NYGH Beijing Group 1

Day 13

2006-11-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

"0度 ~ 10度, 刮风"

That was the weather forecast for today. We didn't really believe that the temperature could drop by 10 degrees Celcius (the previous day's temperature range was from 7 degrees Celcius to 17 degrees Celcius). It didn't sound logically plausible. So anyway, we made our way to 园明园. 园明园 was built during the most prosperous period of the Qing dynasty, during Kang Xi's reign. It is situated close to the famous Summer Palace. Filled with awe-inspiring architecture, the park used to symbolize China's enormous political & economic power. However, the park was almost annihilated after attacks by England and France. Everything that could be stolen, was stolen. Anything that couldn't be stolen, was smashed. Anything that couldn't be smashed, was razed to the ground. Even corrupt Chinese officials took this opportunity to raid the treasures found in 园明园. What was left were just ruins & stone structures that were able to withstand the fires.

To speak the truth, what really grabbed our attention wasn't the ruins, but the beautiful autumn scenery & the strong winds. We never experienced such strong winds in Singpore! When the wind blows, it would shake the trees so vigorously, leaves would fall from the trees like snow. Everyone was just gasping in delight! Great photo opportunity! :D In addition, 园明园 has patches of exposed sand here & there. So when the wind blows, it would pick up the sand & blow it everywhere, making it resemble a sand storm. It was so cool! Everyone had to wear a mask because of that.

After lunch, we visited 首都博物馆. It was supposedly better than 城市规划馆, but we only had 1 hour to explore the museum so we didn't get a chance to explore most of the exhibits, which was quite a pity. According to the brochures that we took, there were exhibitions on ancient porcelain art,Ming-Qing classical paintings, ancient calligraphy, ancient stationery & other utensils, works of bronze, ancient jade art, ancient buddhist statues and more. Quite an interesting array, I must say!

After which, we visited 天坛, a place where His Majesty would offer prayers & incense to the Heavenly Jade Emperor. We noticed that the temples were all circle in shape. According to 朱导游, this is due to the concept of “天圆地方". So since this was a place of worship to the heavens, the temples were naturally round. 天坛 was muchmore impressive than 故宫. This could most probably be attributed to the fact that 故宫 was undergoing major construction works during our visit, whereas for 天坛, it had just undergone maintanence works, so it looked brand new. There was a 回音壁 which could supposedly allow yourself to be heard clearly even though you are just whispering. It didn't work for most of us though, because the place was just too noisy. There was also a 天心石 which you could step on & shout. You will supposedly be heard very loudly. *laughs* We didn't think it was the case though, because anyone who tried to stand on the stone & shout still sounded like how they normally do. 天坛 was really cold vis-a-vis 园明园, we think it was because 天坛 was located on a higher ground level.

Day 12 天安门，故宫，现代文学馆

2006-11-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

Today we visited the well-known Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We realized something interesting! The new portrait of Chairman Mao is being put up every year on China’s national day on the 1st of October. Touring the Forbidden City made us realized the dexterity of our forefathers. Those structures were constructed with such skill that I think no machine, regardless of how advanced the technology is, can ever imitate. Furthermore, now we see how bored the Emperors must have been without any sources of entertainment. For that, we cherish the goggle box in our living room now!

Next, we headed off to 现代文学馆. We seldom have any exposure to Chinese Literature, so we thought this would be a good chance for us to know more about the world of Chinese writers. From the informative explanation of the amiable guide, we got to know about famous authors such as 鲁迅, 冰心, 郭沫若, 张艾玲etc. It was definitely an experience!

Day 11

2006-11-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, we had a real activity-packed day. We woke up in the morning extremely excited, as the teachers had said that we would go to the Great Wall today, if the weather was fair. Indeed, it was extremely sunny.

Soon after breakfast, we boarded the bus to travel to the Ming tombs, where we were to visit the biggest tomb of all - Ding Ling. After descending down a few flights of stairs, we entered the underground chamber in which the Ming empreror was buried. It was extremely crowded, and none of us in the group really enjoyed ourselves. However, the replicas of the artifacts originally found in the tomb, including laquered coffins and a throne carved of stone, were rather awesome.

After a quick lunch, we travelled all the way to the Great Wall. It was rather a magnificent sight to see the miles and miles of stone wall stretching on and on in the bright sunlight, beyond one's sight. While describing it is difficult, it was even harder climbing it! The stone steps were rather steep and uneven, and it was extremely tough to climb. We tried to see how far we could climb, given our limited time, but the view from where we were was already so beautiful we couldn't help stopping to admire it.

After a while, we had to go down, stopping to take pictures along the way. If we thought that climbing up was tought, going down was even more terrifying, as the steps were so uneven there was a rather good chance of us falling! However, we all agreed that the view was worth the climb.

We all loaded back onto the bus, visiting Beijing's Xiushuijie (roughly translated as Silk Street), a shopping centre where counterfeit goods were to be had at very cheap prices. Not only did they have counterfeit goods, they also sold jewellery and other accessories. We shopped and bargained to our hearts' content there, but at the same time making sure to stick together as a group and be sure of our valuables at all times.

After that, we returned to Beijing No. 8, thoroughly tired out from an extremely busy day.

DAY 10 -- Wednesday

2006-11-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

Today... is last day we're attending the lessons with the Beijing No. 8 school students. *wails* We had Economics, Physics, History, Maths and Music lessons. In today's economics class, the teacher was rambling about some profound theories about "Currency vs. Value". We got to know a little about the uses of currency and it's relation to "Supply and Demand" . How interesting!

In Physics lesson, we went to their physics lab to do an experiment regarding straight line motion, but we did not really understand the theory behind it, as we were not physics students. Haha. ;)

History was easier to understand, because we have already ample knowledge about modern Chinese history. Anyway, we learnt about 甲午战争，which broke out in 1894 between the Manchu China and Japan because they were rivalling over the sovereignty of Korea. It was rather enriching. :)

Maths lesson was not as bad as we thought. We continued with functions but focused on inverse functions and a graph's 单调性 (hehe not sure what it is in English). The teacher instucted us try some textbook questions which we found quite ok. :)

Music lesson was changed to self study because their exams were around the corner. We took this opportunity to give our speech and took some pictures with our classmates. :)

Day 9

2006-10-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

Back to school lessons again. The classroom is much warmer than the outside, we realised. :)

First lesson: Maths! Finding inverse functions (反函数) of functions. Finding range and domain (值域和定域）of inverse functions. We learned that if a function had 单调性　it will definitely have an inverse function. We also learned that 原函数的定域就是反函数的值域。:) It was really weird learning maths in Chinese instead of English but we still understood the basics.

After that, it was Physics where the teacher went through a lot a lot of theories - all in Chinese again. This time, we really could not understand given that we are Bio and not Physics students. sigh. Tried to understand but well... :P

Chemistry was fun. The teacher does experients in class and everyone watches from their seats. She experimented with Li, Na and K's reaction with water.

Next was Chinese and we were taught a new essay called 《我与地坛》。 At first it sounded rather sadistic because it was about the author who felt like there was not much hope on Earth and he went to the 地坛 near his house where he suddenly felt his soul was rejuvenated again thanks to the soothing yet lively natural environment of the 地坛. He was then no longer afraid of Death and thought that it was something to be embraced when the time came.

After lunch, we had enrichment class. It was calligraphy! The practical part of the lesson was very fun. Each of us had a seperate table with paper, ink and a brush. We wrote the words 云腾露结 but in 繁体字. Although our works were not very professional due to severe lack of practice but it was still rather satisfactory. :)

DAY 8-- Monday! Last day of TLE

2006-10-30T21:00:00.000-08:00

Finally! This is the last day of TLE. Today, we went to "Crazy English". You know what ON EARTH that is? Well, it's actually an educational institution that trains the Chinese citizens to speak english with excellent pronounciation. They believe all people will achieve that aim if they speak, shout, scream, shriek english sentences everyday. That's their "crazy" and effective method. Well of course, we had a great time stretching our mouths to articulate the words "Ieeeeee Likeeeee Skyeeeeee" with perfect pronounciation. :) Then, we spent time understanding their company's management and operational methods. We suppose the founder had found a great, effective way of teaching the Chinese how to achieve greater heights for their English language .

In the afternoon, we embarked on a Scavenger Hunt in this populous Beijing city! Alas, we're all on our own in this foreign place. Waaaahhhhhhhhh! Voila!! We started at 五道口, where we have to travel to 王府井by the subway. Being cramped together in this dark, dingy train is quite an experience. "Celia, don't get left on the platform!" "Steffi, your bag! Beware of pickpockets!" What a group of cautious and careful little cats we are! Haha. At 王府井, we had lunch in a food court and went on to search for the famous "Prince's Well " and Saint Joseph Cathedral etc.

We found out that Beijing is a cosmolitan yet historical city; a meeting point of both oriental and western cultures. At last, we've finished most of our tasks, it's time to shop till we drop in the shopping paradise, 秀水大厦! In case you don't know, this is the ultimate place to shop for "branded" (counterfeit) goods, ranging from Chanel handbags, to Tod's leather shoes and Tiffanny & Co. bracelets. Haha. Actually, what's fun is not shopping, but bargaining, which all of us had become experts. Oh no, we've become haggling aunties! Anyway, after finding out the rental fees of the stalls here, we took the train back to school.

When we went back to the Beijing No.8 Middle School, we settled on the idea of a spa for our business plan. We planned to introduce spas of different cultures, specifically - mediterranean, continental & japanese. Apparently, the teacher from China was quite interested in our idea. I guess that why our business plan was chosen as the best. We managed to earn ourselves a complete set of the Beijing Olympics Friendlies!!! :)))

Day 7

2006-10-29T21:00:00.000-08:00

We visited the Ancient Observatory Museum today. It houses instruments which used to tell time, the position of the stars etc. From this, we could tell that China was already well ahead of her counterparts in Science & Mathematics in the past. We were assigned to do a worksheet which required us to find the name of certain meteorites & we also had to draw our own picture based on the constellations we saw. We managed to capture a good view of Beijing from the top floor of the museum!

We also visited the 琉璃厂 where we made our 印章 (stamps). The stamps are made from stones and they come in a myraid of designs, some of which include the 12 zodiacs & flowers. Most of us decided to carve our names on the stamps. These stamps when stained with red ink, helps to enhance the aesthetic appeal of chinese calligraphy. While waiting for our stamps to be carved, some of us wandered into a nearby museum. The range of exhibits put up on display was small and the shop which housed the museum was dark. As we made our way out of the museum, we were stopped by the shopkeeper who made us pay a token sum for visiting the museum. We were quite furious that we had to pay for visiting something that resembled another shop on the street!

Day 6 颐和园 & Project 798

2006-10-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hello! Today is our 3rd day with TLE and we are back in Beijing from Tianjin! We visited the long-awaited for and well-known Summer Palace!!! We’ve read and heard loads on Summer Palace, so being able to see it for our own sounds really great! And, it was GREAT!!! :)

The activity assigned to us by the TLE instructors (Claudine and Kathleen) enabled us to know more about the Chinese history, Well, I guess the instructors’ purpose of setting this activity was for us to run around finding the answers on our own as well as opening our mouths to ask the people for the solutions. However, our group got all the answers by contextual knowledge. Nevertheless, our group was the first to complete the activity with 100% accurate! We were so proud of ourselves! :) Thus we had the rest of the time for ourselves, exploring and snapping shots of the beautiful Summer Palace.

Some facts we got to know from the Summer Palace activity include: Express Dowager Ci Xi had ordered the construction of this Summer Palace (which is 4 times of the Forbidden City) just for her personal pleasure although the Kunming Lake was made in the name of training the Navy Forces. Now, we understand the reason behind the failure of the Qing Dynasty, leading to the humiliation suffered by China in the past.

We also walked the longest corridor in the world. It was indeed impressive, every pillar, every corner and every inch of the corridor were painted with colours like red, blue, gold etc. And there were thousands of paintings of ancient stories or scenery, with one painting after each pillar. Well, I wonder how much effort and manpower was employed just to construct and decorate the long corridor alone.

Next we proceeded to Project 798. The name of the venue is as puzzling as its contents. Basically, it is an area of art galleries with masterpieces of various artists. The galleries that we went to included 'white space', 'i love beijing tiananmen' etc. There were also many 'unknown' galleries that we went into. (There was one that was disguised as a cafe) The artists used various mediums and ways to express themselves; through textures, sculptures, installations, films and abstract portraits that were all both represenational and non-representational. Honestly, most of us could not comprehend the deeper meaning of which the artists were trying to convey through their masterpieces. However, we could feel that some were critical of life during the 10 years Cultural Revolution. Others showed disturbing facts of the society nowadays. Apart from these galleries, there is a graffiti wall which I preferred over the rest of the artworks. This is due to the feeling it gives. It seemed free without restrictions, no heavy feelings to express. It was a carefree and impromptu piece of art.

To sum up the entire day, it was rather artistic. We had a taste of ‘refined’ art in the Summer Palace’s long corridor as well as a stark contrast in Project 798 where unhappiness is constantly portrayed in the drawings. What an artistic day it was!

Day 5

2006-10-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

The 27th marked our 2nd day with TLE, as well as in Tianjin. We had an extremely interesting line-up of activities, all planned by our instructors, Kathleen and Claudine.

In the morning, we had a company visit with Wal-Mart, where the staff there made our experience there an extremely enriching one with explanations of how the company was run. We were encouraged to ask questions by ourselves, as well as take the initiative to find out things we were interested about. Later we learnt that we were the first secondary school to visit this Wal-Mart brunch in Tianjin. Usually they only entertained university-level students, so we felt extremely priveleged to be able to make this visit.

Afterwards, the Wal-Mart staff performed their cheer for us Nanyang students, and in order to reciprocate, we performed a Nanyang cheer for them as well.

Later, the groups had lunch on their own on He Ping Walking Street, Tianjin's main shopping district. During lunch, we discussed our ideas for the business plan we were supposed to present on Monday. Although we didn't manage to come up with anything then, we still managed to eliminate a few of the poorer ideas, and it also provided a chance for team bonding.

Afterwards we walked up and down He Ping, looking at the stores they had there. We even discovered a hundred-year old shoe store, selling beautiful embroidered slippers! Later we even saw that they sold tiny shoes, not for babies, but for the women who used to bind their feet to make them small.

During the late afternoon, we travelled to Tianjin's famous Nankai University, which ex-Premier Zhou Enlai attended. We were given an activity in which we were supposed to ask local students about the University's history. Ostensibly, the activity was meant to help us interact with locals, as well as discover the university by wandering through the scenic campus grounds. We eventually found an extremely helpful young couple, whom we chatted to for quite a time.

After having dinner at Nankai University, we travelled back to Beijing at half-past seven, leaving the beautiful historical city of Tianjin behind.

Day 4 - NYGH Beijing Group 1

2006-10-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today was the day we set of for Tianjin!! We were all very excited by our first day of TLE (the little entrepreneur) Our instructors for the coming 5 days of TLE were Claudine and Kathleen. :)

The trip to Tianjin was rather long... Our first stop there was lunch at 天津百饺园! It looked very posh. The food there was very delicious; they served about 6 types of dumplings. However, come to think of it, we sort of lost count, so it might not be very accurate. :)

Next stop: Zhou En Lai Musuem. The musuem was 3 stories high. Once you stepped into it there was this huge wax statue (think it was wax) of Zhou En Lai and his wife. Both of them are very important political figures in China. There, we were given our first activity by Cluadine and Kathleen. It sounded really fun: they gave us a piece of paper with 9 boxes to be filled in with pictures to show the important stages of Zhou En Lai's life. At the back, we were to write the English translation of a certain Chinese poem in the musuem written by Zhou En Lai. (Coincidentally, the poem was also hung against the wall in Beijing No. 8 )

The poem was something like this:

大江歌霸掉头东
逐密群科济穷
面壁十年图破壁
推倒滔海
海思英雄

:) sounds difficult?

The activities really enabled us to explore the musuem deeply and summarise all the info succinctly.

Next, we went to the Ancient Cultural Street of Tianjin (古文化街）Our instructors had once again lined up a series of activities for us, which included having to search for specific statues and clay dolls and take photos or answer their questions. After the activity, it was SHOPPING! haha. the ancient cultural street had a lot of objects sold that had strong chinese representations. Thus, we bought quite a lot of things for souvenirs. (clay dolls, cher-ling[a type of chinese yoyo], chinese fans, ornaments etc etc) We also bought braclets and necklaces to sell back in school to raise funds for charity. Our bargaining skills definitely need further sharpening. haha.

Lastly, we ate dinner at 狗不理 and finally checked into the hotel. The hotel was beautiful. Thank you Claudine and Kathleen for choosing such a nice one. :)　Ｏｈ　ｍｙ　ｇｏｓｈ，　ｈｏｔ　ｗａｔｅｒ　ａｔ　ｌａｓｔ！！！！　ｙｅｓ！

Day 2 随班上课

2006-10-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Heyhey! It’s the second day in Beijing! Straight after breakfast in the morning, we met our buddies (吴迪&谭艺) from class one-eight （高一八）which we’ll be attending lessons with. We were in fact rather excited about this because this is our initial experience being attached to another class. Besides, we’ve long heard that Beijing No.8 Middle School is one of the few key middle schools in Beijing. Thus, we were all eager to see how the school and class operate.

Upon arriving at the classroom, we were received by a warm round of applause. Thereafter, we did a brief introduction of ourselves. As we were unsure if we should introduce ourselves in English or Mandarin, we hesitated for a moment. However, perhaps out of pure coincidence or telepathy, 3 of us spoke in English and the rest in Mandarin. This perfectly portrayed our bilingualism.

With a great start, our morning began with 2 classic periods of Math lesson. Even though most of us dreaded Math (and being in a foreign country certainly did not change this fact), we seriously did tried our very best to stay awake, put on an interested face, and took down notes diligently (although half of the time we did not understand what the teacher is rattling on about). And to add on, the lesson was taught in Mandarin which definitely did not make it any more fun.

However, the Chemistry lesson was the most memorable one! Experiments to allow students to ‘see’ it for themselves were conducted in the classroom itself. The topic of properties of Group 1 metals was started off by experiments demonstrated by the teacher. The students were then made to share the results they observed. After so, the teacher would proceed to teach the theory part. This way, the students can link the facts to their observations easily, thus the students can remember these facts more effectively.

After Chemistry, we had Chinese language lesson. It was rather fun, in the sense that the teacher spoke in such beautiful and decorated language that we could almost imagine the scene of the lotus pond right before our eyes. It was a different experience from the mundane Chinese language lessons we have in school.

Shortly after lunch, we were invited to view the debate competition between our buddy class and class one-six. We were utterly awed by their proficiency on the Chinese Language. The quick response of theirs was also truly impressive. Their points raised were indeed relevant and made an impact, yet they could still have the extra brain juice to add a tinge of humour in their responses.

In addition, we had an enrichment lesson on Beijing history and historical sites. It was indeed enriching because it was only then that I came to know of the fact that Beijing was not named ‘Beijing’ right from the start. Instead, it once had names like ‘大都’ during the Yuan Dynasty as well as ‘北平’ in the early Ming times. Besides, the background information of Beijing’s historical sites such as the Forbidden City served to give us a fundamental idea when we visited those areas in the later days of our trip.

It was really a marvelous second day we spent in Beijing with knowledge gained through listening as well as experiencing on our own. Everyday is a new discovery, and today is definitely one.

Day 1

2006-10-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

On the 23rd of October, we met at Changi Airport and took a flight to Beijing, where we travelled to Beijing No. 8 High School, driving through the city. As well as properly getting to know each other as group members, we also familiarised ourselves with the incredible sights and sounds of Beijing.

When we reached Beijing No. 8, we were given a warm welcome by the teachers and principal. After going up to our rooms and then enjoying a delicious dinner at the school hostel, we went for a walk in the neighbourhood, as well as going to the department store, Parkson's, to buy whatever basic necessities we needed.

The hostel rooms, which we stayed in, were surprisingly comfortable. None of us were expecting such warm treatment! There was a bowl of fruit, as well as a television in the rooms that accomodated two people each. However, what touched us the most was the kindness we experienced at the hands of our hosts.