Same old nothing, the only difference was rain. Every time when it rains here in Wuhan I feel all annoyed and frustrated, it’s so different here because when it rains, it will rain the whole day plus it’ll be super cold to the extent that mist will appear when you speak and it’s super gloomy!
I remember the IS teacher mentioning that the weather here in Wuhan is really unpredictable one moment it can be hot the next its freezing cold! I’m experiencing it now so YAY ME L
Nothing much happened dinner at backstreet and back to the hostel .
Reflection
This routine of lesson, break, lesson then break again is really talking a toil on me, not only am I feeling more tired than ever, I am having difficulties with breathing much more here than back in SG. Even though it’s not as hectic but I just get use to such fixed routines.
Back in Singapore we never had such fixed timings; our timetable was more flexible, like starting at different timing everyday and also ending at different timings. This routine is making me feel like a prisoner, every morning wake up, breakfast, work, lunch, work, dinner, sleep, it’s so fixed so rigid.
I miss everything back in SG, another 20 days and we’ll be back in sunny Singapore.
We covered on how to do business in China for IS today. They have many do’s and don’ts here but it’s roughly the same as Singapore. Example: not staring at people, or not giving taboo stuff like clocks and shoes as presents. This really made me think, is it necessary to do business here in China when there are so many other markets out there?
Everyone says that China is one of the hottest markets in the world now, but size doesn’t determine how great the market is, it’s what they have to offer VS the size. A huge market doesn’t mean that they are good and a small market doesn’t mean that they are lousy.
After IS, Ngee Ann’s deputy principle came to visit us to see how we were, and if we liked Wuhan.It was really nice of him to stop by even with his busy schedule. Photos taken and that was the end.
After checking out we headed to san xia, but this time from a different view, we were on top of it! It was way better than the just seeing the walls out of our cabin windows but because of the fog we weren’t unable to capture the greatness of the dams. The dams were also used to generate electricity for 3 states in China
Reflection:
If Singapore was as big as China we could build our own dams we not only have water we also can generate our own electricity and we would not have to rely on other countries and we could be more independent than we are now! However international ties are also important, because we are a small country, with diplomatic ties with other bigger countries will not only strengthen our position globally too.
After visiting san xia I’ve leant that whatever the Chinese put their minds to do, they will complete it even if it takes longer than expected they will complete it. It was sun yat sun’s dream to build something so huge back in 1919 and it was only completed in 2005, so time doesn’t matter, it’s the determination and perseverance that is most important.
hydroelectricity
the very nice little girl that allowed us to share seats with her
the dams
a little fun wouldn't kill!
a garden which holds momuments regarding the dam
the bulldozer they used to make the dam! super duper huge!!!!!
Waking up by 6 for breakfast was a TORTURE! Not only was the food terrible, we were so tired too
Everything tasted bland and oily :/ we can’t expect anything from a 2 star cruise, yucky food is better than no food. Many people all over the world are dying of hunger and here we are throwing food away like nobody’s business!
Sun rise
We docked after breakfast and climbed up to BAI DI CHANG to visit this temple. At the bottom of the hill there was this carriage service, where we could pay an amount and allow the carriers to carry us up! It might seem tempting and all, but thinking of it, we came all the way here, and we should challenge ourselves!
The tour guide told us a story, the story that left a great impression on me was the story on how they got the coffins up to the top of the mountains, they have different analogies of how they got them up, it was either carrying them up by hand or building some stairs structure and walking all the way up. The purpose of doing this is to show how filial they are to their elders, the higher up on the mountain they are the more filial they are. Till now they do not know how they got the coffins up so high.
Reflection:
Being influence by the western culture, we aren’t so superstitious all that we’ll do is to give them a proper burial, we’ll not go through the extend of carrying their coffins to the top of the mountain to show how filial we are, as long as you know you have done your best, your elders will know it and you do not have to put on a show to show to the world how “great” you are.
Back to the boat we go,
Lunch and followed by some sightseeing of the 3 gorges, it wasn’t as magnificent as what Mr Lim claims, maybe I’m do not appreciate such sights as much as he does? Cause as we cruise along the Yangtze River, the sight is exactly the same from the start to end.
Stopped over to take this little boat to cruise along the river, the most unforgettable event was the boat was manually rowed two of them in front and two at the back,( all of them were >50 years old) there isn’t a need for them to row us but however it’s their way of living and they have been doing it all their lives. At one point the river got really narrow and that made rowing impossible so they had to pull us along the river. Even thought it was just a short distance, I could feel their effort and the amount strength they had to put in to pull us along.
I’ll never let my parents do such a thing; they shouldn’t be doing such strenuous stuff in their old age, they should be enjoying live, and not working their ass off.
At night, we were all geared up to enter the dam! It took forever to enter and it took forever to get out of just one gantry! However the experience was rather cool, I’ve learnt it back in school but to experience it was even better! First they release the water so that the water level will be the same as the next gantry and continuing for the next 5 gantries. We could actually see the difference, one minute we can see the sky the next we’re facing the walls of the dams!
