Ok. I shall combine both days and blog them together.. if not I will lose the "stamina" to blog tomorrow. haha!

DAY 27 & 28

Took a SUPER LONG RIDE, which is 6hours, to reach Wudang area. the LONGEST ride ever I've took in my WHOLE LIFE TIME! even traveling in Australia doesn't need a 6hours bus ride! after which, went to a restaurant to have our lunch. the food is pretty nice actually and its better. well, some special guest came to visit our table while we were eating.. haha! it was super interesting.


the restaurant.


we saw this one lady eat SO MUCH food! haha! POWER!


and our SPECIAL guest. guestS i mean. haha!

anyway, after that we head on to the mountain which is not really THAT kind of mountain we see on TV. haha! there's shuttle bus services, etc. anyway, we went to this part called 太子坡 to look see look see. the place is just alright for me.


our tour guide and the place.


reaching the entrance after some flights of steps.


a temple inside.


another entrance to another place. LOL.

oh yea. there was this interesting thing that was inside the place. there's this place that sells envelopes which contains the origin of your own surname. So yea. I bought one and then I closed after the first sentence. haha! reason, ALL IN CHINESE! ahahaha! I cui-ed once I saw the first sentence. Like Guan said, we can go and google translate it. IF that is possible. hahahah!


the surname thing. Looks very interesting.


ANOTHER temple.


Zheng wei and Guo yuan acting as though they are learning some martial art skill from some master.

and off we go to another place which is called The South Cliff Palace. this has LOTS of steps to take and its pretty nice though. and the place is FFFFOOOOGGGGYYYY like nobody's business. serious. It even feels like raining over there!


the stairs.


picture with the WuDang Mountain label.


this is how FOGGY the place is.


one of the structure inside.

and we came to this palace like place. it was HUGE i tell you. I mean the palace. and the steps too! its like super high per steps. If I use my usual stairs climbing method, I would have fall or trip over for like 0278508458082304805780284 times. -.- well, and we found this interesting thing. it was super hilarious. haha! its the fire extinguisher box like thing. look at how they put the words!


the whole palace.


zheng wei with this burning furnace.


the entrance.


this tai ji shop. that tells u all about tai ji and other weird stuff which I don't understand. haha!


AND THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER!! HAHAHA! Jacob even commented that any foreigners come sure will laugh at this. =P

and off we went to head to hotel as it was already 630 to be. we reached the hotel after dinner and it was already pitch dark. had some time to talked to Joyce and Hui ru before heading back to room to concuss. haha!

RISE and SHINE! woke up and packed. went to have breakfast before heading to the mountain again for mountain climbing. the decision was that we all climb up and take this cable car down. it was a REALLY INTERESTING one! tiring but fulfilling. I think I have climbed 04750477404875070386375574859279567647564652358764725423564786239462379645923649623986492364962394629462364982639462936482634 steps in total for this mountain climbing. Going a total of 9km worth of path and steps to go up a 1.6km mountain.



the stairs.


scenery along the WuDang Mountain.



some places along the way. small shop houses where people can buy some snacks and drinks to rest.

serious speaking, it is really a test of endurance and will power. haha! and I thank this guy from ME that encouraged me all the way. keeping me going all the way. Else I think I rather jump down and die. haha! ok. kidding. I treasure my life. haha! but it seemed like some kind of test. I mean similar to our life. Ups and downs. Tough and easy. So I'm glad I actually completed it and reached the top! =)

here are some of the pictures from the top view:


ME!


Zheng wei


top view.


group photo. COOL! haha!

and after which, we took a cable car down to take the shuttle bus to the entrance of WuDang Mountain. headed to LATE lunch and then back. there's a funny incident whereby the bus drive took a wrong turn to the exit at the expressway. end up he went to U-turn on the expressway which caused a little jam. haha! and a police car came whereby everyone, YES. EVERYONE, even those sleeping, stood up to look out to see what is going to happen. and oh well, the driver wasn't caught. else I could try driving. haha! =P ok la.. so it turns out that we took longer than expected to reach back the University. but its ok. so long we are safe and sound, that's good! haha! oh. FYI. Jacob and I even ran back to the apartment as both of us were urgent to use the toilet. due to the availability of only one usable toilet, both of us...... haha! guess yourself =P

tired weekend but I like it. especially the mountain climbing. although it is like CRAZY and MADNESS, but it really taught me quite a few things. =)


REFLECTION OF DAY 27 & 28, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, 20th - 21st SEPTEMBER 2008:

Time: 1:53pm

At the trip to the WuDang Mountain, I got the chance to speak with 安院长’s son and to know him a little. The chance came upon when both of us were paired up to take the cable car. It was quite a rare chance and I took the opportunity to speak with him.

During the short 25minutes ride, we talked about lots of stuff comparing China and Singapore. We talked about topics ranging from education system to the government system to even personal views on both countries. It was a really fruitful ride and he is actually a person with lots of view on various topics. I was amazed by his knowledge and how he shared his thoughts.

The most impactful topic we talked about is on the government system in China and Singapore. From what I know, China government personnel like to have authority to them and gain full control of their people. From what I was told, China government likes to keep problems away from the citizens or to prevent problems from spreading. And thus, they will try and suppress people who tried to rise up certain issues that were being found. One recent case would be the one about the milk powder issue.

There were actually a few people who found out the problem and raise the issue to the government. However, the government suppressed them by telling them not to talk about the problem anymore. After a long time, the company manufacturing the milk powder found out the problem as well. They wrote in a letter to the government to ask them to reveal the truth as the company does not want their name to be tarnished since it was really not their problem. And once the government announced the problem, the citizens felt slightly better but this gave the government another negative image of wanting to keep issues that people face as a secret. This will also downgrade the government and China as a whole in the eyes of people in other countries.

I’ve learnt that the government needs to be more flexible with their authority power and not hold it to themselves only. This may seem useful for now as they are under the developing stage. However, after some time, people will start to feel unhappy and thus start to form groups that will go against the government. This will then cause a chaos within the country due to unhappiness. In long term, the method is not very useful and may even backfire.

This has made me appreciate Singapore government more as restrictions are given to protect us and make Singapore a better place to stay. Those restrictions are not meant to make our lives poorer. Therefore, I learnt to better understand steps which the government took and know the rationale behind it. This will make us better support the government and make Singapore a better place to live in.

Learning in progress: Culture in China/government system