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