School's Good.

I like school. We have interesting lessons. And!

Interesting professors (who are actually quite famous, from what I heard).

There's this prof who talks a lot about China's Cultural Revolution and

how he is an anti-Mao. Which is something that Chinese shouldn't say too loudly.

But he is like Singapore's typical taxi drivers, complaining about the political

situation, and complaining about how certain policies are pointless...

Most importantly, he shared his experience on the Revolution with us.

We watched a movie in class today. It's called 芙蓉镇 (Hibiscus Town).

It talks about a beautiful lady who lived through the turmoil during

Cultural Revolution. The movie was real long, about 3.5 hours, but I quite

like the development. And from the plot, it showed a side of Cultural Revolution

that wasn't at all beneficial for the people. For the people.

Especially when China's power lie in their population.

Mao Zedong. I think I will need to revisit my History textbook all over again.

Haha, cannot remember what was the 革命 about.

(By the way, I have developed a habit of folding my money notes with Mao's face in front, this is to distinguished that THAT is my money, lol)

Aside from learning about China's painful past, we have other lessons.

A real stressful one, is 汉语汉字 lesson.

We have to 朗读标准汉词与句子... we have to express in good Chinese,

we have to 造句! It's like Primary/Secondary school all over again,

but at a much higher level because we have to present in front of the class,

and our prof can be a little pushy.

Ok, honestly, it's difficult to keep myself awake in most of the lessons,

(except the movie one)...

And just a quick glance across the classroom, many of us were finding it hard

to pay attention, something common during lectures back in Singapore, haha.

Oh well, but I think the best part of going to school is still seeing familiar faces.

Always happy to be in a big group of happy people, yea?

黄山之旅

Dear blog, I've returned from my 黄山 trip, and I simply loved it.

The four of us (WY, John, Xiao Long) bumped into Kah Sing at the bus terminal,

haha, what a coincidence, and all of us took a 7 hour bus ride all the way to 汤口,

which is also 黄山's foot.

Our first day was spent there, and we visited the 翡翠谷,

one of the attractions being 情人桥 (nothing special really, just a lot of evidences

from couples who attach engraved locks along the railings.)

The water flowing down from 黄山 is so blue at this valley. Really nice.

And the cool weather just makes everything feel better.

From 汤口, we took a short bus ride to the starting point of 黄山.

To quicken the pace, we hitched the cable car to the trekking point.

(if we climb up, journey takes around 2 hours, cable car was 10 minutes!)

THE VIEW FROM THE CABLE CAR UPWARDS WAS AMAZING.

THE VIEW RIGHT THERE AT 黄山 WAS EVEN BETTER.

Our climb from there to many peaks on 黄山 was tiring,

but it was worth it! Different angles, different heights, but this place is...

an eye-opener. Though there were quite a lot of people due to mid-autumn holiday,

I didn't quite mind the fact that my dormitory was fully packed.

Ah, mid-autumn festival, cannot miss the moon, especially when we are staying

1680m above sea level. Fantastic view.

We did trek to 步仙桥, which was treacherous, because there weren't much

support on the way. And what's worse, to get there, we had to climb a lot of

stairs DOWN. (and think about the way back... A LOT OF STAIRS UP!)

But oh yea, we eventually got there.

By the way, James Cameron's Avatar was filmed there!

And no kidding, when I think back on the battle between blue creatures and humans,

yes, the backdrop of the battle was definitely 黄山, no doubts about that.

I didn't went up 光明顶 catch sunset, because my calves were killing me.

And though the guys tried, the sunset was pretty much obstructed by the fog.

Day one of climbing was just chiong-ing through a lot of stairs, that's why my

calf muscles contracted till they hurt every step I climb.

But, like I said, worth it. And I'm thankful for the guys, haha, they had to

wait for me at every resting stop. Best of all to them for carrying my load.

Day two. Alarm was set at 4am. Got up. Set off at 430am to a peak near our hostel.

GOOD WEATHER + LITTLE CLOUD COVER = PERFECT SUN RISE

Ah, the crowd went AHHHHHHHH AWWWWWWW, and we just sat there and

took in everything we saw. My first time watching sun rise!

From there, we continued the climb towards 莲花蜂.

The highest peak, standing at 1864m above sea level.

(光明顶 was 1860m, and I almost crawled there on Day One)

By this time, I was really tired, calves were burnt out,

and I was mentally drained because I pushed myself too much on Day One.

So! I left the guys to finish 莲花蜂 (HAHA, they were tired too, but stay strong, right)

while I head back down to help them buy cable car ticket.

Even going down is tiring, because my legs felt jelly.

Yes, I regretted not getting on top of 莲花蜂, but I was totally drained.

Just too burnt to carry on. BUT, I really regretted, because the guys had a great time there.

Ah well. But WY bought me this medal souvenir, engraved with my name,

HAHA, the medal says that I've conquered 莲花蜂 at 1864m. Thanks sister.

So! I highly recommend everyone to go 黄山.

People say, go 黄山 China is enough to see most of China's beauty.

Let me divert back to Shanghai now, because the wind is howling,

just like the time when typhoon was here. It's really loud out there.

Temperature has gone down, and I think it will continue to go down.

Getting cooler, around 18 degrees tonight, and I like it!

Next stop in China, Inner Mongolia! =)

Chow Chow Mian

Meet roadside chow-chow.

He's terribly dirty, but still fluffy and huggable (no, I didn't hug it).

Went out for dinner with my fellow intern friends yesterday.

And we tried this North-Eastern Chinese cuisine, which tasted exotic.

No, I'm not kidding, it's exotic. Besides the meat dumplings, we had fake beef,

cold pig trotters, garlic sausage (Chinese-style), no vegetables at all (coriander only).

Incredible that time passes so quickly,

school has just started, and we had a school tour around the campus.

Huge campus, huge, and beautiful architecture (will post photos of it next time).

The professors (apparently quite famous) said after these few weeks in Fudan,

we will be alumni forever with their University. Splendid.

We will have interesting lessons there. Calligraphy, excursions, Chinese films, etc.

The best part of going school now, is that I don't have to work on Fridays.

And! We can finally see other NTU peeps every week.

Went to 鼎泰丰 last weekend to celebrate Kelvin's birthday.

Not exactly what we expected in terms of taste, but oh well, I still

like the 小笼包. But I've heard of better ones... heh heh, time to recce around.

*NOTE*

By the time I write this paragraph, and eventually posting it later,

this post has ben overdued by 2 weeks.

I saved it in drafts, and left it there to rot.

So here I am, after my trip to 黄山 for the mid-autumn weekend.

Many things have happened in between, and I forgot what passed by

except for the fact that I went 黄山, because it. was. extremely. beautiful.

Alright, till then! =)