Wuhan, China: Day 1

Day 1, 4th March

Day one, which is the day our trip for Wuhan starts. I was excited and looking forward to it. This is my first time going to China, and my first time taking plane in my life. This trip will last as long as six weeks. Therefore I am going to miss a lot of stuff in Singapore including my parents, my friends and the food in Singapore.
I shall start from the moment I woke up in the morning. I slept late the previous night doing a final check in my preparation for Wuhan. So, I woke up at 4am in the morning. I bathed and started preparing to leave for airport. My dad specially took leave from his work to send me off to the airport together with my mum. We reached the airport at around 5am and started to gather at the departure hall at Terminal One. We booked in at around 7am. I waved goodbye to my parents and I shall be independent from that moment onwards.
So the airline we are taking is China Southern Airline. My first experience taking the plane is awesome. I was super excited about it. I was lucky to be sitting just beside the plane window as I can have a view on the outside while the plane is on flight. It was thrilling as I see the plane was taking off.
From my dream seat: Side by side with the window and just a few seats away from the plane. The picture shows a pyramid-like cloud formed and the left wing of the plane.

On the other hand, as a first timer, my ears experienced some pain when the pressure changes as the altitude of the plane changes. So we took the flight to Guang Zhou and then transit to Wuhan. The flight from Singapore to Guang Zhou took about 4 hours. There was still time before we transit, so we actually went to find some place to have our lunch.

Our first meal in Wuhan is MacDonalds. We could not really find any place to have our meals other than MacDonalds.

Until around 3pm, we make our way to our next flight, to Wuhan. This time we are taking Boeing 737 – 700. This plane is smaller than the previous one, however the service is still equally good. The flight took only about more than one hour. We reached Wuhan airport at around 5pm. The moment when we step out of the airport is like when I opened my freezer at home. I have never felt this cold outdoor before. It was totally freezing. And one by one, we start to put on more clothings. And after that, we took a shuttle bus prepared for us to Wuhan.
The bus trip took us around 2 hours. As the journey in the bus moves on, the sky slowly darkened. There were all sorts of amazing scenery during the trip. And from the long journey, I realized that the roads are somewhat different from Singapore. The roads here in China are very long and uneven. And many street lamps are not working, which makes the whole stretch of road pitch dark.
That’s all for the trip to Wuhan. So, we finally reached our destination, Wuhan University of Science Technology. The overview of the University is beautiful. We then moved on to find our own specific Dormitories
First impression of the Dom, it was bigger than what I expected. The same goes for the rooms. So we settled down and started to do our own stuff. Well, there is one thing that made us down – there is no internet connection. We were all disappointed as we need it to somehow contact our families and friends.
I guess I shall stop now for today. It is 12.22am now, and it is freezing cold.
I had my first experience of an air flight. And I realized how the Local people here are going through during winter season. On the other hand, I also had a clearer picture on how life is like here in china. There are not much infrastructures here in china, and so far, the places I have seen are not well developed. However, this is only for Day 1. China is gigantic and what I have seen so far is just a puny part of Wuhan. I hope to visit more places of Wuhan tomorrow and gain more knowledge. I hope tomorrow will not be as cold as today. However, on the other hand, I really hope I can see snow here in China.

Day 2, 5^th March

Woke up at 6am in the morning to prepare for the meeting. We tried to wake up early so as to avoid the queue for toilet. It was freezing cold early in the morning. I was quite reluctant to shower as it was too cold early in the morning.

We had our breakfast at the usual canteen and we headed to find our primary classroom. The classroom is some kind of a computer lab.

We are not having a formal lesson today. So, it is just basically a briefing on what we will be doing and so on. After that we had a tour around the University. The university is rather big and there are a lot of things to see.

After the tour, we were given a task. We have to find our way to a destination by public bus. The destination is Lu Xiang Guang Chang (鲁巷广场). We asked around and we found the answer from a road marshal on duty who controls the traffic in and out of the university. We had to take bus 901 to our destination. We took the bus from the bus stop across the road.

The bus service is totally different from Singapore. Unlike Singapore, passengers will board the bus first before paying for the bus fare. Payment of bus fares in Singapore is easier by just tapping the Ez-link card on the machine. The buses in china each will have a person selling the bus ticket inside the bus. Other than selling the ticket, the person will also manage the passengers alighting and boarding. Therefore the job has a high responsibility, as the person has to look out for anyone who boards the bus without paying the bus fare.

After the 15-minute bus trip, we manage to reach our destination. We still have a lot of time before the meeting time, so we went shopping in the shopping centres.

From today I have an idea on how the transportation in Wuhan is like. It is so much different from Singapore. And most importantly, we managed to find our own way in a very unfamiliar place.

Day 3, 6^th March

We did not do much today. We had our presentation on the ‘History and culture of Singapore’. Honestly, I was not very well prepared and thus, had quite a poor performance.

During the break, some of us went to the basketball courts near canteen 2 to play.

After our lunch, we went back to our classroom. We were given assignments to do as we move on. My group has to do one essay on Educational System and a photo essay on ‘Faces’. To take pictures of faces, we may have to do it in stealth mode.

That should be all for today’s entry. We did not get to go anywhere to explore Wuhan today. We will be visiting the famous Yellow Crane Tower tomorrow. I am very interested and will be looking forward to it.

Day 4, 7^th March

Finally we get to explore other places of Wuhan today! Our main destination is the Yellow Crane Tower.

We were to gather outside the main entrance at 7.50am in the morning. Once everyone has reached, we set off by bus with our tour guide, Xiao Wang (小汪).

So, our first stop is the East Lake (东湖). The trip took about 20 minutes and Xiao Wang told us historical stories during the trip.

The whole place is like a big garden. The lake is huge that you can hardly see the other side of the land.

We took a small tram which can only allow eight people onboard to tour around East Lake. The driver will then stop at certain places to allow us to take photos and have a walk around. There was one stop where we can try the archery. It was my first time using a bow, and it was fun!

After a few rounds of archery, we continued the tour around East Lake.

After we left East Lake, we went to the museum. I love visiting museum as I am interested in those kinds of historical objects. Xiao Wang explained the artifacts and their stories behind them. Below are photos of the artifacts in the museum.

Of course these photos are only a small portion of all the photos I have.

After the tour in the museum, we went to have our lunch at a market. The food there are cheap, and most importantly, they are delicious!

After we filled our stomach, we continued our journey to the Yellow Crane tower.

I learnt many things from Xiao Wang about the things in the Yellow Crane Tower, such as the story behind the Yellow Crane Tower.

A poem of Yellow Crane Tower by Li Bai:

故人西辭黃鶴樓
煙花三月下揚州
孤帆遠影碧山盡
惟見長江天際流

We walked around the souvenir shop awhile and we left the tower. We were all tired after all the walking, so we went straight back to our hostel to rest.

In conclusion, it is really resourceful day for me. I get to see lots of things and places that we cannot in Singapore. I also gained a lot of knowledge on the history of China. I really hope there can be more opportunities like this.

Day 5, 8^th March

Today is an off day for all of us! So I slept to my fill, unlike previous days where we have to wake up forcefully for meetings. I woke up naturally at around 10am.

Today, me and my group members decided to go out to explore the city areas in Wuhan. We decided to go to Wu Chang Region (武昌区). It is located near the Yellow Crane Tower area.

It is going to be a long journey, so we decided to take a cab. Furthermore, the buses are all crowded, so we could not really board the bus. We stood at the roadside to wait for a cab. However, we did not manage to find any cab for quite a long time. Then out of a sudden there was a van stopping infront of us. The driver offered to drive us to Wu Chang Region for 70 RMB. We hesitated and discussed, and we decided to accept the offer. We had our guard on and we were sensing whether there is anything wrong. But luckily, the driver turned out to be a friendly man. We chatted and he told us about the different places of Wuhan and suggestion on some popular places where we can pay a visit.

So, we reached Wu Chang Region in about an hour’s time. We had a comfortable trip, and the driver even gave us his name card.

The place here is very crowded maybe because it is a Sunday.

We did not have neither our breakfast nor lunch, so we were hungry so we decided to find food to eat first. We learnt from the kind driver just now that there is a place called Xiao Chi Yi Tiao Jie (小吃一条街). So we find our way and we finally reached the place.

The food there is delicious. We went for an eating spree as we were all very hungry. We bought many food at one go and we settled at a corner to eat.

After we had our lunch, we went to explore and shop. The prices here in Wuhan are slightly cheaper than Singapore’s.

We came across a man who is begging for money, with a body lying infront of him, which appears to have passed away.

It is a saddening sight but I just have to accept the fact that this kind of things do happen. There are many cruel parts of life and this is one life example. From this I learnt that there are many people in china, or perhaps in this world, who lead a poor and difficult life.

Alright, I think I shall move on.

We shopped till night time and it is time for dinner. We had our dinner at Houcaller Beefsteak.

We decided to go back after our dinner, since it is getting late. This time we took a cab back which cost us about 50RMB. It is much cheaper than we paid earlier on. The cab driver is friendly to us. He also explained to us about the places in Wuhan. He even told us that the van we took previously is dangerous, and strongly advise us not to take the risk to take this kind of van anymore. I guess we were too hasty to accept the offer to board the van from a stranger. No matter, we should not take this kind of risk.

Wu Chang Region is gigantic and we have only been a small part of it only. I hope we can have more time to go to other places in Wuhan. There will be lesson tomorrow. I shall stop now, it is getting late, and I shall sleep earlier to be able to wake up tomorrow.

Day 6, 9^th March

I had a difficult time waking up today as I slept rather late the previous night. Most of us overslept so we really rushed and went for a fast breakfast before we go to our class.

We had our first formal lesson. Today’s lesson is about Introduction to Hubei’s history and culture, and our lecturer is Miss Anna Xie. She is nice and she is good in both English and Chinese.

I learnt a lot of things from today’s lesson, about how Wuhan is formed from Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang. There are also historical stories like how ZhuGeLiang helped win the war at Chibi, and many other stories. I am very interested in all those historical stories so I was listening attentively. The lessons are quite interesting as there were many different videos to elaborate and teach us better.

We went to have our lunch and then back for lessons again. This time we had our IS module. We were asked to write an essay on what we have learnt from today morning’s lesson on Hubei. We spent a very long time of about more than two hours to finish it. The lesson ends after we submitted our essay.

Then it is time for dinner. My group along with group one went to have our dinner at the nearby fishball restaurant just opposite our school.

The food there was delicious and less oily compared to our school canteen. It was rather cheap too for a restaurant. We tried some new dishes that we have never tried before in Singapore, such as the pigeon meat, mutton ribs and a kind of fish. They are dishes that I have never tried before, and I am glad that I had the opportunity to taste them. We all eat to our fill and we felt that it is very worth it. I highly recommend anyone to go there for at least once.

Today is quite a resourceful day. I learnt many things about Hubei history and I hope I can get to learn more! There is still lessons tomorrow, have to get as much rest as possible tonight.

Day 7, 10^th March

I woke up late again today. My alarm rang at 6am, but I woke up at 7am. But luckily there is still quite a lot of time before class.

We did not do much today other than we had our first APPG lesson conducted by Mr. Chua. I was rather blur at the beginning but it got better as I moved on.

Dave resting in class after he finish doing his work.

We went out to buy some bread for dinner as well as tomorrow morning’s breakfast. The bread taste good!

Day 8, 11^th March

I woke up late again today! My alarm was supposed to ring at 6.30am, but either it did not ring or I off it without me myself knowing. In the end, I woke up at 8.20am. The class starts at 9am and therefore I have only forty minutes to shower and prepare. I quickly rushed to the toilet to shower, however, ladyluck is not with me – the heater is not working well and I showered in cold water. I was shivering so much.

Today had IS lessons and other groups went to have their presentation. For my group, we already had our presentation, so we did not have any stress.

We got dismissed early today before 4pm. So we decided to have fun, we went to play basketball and soccer. For the first time, I sweat in Wuhan.

After playing, we went for dinner. So that’s basically all for today.

Day 9, 12^th March

As usual, we had APPG lessons. And during the break, we went to have our group’s China Hi-card enabled to make overseas calls. Our lessons ended early today at around 3pm. We then went back to our hostels to rest before we meet again at the club house to have basketball matches interactions with the local students.

We all went back to the hostel at around 8pm. I bathed and rested, before starting to pack my bag for the cruise trip.

It is long since I went for a cruise trip. The last time was when I was just a little kid. Therefore I am excited about this cruise and I hope I can enjoy my trip there, and the same goes to everybody else.

Day 10, 13^th March

We woke up early to prepare to go on a three days two nights cruise to the three gorges.

Before we headed for the cruise, we went to other places first.

Firstly we had about 4-hour ride to have our lunch at a restaurant. The dishes there were delicious and the servings are quite big. I ate to my content.