Day 22 - 25 - A busy but culture learning week!

Today marks the start of the fourth week! Three weeks passed so quickly! Times really do flies! Two more weeks and all of us can once again see our parents, friends and relatives! However, last 2 weeks will not be easy. There will be presentations after presentations, report and exams! I hope everyone will made it through for we have come thus far and will definitely make it to the end!

For the whole of this week, it was a busy week for me to prepare myself for the test, report and projects! However, this whole week is a fun learning experience for me as I get to tried many new things which include calligraphy, Feng Shui, etc...

Day 22

For day 22, we had our normal lecture in the morning. In the noon, we had something interesting, the paper cutting! It is indeed fun to cut paper into many different unique shapes! Cutting paper may seems easy but to cut it to a meaningful shape with a specific hidden message to it requires great skill! We are introduced to many different design of cut paper done by the people in the past. It is interesting to guess the hidden meaning before each paper that is cut out! One such example is the fish that is cut out!
Can you guess the meaning of it? It represents that 'nian nian you yu' as the fish is connected to the paper!

Other photos:


Next, we were shown some pictures and the different ways of cutting the paper to form different unique shapes before we began! The teacher also kindly demonstrate to us to give every single of us a head start as to what pattern to cut! This is the time when we also get to bond with the lecturers and to be able to know more about them like whether or not they have 'good' cutting skills like me! Overall, it is a great time spent bonding with friends. Although we may not really learn great skills on paper cutting, I think everyone had fun enjoying the quality time with friends and lecturers!
Teacher's work piece!


Mine awesome workpiece!


Day 23

Day 23 is the day of our IS presentation that we spent long and tiring nights preparing for it. As we were only given 5 days to prepare, we had no choice but to burn the midnight oil to complete it. During the IS presentation, I did not really feel nervous about it. When it is my turn to present, I manage to present with ease and also entertain my peers with those funny jokes in my presentations! I realised one thing that I changed since I came to Ngee Ann Polytechnic. During my secondary school day life, I am afraid of presentation, especially when presenting to the class on our projects. As a result, I always stammered during presentation. However, now, I manage to speak with more confident and courage! I think it is because that in Ngee Ann, I had much more presentation and together with the comments given by the lecturers, I am able to correct myself to become a better presenter. Lastly, I would like to praise my group mates for all the hard work that we put in for the presentation as without them, we may not had such successful presentation where most of the students laughed and were entertained by it!

In the evening, we learnt about Feng Shui and the different types of burial techniques. Feng Shui is something very unique. It comprises of wind and water. He taught us quite a number of things that will affect Feng Shui like the do's and the don'ts. For example, buying a house that face the sea will have a very good Feng Shui but a house that face away from the sea will have a bad Feng Shui. Next, we are also introduced to the different types of burial techniques. I find it interesting as in Singapore, we only had cremation or buried techniques. However, in China, there are other different techniques like the cliff burial where coffin is hang on the cliff or the water burial where the corpse is being laid on the boat and pushes away into the deep blue sea!


Day 24

Day 24 is another lecture day. Both the morning and afternoon are lectures held by Mr Lee and Dr Tan respectively! This will also be most likely one of our last lectures here in Wuhan. I promised to pay close attention and appreciate the time spent together during this last lecture taught by our lecturers. Although lectures may be common to us students now, the last lecture always made a difference to me as they will no longer be teaching us next semester! Thank you lecturers for the effort you all have put in in the last semester and this OIP trip!

Day 25

Day 25 is finally the day we get to rest! Although there is an IS lecture on calligraphy and tea session, we are free for the whole day after that. We start off with the calligraphy first followed by the tea session. First, we are introduced to the history of calligraphy and the different types of famous work piece that was sold at a high price! Next, we get to try it out ourselves! I always thought calligraphy is simple as for Chinese, we get to write Chinese almost everyday since young till our O levels. Moreover, during my secondary school days, I was asked to write composition every week to improve my writing skills! Hence, I believed that writing in Chinese is as easy as pie for me! Little did I know that calligraphy was way different from the normal Chinese character we wrote. Every strokes has a unique head and tail that is different from what I usually write! However, with both my friend and my effort, we manage to write out different idioms! Although it may not be perfect, we tried our best! It was a great effort that we done after all.



Next, we had our tea session! For tea session, we are introduced to many different types of tea like the Guan Yin, Red tea, Green tea and Yellow tea. I did not know that making tea also requires great skill. If you boil the tea leaves in the water for a longer period of time, the taste will be too dense for drinking. On the other hand, if you boil in water for too short period of time, the taste of the tea will be blunt. Also, if the water is not at boiling point, the flavour of the tea will not diffuse out and the tea will be blunt! Hence, making tea may seems easy but it is not! Furthermore, distributing tea also has steps! Oldest female should receive the first cup while the last cup should be taken by the one who made the tea to taste the flavour of the cup of tea he or she made. I do not know whether am I fortunate or unlucky as I am chosen to brew the tea in front of all my peers and the teacher! I can feel my hand shaking as I am afraid of doing the wrong steps! Fortunately, my peers helped me throughout the process and I managed to done it! Though it was not the best tea, I hope everyone enjoyed it! I will also want to thank the teacher for giving me the opportunity to try out! As I am a person who learn by practicing, by doing hands on activity, it will be easier for me to remember the steps for brewing of tea!
Different kind of tea leaves!

Tea set!

And last but not least the 'pro' making tea!


This week had been a fun and fulfilling week for my with many activities planned by the school for us! If not for the teachers and students in Wuchang University, we would not be able to learn and try out all these things and learn the the culture of China. Thank you Wuchang University of Technology.

Day 20 and 21 - Wuhan City Tour

Day 20 is a day in the city of Wuhan! On that very day, 5 interesting places which include Hubei Provincial Museum, Dong Hu, Shou Yi Yuan Xiao Chi for lunch, Yellow Crane Tower and Chang Jiang River!

In the morning, things didn't go well as expected. We are told to gather at 7.45am! However, my friend off his alarm on iPhone after it rang once! Thus, at 7.45am we are still in the bed! We only woke up when my friend knocked at our door! Both me and my room mate panicked for everyone is waiting for us! Fortunately, we had a encouraging lecturer who told us to calm down and get changed and said that he will wait for us! Immediately, we got changed and got out of our hostel at only 6minutes! I am truly sorry for being late and wasting everyone's time. I promised that I will set my alarm daily too for the rest of the days. This had taught me a lesson to be safe than sorry. For both me and my roommate are relying only on 1 alarm clock which is his phone and if he were to off it, there will not be anymore alarm clock. I should have set mine and this will not have happened.

Luckily, for the rest of the day, things started to get better. We are mostly on time for every gathering after visiting those places of interest in China, except during lunch time as there are too many things to try! Our first station is Hubei Provincial Museum! There are many olden things that can be seen there! One of the place we visited is the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng. At there, we get to see the items that are buried with him. Not only are there items, there are also many alive female being buried together with him! I think that it is cruel to buried someone alive. I don't think that many of these females are willing to be buried but they are forced to do so. Fortunately, during the present, I think most countries only allowed monogamy and people are not allowed to be buried alive. Such laws saved the lives of many females which is a good thing as we should have gender equalities! One thing that I find it amazing is that the tomb is able to place so many things in it. Also, people in the past are able to make tomb, cups and stuffs without the help of machines! They must have really work hard to carve all these items out! Since the past had worked so hard, living in the present, we should work even harder as we now have the help of machines to do many things for us!


Next, we went to Dong Hu where we get to see the beauty of the nature! That place is a soothing and relaxing place where one can immense themselves into the nature and enjoy the magnificent scenery of trees, flowers and lakes! Also, you can hear the birds chirping and the rustling of trees!


In the noon, we went for lunch at Shou Yi Xiao Chi to try out the local delicacies! We are given 40minutes to have our lunch at that venue. Although 40minutes may seem long, it is actually quite short for us since there are a vast varieties of food to try! As soon as we enter, the aroma smell of those delicious food whetted my appetite. I can feel my stomach grumbling for food! The first item we bought was the red bean cake that was introduced by the stall owner! Although it is nice, it is quite sweet and pretty small which is not filling! Thus, we went for some rice which is none other than the famous beancurd rice! The traditional one was amazing with egg added in it! Anyone who go Wuhan must try it for it is one of the delicacies! We also went on trying other stuffs like dumpling and buns! Most of the food there are delicious! Unfortunately, we didn't take note of our time again this time! Most of us are busy buying and trying food that no one took notice of time! Thus, most of us are late! This is another lesson for me to learnt! Always take note of time! I am truly sorry for those that are for waiting for us.



The third place we visited is the well known Yellow Crane Tower! Unlike previous tour guide, this one did not really talk much about the tower to us! Still, it was a worthwhile journey as we get to see many more interesting stuffs, especially the spectacular view at the top of Yellow Crane Tower!
Lastly, we went to the Chang Jiang River, a river that is part one of the longest Yangtse River! I had to confess that the river looks more like a big lake than a river as the water is quite stagnant and the gradient is almost flat! But the view there was great with many newly weds taking wedding photos there!
Yellow Crane Tower


Yangtst River


The next day, we had our strawberry farm visit! This time, I made sure I set my alarm clock and wake up on time! Indeed, it worked! i was the few that who were ready that day! After a 40min bus ride, we arrived at our destination! The only disadvantage about that place is the muddy, sticky and slipper ground! If one is not trained to walk gingerly like me, he or she will fall into the pool of mud easily! Fortunately, with the support of other friends and lecturers, all of us manage to cross the narrow muddy path with 'ease'. This shows the importance of friends to support you in times of trouble! Next, we proceed n with the main activity, the plucking of strawberries! At first, I stood there firmly without moving as I knew such places will dirty my shoes and jeans! However, I can see my friends plucking strawberries happily. Should I just join? Finally, I gave in. I decided to go for it since 'you only live once' (YOLO). It was indeed fun to pluck strawberries with friends! The strawberries there are in many shapes! Some of it are in the shapes of chilli and cherries! All in all, we had great fun plucking strawberries and filling our plastic bags with it! For this is the first time for most of us!



After the strawberry farm visit, we had a party in the noon organised by the students in Wuchang University! It was held in a dance studio which look like the modern clubbing venue where lights are flashing around the studio! Next, they had quite a few performances before the games started! It was fun to be with the locals, chatting to them while enjoying the performance! The locals are friendly in sharing with us their school lifestyles where some of them studied till late in the night! In Singapore, I heard from many people saying that the reason why China people are coming to Singapore for education is that the education system in China is way below Singapore! However, looking at the way they studied, I believed that many of them are as intelligent as we Singaporeans and we should never look down on anyone! Singaporeans must change the ways they think about China for China is developing so quickly and may soon overtake Singapore to become a developed country! During the games, I was chosen to be part of it! My only goal for the game is to win and get the calligraphy! With this motive, I worked towards my goal in putting all I had into this game, unleashing my full 'potential!' Miraculously, we won the game and I achieved what I wanted! After the games, we had karaoke there in the dance studio! It was indeed fun to be singing with friends and enjoying those quality time with them! All in all, this will be a memorable party for me with such great fun with all my peers and the local here! Lastly, I will like to thank the local for putting in all the effort to prepare this for us! Personally, I appreciate everything they did for us even though we did not do much for them! Thank you once again to the students of Wuchang University of Technology!


That's all for the day! Goodnight blog and see yah tomorrow! :D