HK - China Trip (Part 4)

Next! More about 西安.

Day 6

The day's itinerary started off with a seminar on the Terracotta Warriors and Chariots. We learnt about their features and some history of its construction. After that we had a short tour around the campus of 西安交通大学 (Xi'an Jiaotong University), where the seminar was held.

Outside the university's library

We visited the actual place where the Terracotta Warriors were buried in the afternoon. It was a gloomy/rainy day if I remembered correctly. There are actually 3 pits altogether, however Pit A is the one usually shown on TV and the media:

Terracotta Warriors, pit A

Just to show I was there =P

The other 2 pits are much smaller and contain more fragmented pieces. At the back of Pit A we could see some of the terracotta soldiers being pieced back together. It must be a terribly painstaking job! Although Pit A is big, only about 1/3 (I think) of the soldiers are "unearthed" and displayed. Lots of excavation will still need to be done in the following decades to get the whole army "out".

Figures still under repair

The ruins in another pit

In case you haven't heard it before, no two terracotta warriors look the same. There are also hierarchal differences between soldiers, and this can be noted through their headgear, clothing, position in the army formation etc. There are also soldiers in other postures apart from standing, such as the half-kneeling archer. Weapons were supposed to be placed in the now open fists of the soldiers, but I'm not sure if they are now stolen or kept. Dimension wise, the figures are bigger and taller than the average Chinese.

Warrior with horse

Kneeling warrior, probably crossbow soldier.

In pit A we were also "accosted" by the phoenix TV crew (who were following and traveling with us throughout the trip). They asked us stuff about the Terracotta warriors and stuff. A guard came over and told them that they were not allowed to shoot there and some raised voices ensued. I recorded a bit of it but I'm not gonna put it up. We returned to the city and wandered around at a place near to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. We then had free time to roam about the city, and some of us visited the 钟楼　(Bell Tower).

Contemplating history at the Bell Tower

Having Chinese friends really helped... since they know the places better and what food are nice to eat. We ended up at this famous street in Xi'an called 回民街 in the Muslim district (so everything there is naturally Halal). A Ming Dynasty city gate was located at one end of the road. Anyways, we went to eat at this famous restaurant called 贾三灌汤包子馆. We had meat on a skewer, the soup-dumplings, and (my favorite) this soup-like dessert called something like 八宝粥. After some research online, another name--八宝甜稀饭, seems to be a more accurate description of it. It consists of rice in a sweet (but not too sweet!) brown-yellowish soup.





Day 7

The day once again started with a seminar, this time at 陕西师范大学. Can't remember the contents but the topic was supposed to be 西安--东西文化交流的源头. After that we visited the Shaanxi History Museum. Lots of interesting artifacts inside, including this bottle below:

When placed in water horizontally, this bottle will fill up on its own and will assume a vertical position once full

Crossbow with a trigger. More advanced than European weapons of the time.

The bunch of CSPers outside the museum

After spending most of the morning in the museum, we then went to a rural village located at the outskirts of Xi'an. I believed this trip was meant to show us that China still faced poverty and problems in improving the standard of living. After alighting the bus we heard a loud "band" welcoming us (think drums and cymbals a la Lion Dance, Chinese New Year...). We were left to wander to the few small stalls selling handicraft, as well as to take a look at the school.

"热烈欢迎海外学子来我村小指导"

The ah gong-s and ah ma-s welcoming us

Sure, the school still needs lots of improvement. However, it wasn't all that bad to me, as I spent 4+ years of my primary school education in the old campus of 正修二校, where some of the "windows" and stairs were made of wood. The classrooms were in a mess--I wonder if that was intentional. If it is, I have no idea why they would want to do that. Some of my friends went to the toilet and were horrified by the "hole" with green liquid stuff floating on top. I didn't see it but the descriptions were good enough. However all in all, these "village" people don't really have it bad.

See, they're not so poor. They've got good clothes and dyed hair!

We then proceeded (by foot) to another village area, passing by wide expanses of paddy fields and other crops. Our tour guide had mentioned the day before that the region near Xi'an is generally flat, and it has been an important agricultural production centre of China for a long time. The village further confirmed that the villagers aren't really poor--they had nice renovated houses, which kinda reminded me of Sekinchan back in Malaysia. To be fair not everyone had renovated houses. As part of the tour we went to a house which essentially consisted of burrowed caves on one side of a hill (窑洞). The kitchen again kinda reminded me of Sekinchan. Anyway, it was really cool inside (temperature, i mean).

Wide open fields

The house we visited

the kitchen

A newly dug cave

We spent a long time in the airport before taking a plane to Beijing. It was here we managed to gather all the Malaysians together. There were 15 of us I think... can't remember liao! Anyway, the plane flight wasn't nice and we didn't get a proper meal on board. We had a proper dinner at 12+am in Beijing instead.

Day 8

Don't you mess around with him...

We visited a military camp in the morning. It was an hour's journey by bus from our hotel somewhere near the east side of Beijing. Yet it was still within the borders of Greater Beijing, which has a total population of 16 million. Photography was forbidden within the area (well, kinda expected). The so-called military camp wasn't really for the army but rather the 武警. I don't know what's that exactly in English, but a direct translation would be "armed police". So I suppose they are the ones in charge of internal security (probably those that clamp down on riots and terrorist attacks etc.). Their motto was:"首战用我，用我必胜" (erm... first war use me, use me sure win! I'll leave that to your own interpretation. lol). They gave us many "performances": marching, close combat, rifle accuracy, dog training, climbing buildings and even a mock terrorist attack where some people in an office building were held as hostages. It was awesome to say the least.

The rest of the day was free and easy. We went to 天安门广场　(Tiananmen Square) and walked around the surrounding areas. It was a very very hot day! Much hotter than what I'm used to experience in Malaysia/Singapore. Probably 40 degrees. Then we went shopping at the famous shopping district 王府井 (Wangfujing). There were many shopping centres and shops but there was sooo little time. Mostly walked around with Phillip. I bought my (fake) Kappa shoes there. I cut the price down but I think I was still cheated. Learnt to be a hard bargainer after that day. Spent quite some time at a book store. Met up with the rest again after some time. Olivia bought sooooo many things!

Gotta love Communist statues. So uplifting.

The famous Tiananmen Square

A city gate, remnant of a city wall that surrounded Beijing's old region that was demolished under Mao Tse Tung's directive.

We then had our dinner at a restaurant that sold 云南过桥米线．There were many "levels" to the 过桥米线　dish (秀才、进士、举人、状元), so the prices vary depending on how "high" a level you want. A higher level indicates more ingredients and of course, a higher price. At our table we were speaking English and this waitress came over and we chatted a bit. She was like:"what dialect were you speaking? I don't understand it." -_-"' Haha...

At the restaurant

There were group discussions at 9.30pm. We were supposed to share our experiences about the trip so far. Of course, it was on a voluntary basis. The general idea that I got out of it was that people are glad they made new friends, despite language and culture barriers at times, and they found the trip interesting and an eye opener (especially to those who came from places out of Asia). We also talked about the “toilet problem” in China, and these issues were mainly brought up by those from the Western countries. In the last part of the discussion I helped to do translation for someone and I ended up translating (from Mandarin to English) for both Mr. Wu and Ms. Wei. Many people were impressed with me but I think I didn’t really do a very good job. I now know how difficult impromptu translation is. The worst part is that they might want to use me again next time... they did. Lol.

But that's a few days later... stay tuned!

Deutschland, endlich! Germany, finally!

Hallo aus Deutschland!

Ok, so today I've finally decided to start writing about my time so far in Germany. There are really so many things that I wanna write about. But for now I'll just be writing what has been going on. I'll delve into certain topics later.

This is not my first time in Germany though; in Dec 2003 I arrived in Frankfurt am Main with the TJ choir. We went on to Austria and we performed at a Festival in Budapest, Hungary. In Germany we visited Würzburg, Nürnberg and München. However, at that time I saw everything from a tourist point of view. Now... it's more in depth--staying as a resident, travelling in public transport, opening a bank account etc...

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We arrived in Munich at night. After getting my luggage I saw this huge BMW advertisement and I just had to take a photo with it:


We then went thru the customs where they randomly pick people to check on and I kena (was picked). The person in charge didn't bother checking though, after he asked me what I am here for. I tried to speak everything in German but my spoken German isn't very good. By the way, no photos for this post after the BMW one so it'll be a bit boring below.

Anyway we went out of the gates and someone was supposed to meet us. We loitered for some time before we saw a black lady walk towards us. Somehow we missed her earlier on. Anyway her name is Caroline and she's actually from Cameroon, Africa. She spoke English to us (well, now that she knows I'm in the 3rd class she insists on speaking German to me. More on that next time) but her mother tongue is French. We had to take 2 trains to reach the station near our residence area, Klinikum Großhadern. Caroline gave us a ziplock-type bag that contained lots of material about Munich, a Cafeteria card, monthly travel card, keys etc.

On one of the trains a conductor came to check on our tickets. Here in Munich (not sure about other places in Germany), unlike in Singapore and Malaysia, there are no "gates" to enter, you don't tap anything with EZ-link cards. They trust that you will buy your tickets or monthly passes. Well, they have a penalty of €40 though, if you are found out. They also have signs in the trains urging people not to travel without paying (Schwarzfahren).

So anyway, we had to spend some time locating a restaurant to have dinner at. I'll skip the details. We found an Italien restaurant and we had Pizza and Spezi, which is a mix between orange juice and Coke. After that I went to my new "room" in a block along Heiglhofstraße.

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More updates later... need some shut eye now. Going to Nürnberg tomorrow!

HK - China Trip (Part 3)

And... I have finally moved on to the next part in my HK-China trip! Haha... Note: I didn't manage to record some parts of the trip in my comp, coz I was too tired after the day. So I'm depending mostly on my memory, photos and the CSP schedule book for some parts.

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Day 4

The ferry terminal in NanSha, Guangzhou

Ok, we woke up early in the morning, proceeded to a jetty and boarded a ferry. As I get a bit dizzy on ships I slept most of the way. By the time I awoke we were at Guangzhou already. I'm a bit confused about lunch and dinner so let me talk about the other stuff first.

They are building a mega-education city in Guangzhou which consists of 10 universities and takes up an entire island (there are lots of islands coz Guangzhou is located at the Zhujiang delta). These universities are mostly not the so-called full-fledged ones which have social science + engineering + arts + etc. but universities with a more focused field, for example a university for Chinese medicine.

There were people living on the island long before this education-city concept took ground, so the authorities shifted some of the old housing to other locations on the island. It was kinda strange, but I saw traditional houses right under a highway.

A traditional house, in the shadow of a towering highway

We were ushered into a lecture theatre in Sun Yat-Sen University. It was... erm... lousier than I expected, considering that the university was newly built. So apparently the buildings all look fantastic from the outside, but inside it was not as impressive. The toilets were faulty as well. Oh well, let's just say I didn't have a very good impression. So anyway we were supposed to attend this seminar on the Environmental Policy of Guangdong Province, but the lecturer had made the decision to change to topic on her own! So she talked instead about economic stuff instead. It was ok... some interesting history stuff.

The lecture theatre. They still have the sliding boards thingy, and that's fine. But why are they still using the blackboard type? I think whiteboards would've been better.

Me outside the university's library

Ok, since I forgot what was for lunch and what was for dinner, I shall write about both together. We definitely had dinner with the Guangzhou government officials though.

Banner reads "广州市番禺区人民政府欢迎第八届海外杰青汇中华访问团宴会"

We had mutli-course meals and there were of course performances...

We had 开胃酒, which is an alcoholic-appetizer-drink. Kinda like the German Schnaps, I think.

But the most interesting bit for most of the participants was this particular dish:

It's made of bugs, flour and other stuff. The bugs are the maggot-like strips on the food. It actually tasted OK. As a Cantonese I suppose it ain't weird to have such dishes. Haha. It's just another protein source!

Day 5

We spent the morning visiting a sewage treatment plant (ewww. no photos for that), and the museum. The museum itself is a historical 5 storey building. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of it... you can try to google it =P Some stuff inside:






We then took a flight to Xi'an. Most people in my group got Business Class seats. Woohoo! It was nice to have so much more leg room. No personalised entertainment though. I guess maybe because it's an internal flight. Sat with Ruilin who is a Singaporean but studying in Warwick University in the UK. The lunch was ok. I don't really have anything much against airplane food.


Anyway, we reached Xi'an late evening if I remembered correctly. There was a light drizzle. The rain was good as it made it cooler... Xi'an is inland and rather dry and hot. Anyway, I first realised here that they place many colorful LED lights on the undersides of the elevated highways. Gosh. What a waste of energy. It was seriously totally unnecessary.

The rest of the night was spent at this place where we had a dumpling feast. There was a waitress there who looked soooooo alike to Zhang Ziyi. Like really really alike. She served our table. And guess what? It was her birthday that day! We sang her a birthday song and many people took photos with her. She looked happy that night =) Unfortunately I don't have photos of her... Here are some photos of the dumplings/jiao zis instead:

Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned for the Terracotta Warriors and other places in Part 4...

Qatar Airways flight

The last time I had a long distance flight was a Thai Airways flight from Singapore to Frankfurt with a transit at Bangkok in Dec 2003. I didn't quite enjoy it because it was a night flight, the seats felt cramped, the atmosphere felt bad and I could attain at best a half-sleep-half-awake mode during the flight. Also I was separated from the other choir members that I was travelling with.

This time round I have to say I felt much better. The food was better, the atmosphere was better and I didn't felt like I was in a cramped space (although space was still limited). Best of all I could sleep for awhile during the flight.

Gute Reise ~~ Good Travel ~~ Have a good trip!

Ok, so let's start from the beginning at Changi airport. Sadly no one from NTU aerospace came to send us off, I guess because they had a quiz that morning, and our flight was scheduled at 7.10am. Anyway, Bernard's family and 2 of his friends did come. My total luggage weight actually exceeded the limit by a lot (note to self: weigh in advance next time!), but the counter person ignored it so... *phew*. Regret bringing so many clothes, but that's another story for next time.

Before entering the gates. I look fat here huh?

So anyway, I was excited and nervous. There was so much I was kinda afraid of, but there was also so much I look forward to (travelling being one of them). First leg of the flight: Singapore-Qatar. Sadly there was no personal in-flight entertainment... and the music was old and crappy =P The breakfast, with the main "course" being omelette wrapped in mozarella cheese, was actually rather tasteless. Then later we had a smaller "brunch" meal, and I found the custard cake rather nice.

An excited me in my seat

Breakfast: Fruit salad, Croissant, Bread, Omelette in Mozarella Cheese...

"Brunch": Sandwich, tea and a custard cake

We arrived at Qatar International Airport at 9+am local time which was earlier than scheduled. Like in many airports I've been to in China/HK, there was no skybridge directly from the airplane to terminal so we had to take a bus. And I saw... a barren desert landscape. Seriously I was thinking about planet Naboo from Star Wars. The facilities at the airport were ok. I wrote a blog entry.

Barren land and sand sand sand...

The ONLY colorful structure in view...

We didn't eat anything there. I read a bit of my Freakonomics book but I grew sleepy after sometime. So somehow we let time slip by and it was time to board our plane to Munich. As we stepped out from the terminal to the bus outside, I heard a lady said "Sauna". That was so true... it was hot hot hot outside.

The plane taking us from Doha to Munich

So anyway, the 2nd leg of the flight. We got bad seats... at the side but no windows (right beside the emergency exit), and we couldn't incline our seats. But that's was more a problem to Bernard... I don't usually incline my seat much, even when I take a bus back to BP. So anyway, now we had personalised entertainment with a mini-screen in front of each of us. I watched Ocean's Thirteen and then Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives of Others), but I didn't complete the latter. Foodwise was also better, I liked the chicken, mashed potato and raw salmon meat for lunch. Mmm...

So anyway, we landed, we met with the person who was supposed to fetch us, Ms Caroline. And that's another story again, so... haha...

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Going to Neuschwanstein Castle tomorrow. It's the most famous castle in Germany and the Disneyland castle was modelled after it.

My next post would likely be a long overdue continuation of my China/HK series. Haha...