At Last!

DAY 25

At last!We got to visit pharmaceutical companies here:)We actually visited 2 of them today!
It was interesting to see that how similar the place were to the ones we visited in Singapore.The equipments and machines were similar to the ones we saw at Merck in Singapore.



First stop-Clover Biopharmaceuticals!:)

Let's Make Dumplings!!

DAY 24

We had our final presentation today!We presented on herbal medicines and cultures!I hope we did well today:)

Anyway,after the presentation, we went to make dumplings!!We gathered at the halal canteen and started to make dumplings!It was my first time making dumplings so my dumplings came out weird but my friends made really nice dumplings:) I was quite happy that I got to try making dumplings here because I don't think I would ever try making it at home in Singapore.

The Ingredients!

End Product!Before cooking...

After making it,the dumplings were cooked for us and we got to eat it!:) I tried a few and it was really tasty, especially with the vinegar sauce:)

Our Cooked Dumplings!:)It was tasty!

City/Town!

DAY 20

Since it is sunday today,the class decided to make a trip to the city!!Because we needed to take the shuttle bus from school,which will take us to the old campus,where we will take another bus to reach the city...we had to wake really early this morning(since there is specific timing for the school's shuttle bus) to catch the shuttle bus:)

McDonalds for lunch!Yay!

Town!

A volunteer we got to know from our visit to the textile college was kind enough to help bring us around to shop as we were not that familiar with the area...


The day ended quite horribly-because we missed our bus(some bus service here end at a certain time) so we had to take a taxi back to the school.However,somehow there were no taxis available:(We had to walk quite a long way to reach a place where the volunteer told us we could take private cars and pay the driver to take us back.



The car I took(with joyce,ke xin and kidman) got lost quite a few times and we started to feel a little nervous as we could not really understand what the driver were saying as she had a strong accent..However,after seeking help from some people,the driver managed to understand us and we got back safely!:))Even though it was a little scary,the taxi ride was also an interesting experience for me because there are no private cars(taxis) in Singapore!:)

Let's do Embroidery!

DAY 16

We went for embroidery class today!!:)We gathered at the parking area at 830am and we set off for our destination,Chengdu Textile College!:) We were welcomed warmly by the teachers and principals of the school when we reached:)After that, we went on to proceed to a classroom where a teacher explained more about embroidery to us:) (specifically,Shu embroidery)

The teacher (on the left) explaining about Shu embroidery:)

After that,we got to try to do some embroidery and it was really fun!I really liked it and I think it would make a good relaxing activity!haha!We also went for a short tour around the college.It was bigger than it seemed.There are a lot of famous buildings and statues (Eg Statue of Liberty and the Egyptian Pyramid and more!) around the school and this is within the school compound itself!:)I noticed that the schools in China differ greatly in size to the schools in Singapore.Even UESTC is really huge compared to the universities found in Singapore.:)

What they made:)

A gift we got!Thank you:)

An art piece made by the students!This is actually made up of wood!

One of the statues found around the school!

Trying to do embroidery!

Final Ms Cahn Lesson:(

DAY 14

Today is the day of the final presentation for  Miss Katherine's class, which also means it is the last class we have with her:( She will be leaving on wed and go to Xia Men. Another teacher, Mr Ryan will come and take over. Today's presentation consisted only of 2 people in a group (for my group-Ke Xin and Me), which is pretty scary because we were the only ones in front when it is our turn..usually there would be 4 or 5 of us.But it's okay,the presentation ended and I hope we did well:)

Us with Miss Katherine:)

DAY 15

We had the day off today to work on our final report!At night, we held a small gathering/farewell party for Miss Katherine/Welcome party for Mr Ryan!We gathered at a small lounge in the shopping district and played games/hang out!:) Even though it was quite short because we already had to go back to our dorms, it was fun!:) The reason we had to go was that here, the front gate of the dorm will close at 11pm..We did arrived late and had to ring the doorbell to ask the auntie to open the doors for us:)!Luckily she wasn't angry:)

At the gathering!Playing games!

Er Mei Shan!!Snow!

DAY 13

We needed to get up by 6 this morning.It was really a pity that we could'nt sleep in as the hotel bed was really comfortable and the room was so warm!:(We went to get breakfast before setting off for the next mountain,Er Mei Shan!We had to change quite a number of buses before getting on the bus that will drive us to our destination.The road to the mountain was not a very pleasant one because it was such a bumpy ride with lots of turns!A lot of people had motion sickness because of it:(!Luckily,I was fine:)




When we reach the destination,we could see that the mountains was covered in snow!:)We have to climb some distance before taking a cable car to the top.Hence,we had to buy some special hiking shoe material that would help prevent us from slipping!It was really a great experience climbing up even though my 'shoe spike' kept on coming off:(

The view on the way up:)

Surrounded by snow..:)

On the way to the top!

After climbing some distance,we went on to join a long (and packed) queue to take the cable car to the top of the mountain!It took some time for it to finally be our turn to be on the cable car! The cable car here are quite different from the cable car back in Singapore..It can carry up to 100 people and the ride to the top only take 1 minute!But because there were too many people packed inside the cable car,we had a hard time trying to look at the view outside while on the way up:(, which was quite sad..We got to the top and spent some time there (to take pictures etc) before heading back down and back to the school:)

Trying to kill time while waiting for the cable car!!:)

Only part of the cable car queue!

This is the view when we reach the top!:)nice?

2D1N

DAY 12

Today is the day to go for the 2D1N tour to the mountains!
We needed to gather at the parking lot in front of the teaching building by 730am!Luckily this morning, me and Ke Xin arrived there on time:)
We set off to go to Le Shan Mountain first and it takes about 2h30min to get there.It was quite a long bus ride!:(
When we reach there,we had to queue to see the giant buddha.Even though it was quite early (ard 11 or 12 plus), there was already a lot of people lining up. At first,I didnt know that we were queuing to see the giant buddha.We were in the queue for about 20 minutes before we got to see the giant buddha.The statue was really huge!It was bigger than what I had expected.

The Giant Buddha!!

Staircase we took to get to the bottom of the Giant Buddha statue!It was really long:)

Entrance to see Giant Buddha.

 After seeing the giant buddha,some of us went on to see the sleeping buddha.Before going there,we went to a temple.To get to the temple,we had to actually climb a narrow long staircase!It was really exhausting but at least we got to exercise a little!haha!

We got to tour around at the top and there was 2 caves that had smaller statues in them.After that,we went on to see the sleeping buddha.It was also really huge and the buddha statue was really in a sleeping position.At first I couldnt figure it out but my friend helped me to see it.:)

At thebottom of the stairs!

After that,we headed to our hotel.We were excited because we were told that the room is going to be warm!It beats our cold dorm room:)!We were hoping to get at least a decent hotel room but it was much nicer than what we had expected!:))
We went for dinner at the hotel at 610pm.And they served us fish!!It was the first fish dish we had since we arrived here!We ate the fish till we could see its bones literally!

Jinli Garden Hotel!

After dinner,a group of us decided to walk and shop around the area there.We came across a small river and a unique pathway to get to across it.There were stones across the river and you can step on the stones to get to the other side.We all tried to go through it but because there were some missing stones in between that leftt quite a big gap..only a couple of us(Wei Jie and Joyce) succeeded!

Trying to get across!!:)

We went on to shop around the area.Even though it was quite late,a lot of the shops are still open. However,there wasn't a lot of the local people around.We got to do a little shopping before heading back for our hotel to rest for the long day the next day.

Town on our own!

DAY 11

Today we had an OIE Module on chinese philosophy at 830am.This class was different from our other classes because this class was taught by a lecturer from the university itself.He is a chinese national however he could speak fluent english.Hence,we were able to understand him and learn alot from the class.He taught us about Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism!I got to learn more about these three topics which before this, I really have little clue about it.:)

Our OIE teacher!

In the afternoon, the whole class decided to make a trip to the town area to unwind and go for a short shopping trip!To go there,we have to take the public transport which cost 1 RMB(=SGD20 cents only!).The buses here are not as predicted as those in Singapore.They do not have an exact timing as to when they are arriving and so,we all waited more than 30 minutes for the bus 116 (only bus which goes into town from school) to come! Luckily, the weather was not as cold as before and so it was okay to be standing at the bus stop(even though we got a little tired from waiting!):)There is also no queue formed to wait for the bus, unlike in Singapore.The people just crowd around.

When the bus comes, it is the culture to rush and quickly board the bus.The bus driver closes the doors quickly too hence, speed is important!I got to experience my 1st public bus ride here.We boarded quite a packed bus so everyone was pushing and squeezing to get in.The roads here are quite bumpy so we lost balance a few times while standing.It was really an interesting experience for me (even though it was quite hard to breathe because there were too many people around)!:)This is different in Singapore where the bus driver will prevent anyone from boarding the bus once the bus get a little too crowded.Another fascinating discovery that I made during the bus ride was people can actually get on the bus through the back door and it is not wrong!This is different from Singapore where you only get to enter through the front door!The back door of the Singapore bus will not even be open unless there is someone alighting!haha!People who entered from the back will then pass their money or 'ez link' to the people in front of them and the card or money will continue to be passed until it reaches the person nearest to the entrance.The person will then help to put the money into the box or help to tap the card for them.After that,the 'ez link' card will then be passed back to the rightful owner in the same manner by pasing the card from person to person!It was really an interesting sight to see:)

Town!

A small exercise area there!

Cultural Exchange:)

DAY 10


We had no class in the morning today.In the afternoon, we had to attend a cultural exchange programme that was organised by our student volunteers. We went to a classroom of theirs for the programme. Many other classmates of our student volunteers had also gathered there. We learned how to make some arts and crafts that are commonly done by the people here!Some of the students also prepared a dance performance for us to see!We also watched some videos that tells us more about Cheng Du:)

They taught us how to make the strings into a flower shape!

Dance Performance!

Done by me!

At night,we were invited to watch a drama performed by the students at the convention hall. Even though I could'nt really understand what they were saying, I must say that the student act very well!I could see them protraying the emotions on their faces and that actually helped me to understand the story better:)!I was also impressed at their ability to memorise so much lines!It is hard enough to memorise a couple of pages of our notes!But they acted so naturally that it was hard to believe at first:) I thought they had used a pre-recorded tape that would help them say their lines..But I was wrong!It was really all live:) The story also had an interesting plot that keeps everyone awake even though it was quite long (about 2h30mins).Overall, I do enjoy the drama performance:)

Before start of drama..The hall!Filled with students!

The drama begins!!

People's Park!KFC!

KFC here!

9th Day

We could not go and visit an industrial site that was planned to take place on Thursday because it turns out that UESTC has no relationship with them and thus, could not set up our visit. As a replacement for that , Ms Cahn brought us to the People's Park in the morning and we went to see a traditional chinese medicine (TCM) shop located a shopping center in the afternoon.


PEOPLE'S PARK IN THE MORNING!

The objective of going to the people's park was to see some activities that are carried out there. Mainly, to see the Chinese people doing tai-chi. This is because we had a presentation earlier that week that had included tai-chi as a relaxation therapy. We were excited to see what the People's Park here looks like!While walking around and exploring the park, we could clearly see that the People's Park in China differ greatly to the People's Park in Singapore. The park here are literally a park for the people! We could see that it was a place for the elderly to exercise as well as to interact with their friends. It was also a place for people and tourists to come and enjoy the scenery. On the other hand, the People's Park in Singapore is actually an area mixed with shopping centre, office buildings as well as housing buildings.It was interesting that these two places has the same name but differ greatly from one another.After working out an appetite, we found a KFC nearby the park and went there. At last, we got to eat at a place that was more familiar to us!My friends ordered some food and it was surprising to see that the KFC here serves not only rice with chicken but also, rice with beef. The KFC here is also not certified halal unlike the KFC back at home.These were a couple of differences between the two countries that we got to observe today:)

Shop selling toys in the park!

They really do tai-chi here!

Walking around the park!

A lake in the park!!

Beautiful scenery of the park!

TCM IN THE AFTERNOON!

Since we could not get to visit an industrial site, we were brought to see a traditional chinese medicine shop that was located in a shopping center. In the shop, we could see many jars and displays of various kinds of herbs and ginseng. I also get to see how the herbs were measured before it was packed for the customers. The herbs are not pre-packed and everything is measured on the spot using an interesting weighing scale. It was not the ordinary weighing scale but a rather traditional weighing scale. They did not allow photos to be taken. Hence, we do not have any pictures to show the weighing scale used by them.

Photo taken secretly!TCM shop!

Photo taken secretly!Different types of medicine!

Presentation Day!

In the class..Notice that the chairs and tables are different?..

Our Group!

Day 7

Class doing meditation:)!

Today is the day for our first class presentation in Chengdu!! My group (consist of Mylene, Adlyna, Ke Xin, Joyce and Me) were the first group to present. Our presentation was needed to last about an hour!!It was the 1^st time we needed to prepare for a long presentation as all our previous presentations had very short time limit, for example, maximum 15 or 20 minutes.  We had about only 3 days to prepare for the presentation!All of us were nervous and we tried not to read off the scripts that we had made. We decided to conduct a meditation lesson in class as it was part of the topic that we were presenting and luckily everyone was cool enough to participate in it even though it was a little boringJ. Overall, we were relieved that it went smoothly and happy that it had endedJ!

The class here uses blackboards and chalks!!