Hi guys... just returned back from China today... hope u ppl are fine... am so tired slept for so long and still tired am going to sleep soon. i had a new name in China Shen Hong... specially named by Mark our tour guide.
Our first destination was Nanjing... a fast developing city. In Nanjing we went to the massacare centre where more than 300,000 people have been buried during the Japanese occupation. very sad. was also told that the Japanese killed, cooked and ate the women and children.
Next we went to our hotel- it was the hotel where we stayed the longest. after which went for dinner. was so scared off by the lobster they gave ( quite a bad dinner) then went to the Nanjing night market to shop! had fun shopping to the extreme... haha...but we got lost. Didn't know how to og back but we managed to.
the second day we went to ciggeratte factory. Production was very fast and efficient with the high usage of mechanism. however, the numeber of labour used is extremely low. China being popular to have such high number of population should focus in providing the people with as much employment oppt rather than providing its TNCs to maximise their profit. Moreover, the factory follows the division of labour system which might help the industry to improve efficinecy but in macro scale it is a disadvantage for the people working there as they will not be able to learn much and there will not be much of transfer of knowledge.
went for lunch at a fishery restaurant... it was so fun there...it was 5 story high with very nice setting. never seen such places in Singapore before.
After that we went to the Dr Sun Yat Sen Memorial place. it was one of the place where i really nejoyed myself as it was filled with sceneries and pure oxygen. we had to climb 392 steps to get to see his memorial and history.Next, went to a museum where there was exhibits of history of jade, ceramics and silk. quite boring though! next was dinner at the fishery restaurant. then back to Nanjing night market to shop... had to pack our luggage as we had to go to Suzhou the next day.
After about 3hours in the bus we reached Suzhou industrial park. a place where Singapore has invested a lot. For a moment, i thought i was in Singapore. The roads, houses,shops, starbucks, clinics, macdonalds, backery, buildings- all reminded me of home! after interviewing the people working there about the economic activity there we made our way happily to starbucks. at starbucks, i saw a local and assumed that she knows english, so i approached her and introduced myself. suprisingly, she knew english! there came my oppt to interview her... splendid answers to help me in my understanding about the social, economic and cultural impacts of development of suzhou as a industrial park.
As usual dinner and then hotel and then consutaion.
Day 4 passed very fast in Qiong Long Shan National Forest and Suzhou Xishan National Agriculturla Centre... climbing up the forest was exciting esp with cool weather. Initially, i thought itr was a place to relax. it was only then that i realised that there were statues of chinese gos who helps to protect the country from natutal disasters. It was so stress relieving to climb up the mountain and enjoy the nature by myself!
The agrcultural centre was like an amusing park - 4 times larger than the size of Singapore. imagine how big it is! lots of organic plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables. lots of animals also.. i fed the sheeps. haha... so fun!
learning point: China attracts toursits not only via industrial tourism but also through agricultural tourism. to note, they dont only attract tourist from other countries, they also attract tourist from other parts of China such as Shanghai and Beijing. the increasing boom in service sector is a very hot area for many chinese as they have large amount of jobs available in this sector.
dinner and consultation as usual.
Day 5 - check out from 2nd hotel and visited the Zhou Zhuang - UNESCO heritage site. conducted an interview there on how tourism has benefited the people there. mainly neutral answers with some positive ones. had some street shopping there. went to take our lucnh and back in our couch to Hangzhou.
after around 4 hrs journey, we reached our location a tea plantaion site. bought the emperor's tea there. checked into a new hotel... very nice hotel but no privacy as all the rooms were on the same floor - had to maintain silence. night ended with consultation and Ms Leong's advice to take medicine.
Day 6 - check out from 3rd hotel and went to the west lake. took a boat to have a better view and i got to see a large iran family in the boat beside mine. while we had some learning to do in the boat the iranians had a fun time dancing. after which we made our way to Ling Yin temple it had many buddhist carvings and cavrs. Next we made our way to Shanghai a developed city filled with lights and many tall buildings - more than what we have here. checked in into our last hotel. Didnt really like this hotel but had lots of fun here as we spent every of our nights here having party and gossiping. lol...
Da7 - our second last day. went to the coca cola factory. the production line was extremely efficient and fast. again they have the same problem as the ciggeratte factory. they also practice divison of labour. the history of how coca cola established is very interesting.
Next we went to have our lunch near a restaurant at the pearl tower. very excited to go to the pearl tower. they had very tight security. took a lift to 259 storey to have a view of the whole shanghai city from the pearl tower. Shanghai is one of the largest urban area with 28 million people. Then we went to a mueseum in the first floor, which showcased the old shanghai. Ms Nura and myself were really getting crazy and high there as we began to take plenty of photos with the statues and models.
Next, was dinner and then went to Fudan University. Interviews some students esp regarding issues such as Taiwan, Tibet and US. they were quite open minded and had many perspectives and views.
Went back to hotel but this time round was no longer consultation night or party time... it was shopping time at one of the biggest mall near our hotel. however, the stuffs there were far too expensive and were not able to bargain as it was a mall... after a tiring night shopping we made our way to hotel and after a few hours of rest had our party time... hurray!
last day in China/Shanghai - checked out of hotel. we were supposed to go to a church but for some reason we were not allowed to get into it. so instead we went to a nearest park and then to a bund. Had our lunch there and then began our shopping. After around 4 hours of shopping went to tkae cruise. it was so fun in the cruise. lastly took skytrin to airport and that was the end of my trip.
Personal views =)The experience i had in China can never be forgotten as it is the first country that i have visited without my parents. it was very speacial for me as i am a indian muslim and it is relatively hard for me to survive there. every one there look at you ery wierdly and they always get suprised to see me being so close with my chinese friends. the time spent with my friends - tricia. Yin Lin, Yani, Pei Wen, Alex, Darren, Felicia Ang, Andrew and Cindy was a memorable one. hope that all the things i learn can be shared wif everyone of u guys! take care peeps... would upload the photos soon.. too tired now!lots of loveFarveen
At times we feel low, sad, depressed and at times we feel happy, excited, cheerful...but human nature is such that we can willigly accept our happy moments but unwillingly the sad ones. We should learn how to accept both type of feelings so that we can handle life life in ease. Though things like breaking up, arguments with friends, missing ur loved ones and scoring badly can bring about sorrow and disappointment, we should learn how to overcome ite and move on with life...
