked a little before heading to do my own stuff. overall, a tiring day due to test and also shopping! haha!

Random photos of the day...








REFLECTION OF DAY 37, TUESDAY, 30th SEPTEMBER 2008:

Time: 12:37am

Today’s shopping trip at 群光 which is situated along 络喻路 was really fruitful. Not only in terms on the items have I bought, but also knowing about the people over there.

From today’s experience, I can conclude that people in China really treasure relations between people. One of the many incidents would be that when Jacob, Sheng Kiat and I enter a new shop, the shop keeper would talk to us a little after we browsed around for awhile. One common thing I observed was that they would first start asking us where we were from as we were using English to communicate all along. And they would follow by saying that our spoken Mandarin is quite good. Anyway, they would then start talking with us to know us a little more. Also, introducing own self to us at the same time. For friendlier shop keepers, they would then try and recommend us some products which they find suitable for us. Although ultimately we may not buy anything, they would still “send us off” with a nice smile of their face. This makes shopping experience much better and making us wants to come back again the next time.

Another incident is that there is a shop where the shop keepers are dancers. They are very welcoming and friendly. As we went to their shop the previous time, they were pretty much familiar with us. So we were able to talk more freely and exchanged information about our own country. The interesting part was that they requested us to show them Singapore dollars which we did. After they knew that 20dollars equals to their 100RMB, they were very shocked. It is like carrying around 500RMB all the time if we were to have 100SGD in our wallet! They were very interested with Singapore’s culture and how we do things over there. After which, one of the keeper even showed us the second storey of the shop and introduced to us the better items that were of limited quantity. They even offered cheaper price (which reduced the shipping cost and also includes discounts!). Jacob and I were trying jeans that we found nice and of good buy. While waiting for Jacob to try on his jeans, I was having a chatting session with the keeper who showed us the second storey. What I felt was that their friendliness really helps make shopping feels better.

Overall, I really like shopping at places where the keepers are warm and nice as this will make the shopping trip happier and better. Also, I’ve learnt that relation is very important in China as it is one of their ways to build rapport with their customers. This will increase the percentage of the customers buying their products since there is some form of friendship. This will make the customers feel more at home when shopping and will tend be more willing to buy.

Learning in progress: Culture in China