Once again, start of another new week which is filled with trying of new things and also exploring more of China!!

DAY 15

Morning had an assignment meeting with Jacob to settle some part of our assignment so we would be less busy during the later half of the week.

After which, we met up with the girls together with GY, Jacob and SK to go to 大洋百货 which is situated at 鲁巷. It is an area where there are a few major shopping centre for people to shop for things. Items ranging from clothes to electronics are available and there are many shops selling almost similar things. For the girls, their main focus was Carrefour. haha!


There's COFFEEBEAN in SINGAPORE!! haha!


This is how 大洋百货 looks like on the outside. GRAND HOR?!


and this is the electronic building. Like Sim Lim Square in Singapore.

so us the guys split ourselves away from the girls and went shopping in our own style. Looking for things in a random mode. haha! just walk around and step into shops when we see something nice. We walked around for almost 3hours++ actually. Pretty long time huh. That's only the 大洋百货 and we still intend to go to the electronic mall. it was quite interesting as 大洋百货 looks like Bras Basah on the inside. All the stairs and escalators.. Super interesting. Jacob and I still joked about seeing Art Friends and Swee Lee. hahaha!

Here's something interesting about the mall:


Click on the picture and look carefully. The english translation on asking adults to hold on to their children has been translated funnily. haha!


One of the statues we found on the first storey of the shopping mall.


Another one. The statue found Handsome me! =P

haha! we continued to walk over and did some more shopping at the electronic mall. Found some interesting things and I bought an earpiece! haha! its like 10 Sing Dollars only. quite cheap. and the quality is pretty good. FYI, I'm using it now. haha! the song I'm listening to now is David Cook's The Time of my Life. =)


Mini group picture while walking.


me with Pizza Hut!


nice fountain outside the shopping centre! IT IS VERY NICE!


REFLECTION OF DAY 15, MONDAY, 8th SEPTEMBER 2008:

Time: 11:47pm

I spent my time today hanging around with the guys from ICT and went to explore outside of school. We went to 大洋百货 which is at鲁巷. It is about 20 minutes journey from the school and it is a place with quite a huge shopping centre.

Spending most of my time out while spending time with my friends, I took some time to observe the people around us. I’ve come to notice a few things which opened my eyes. One of which is one that I have mentioned previously, which is how the shop keepers are able to be competitive yet remain friendly towards each other. We were at a electronic store which is similar to Sim Lim Square in Singapore. There, we saw many stalls which sell almost the same product. We were walking around to look for some products. Our intention was to find the stall that would offer a cheaper price before deciding to make a purchase. There was this incident whereby we spent some time over at a stall to look for external hard disks, trying to get the best bargains from it. I notice shop keepers from other stalls coming over as if to try and “steal the business”. Later on when I continued observing, they were actually there to help the current shop keeper who was attending to us. For example, when we requested for a new piece to be shown, the shop keeper of other stalls actually took the initiative to go over to the ware house area to retrieve the new piece of product. Such attitude is something rare in Singapore as people tend to mind their own business only.

With it, I’m even more convinced that people in China are really hospitable to people around them and they are willing to help each other even though they may be “enemies” in certain area. This is one important spirit which one should posses, being selfless. From today and previous incidents which I have observed, I’m more than determined to learn to be selfless towards people around me. There are always long term and short term gains from various decisions we make in life. With what I am determined to do, I’m sure in long term wise, it will benefit both me and the people around.

Learning in progress: Being selfless