Welcome to summer in China. Or at least that’s what the weather makes us believe. I think it must have been 30-odd degrees out there today.

Lazed around in the morning at my aunt’s place after waking up at 7.30 this morning. My cousin was wondering how come I managed to wake up so early.

Had lunch with my cousin’s cousin at some restaurant and once again, they have a problem serving rice because it only came when we have finished most of the dishes!

Went shopping around in the afternoon and bought some clothes for myself – which is weird considering that I can’t get those clothes in Shanghai! Then also bought two bracelets for the two girls at my place in Shanghai.

Apparently my cousin is going to bring me out for an experience of how night life in Shijiazhuang is going to be like. And if things are going the way that they are going to be, we’ll be going to a golf driving range tomorrow. Now that’s going to be exciting.

Shijiazhuang.

Hello everyone – I’m sitting in my cousin’s room here in Shijiazhuang.

The train from Shanghai to Beijing was very nice. It was very comfortable and very posh as well! I think it was even more comfortable than the bed I sleep on in Shanghai! To top it off, I even saw Jeffery from NTU on the train! All in all it was a very enjoyable ride. At 12 hours, I think it was just nice. I seriously recommend all of you to try this train ride.

Woke up at about 5 because it was very bright outside – apparently over at this part of China, daybreak comes very early. After waking up, I read a bit of my book and basically waited for the train to reach Beijing. Upon reaching Beijing, I deposited my luggage at the luggage store and went running around Beijing. I took the Beijing Subway and it was a very interesting expereicne because it’s just not like the Shanghai Metro. There was no ticketing machine, and the tickets are not magnetic strips, instead it was just paper tickets and to get onto the platform, i have to show my ticket to the whoever at the entrance in order to get in. The trains too were nothing like the ones in Shanghai. The Beijing trains look old and feel old as well. And just like what Edwin said, the air-conditioning was done by a couple of spinning fans!

I got off at Tiananmen East and went straight to Tiananmen. Went into the Forbidden City and had a quick walkabout in the massive palace. After Tiananmen I went to the China National Museum and saw a lot of interesting things like the wax figures for Chairman Mao, among others. Wanted to go to the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, but the trouble to get into there put me off. After Tiananmen Square I went to the shopping district Wangfujing. Wangfujing feels something like Nanjing Road in Shanghai, except that it doesn’t look as flmabuoyant as Nanjing Road. The highlight of Wangfujing was that I had Roast Peking Duck for lunch!

Then came the exciting part. My train from Beijing West Station to Shijiazhuang was scheduled to leave at 1.11p.m, but I was still at Wangfujing at 12! So it was a mad rush to Beijing station to get my luggage, then I hopped onto a mini-bus to get to Beijing West. Then for one reason or another, the driver die-die wanted to make the whole mini-bus full before he would move off, much to the annoyance of everyone onboard (and of course me, who have a train to catch at 1.11p.m.!). After pondering the options, I shouted at the driver:”Hey dude, I’ll pay for that empty seat but can you for god’s sake start moving?!” So in the end I paid 30 RMB in order to get the damn thing moving. The time then? 12.40 p.m.

And of course the exciting story just has to get more exciting – I was stuck in a traffic jam! As I looked at the roadsign and the map that I was having, I figured that I probably will not be able to get onto the train. I was beginning to wonder what my next course of action should be, and then suddenly hope arrives! The mini-bus finally pulled over at the carpark opposite Beijing West station! The moment the mini-bus stopped, I opened the door, grabbed my stuffs and started dashing towards the train station. If you were at the station just now and saw a big guy running around with a few bags, dashing past the pedestrians and shouting at people to make way, that probably would be me. The time then? 1.09 p.m.

So I made it to the station, but the next thing was to get my tired body onto the train. I couldn’t even rest as I kept on running towards the ticket checkpoint. My heart skipped a few bits when I saw that the train I was supposed to be on had stopped checking-in. I was about to give up when I saw another guy running towards the checkpoint. Given renewed hope, I continued to run again. Thank God the checkpoint staffs were kind enough to let me in and I made another mad rush towards the train. Luck was on my side as my carriage was just next to the staircase, so I ran towards the train, showed my ticket to the stewardess, and found my seat on the train, gasping and panting. I wasn’t even seated when the train started moving! How about that for a close shave!

I managed to arrive in Shijiazhuang on time, and my aunt was very pleased to see me. It was 11 years ago since I last came here and I think everything has changed here. Places that I used to frequent then are no longer around. But generally Shijiazhuang is a lovely place. The traffic isn’t as bad as Shanghai, the people are generally nicer, etc etc. But one thing that didn’t change over the years was the there are still a lot of bicycles over here, something that doesn’t really happen in Shanghai.

The next few days over here in Shijiazhuang is going to be nice. I just know that. Now only if the weather could be a bit cooler… I can’t believe it’s 33 degrees out there! We are not even in May yet!

Holidays!

Yoohoo everyone.

In about 2 hours’ time I’ll be on the train from Shanghai to Beijing, thus beginning the start of my Labour Day holidays!

Here’s my itinerary:

28 Apr 7.28 p.m.: Shanghai to Beijing on direct train number Z8.
29 Apr 7.26 a.m.: Arrival in Beijing, have a quick walkabout in China’s capital. For all you know, I may be able spot Lien Chan, the KMT Chairman who’s on official visit from Taiwan, in Beijing!
29 Apr 1.11 p.m.: Beijing West to Shijiazhuang on train number T517.
29 Apr 3.51 p.m.: Arrival in Shijiazhuang, and going to spend close to 4 days there with my aunt.
2 May 2.23 p.m.: Shijiazhuang to Beijing on train number T518.
2 May 5.10 p.m.: Arrival in Beijing, and either have a quick walkabout or go straight to the Beijing Capital Airport for my flight to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.
2 May 9.50 p.m.: Beijing to Hohhot on Air China flight number CA1102.
2 May 10.55 p.m.: Arrival in Hohhot, and the commencement of my 6-day tour in Hohhot, Baotou (Inner Mongolia), Datong, Wutaishan and Taiyuan (Shanxi)
8 May 7.20 p.m.: Taiyuan to Shanghai on China Eastern flight number MU5142.
8 May 9.05 p.m.: Arrival in Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, signalling the end of a long break, and the start to a 5-month wait before the next holidays.

In case you wanna find me during this period, just give me a call on my usual numbers.

Enjoy yourselves, and have a great Labour Day holidays!

www.kubicwave.com

After a few days of hustling around, I’ve finally got my own domain up. But since I’m going to go to Beijing/Shijiazhuang/Inner Mongolia/Datong/Taiyuan soon, I’d probably do all the designing and what not after my trip. I hope I’ll be able to do a very nice job on my new domain.

Last few days of work have been great as I was able to complete the tasks assigned to me in a short period of time with relative ease. I hope that this would be a good omen for how things are going to be like after the Labour Day holidays. After all, I think I’m beginning to take on more responsibilities in the company, which is a good thing. I’ve got the fitness portal (http://www.51jiaolian.com) to take care of, some fitness fairs in Beijing to attend in July (tentatively), some foreign guests to host, etc etc. Life is beginning to be very enriching for me.

Chances are I won’t be able to go online for the next few days – so I’d see you guys after I come back from the trip. I’ve got a 12-hour train ride tomorrow to look forward to. I hope it would be comfortable.

雷雨.

See what I said yesterday? I just know there will be tickets available from Beijing to Shijiazhuang and I managed to buy it at 55 RMB. Seems like the people at the railway station don’t even know their own job properly.

Anyway went to watch 《雷雨》just now in the evening with Zihui and I think the play was very good. Even though we were sitting relatively high and far away from the stage, it didn’t really affect our viewing. The play was about these few Chinese people in the 1920’s and how sad their love relationship was like. In the end it was like a mother’s tragedy being repeated on the child, and I think those people who have weaker control of the tear glands would properly spend a good 20 minutes crying.

Went to dinner with Zihui after that and apparently I suddenly become a bad friend because I influenced her into taking a cab home. Strange but true.

The whole lot of them have come back from Nanjing. So it’s back to normal routine for a few days before I’m off to Beijing/Shijiazhuang/Inner Mongolia/Datong/Taiyuan! Hohoho~~~

Train.

I think there is a big problem. The dude at the Shanghai train station told me there is no train ticket available from Beijing to Shijiazhuang. I was skeptical when I left the train station, and when I came back to check the train schedule websites my skeptism is confirmed: with 49 trains going from Beijing to Shijiazhuang, it’s never likely for me to believe that there is really no train ticket available. I’m going back to the train station tomorrow morning – I’ve listed down all the train schedules so if that whoever at the station tells me that there is no more ticket left I’m going to… well I’ll think about that tomorrow – I’m optimistic about the availability of the tickets to be honest. Well if all fails I’ll just see what will happen when I eventually reach Beijing.

After leaving the train station, I went to Xujiahui to have a bit of walkabout. Went around looking for prices for Sony’s Memory Stick Duo Pro and was shocked to hear prices like 660 RMB for a 512 MB Memory Stick. I don’t honestly know if that’s cheap or expensive, but my finances nowadays don’t allow me to spend that kind of money, really. Some kind soul donate to me please. Played a bit of Initial D at Sega World in Metor City and bettered my Akina downhill timing by about a second. If you ask me how good are the Chinese people with Initial D, I’d say it depends on where you go. The other time when I went Wuxi the kids there apparently aren’t very good with it, but some Shanghaiese at the Atlantic Arcade (also in Xujiahui) apparently are not too damn bad at all, so I guess it all depends on where you go.

Next stop after Xujiahui was People’s Square. Actually I didn’t really know where I want to go after Xujiahui as I was kinda just wandering around and somehow I wandered into People’s Square. Went straight to Coffee Bean and wanted to play my PSP there (weird choice, right?), and was surprised to see Kenny there (actually not really surprised, considering that he hangs out there so often). He was doing his work, so I didn’t disturb him and continued on my PSP until the battery went flat. The time was just right though as I was supposed to go meet Lee Tong and Cheong at Lujiazui for dinner. Dinner was at Super Brands Mall and to be honest it wasn’t the best I’ve eaten, but then again I need to start realising that not everything in Shanghai taste good.

I hope the rest of the guys are enjoying themselves in Nanjing. Would have joined them if not for the play that I’m going to watch tomorrow evening. Oh well, I can go Nanjing any time anyway – probably June. Hmm…

Enjoy the weekend.

N3F.

Today was the NUS-NTU-NP-FUSSA gathering and the event was a success according to everyone. I personally wasn’t very pleased with my own performance as far as the event is concerned, probably because I demand a lot out of myself for organising such events. But since everyone says it was a nice night out, I shouldn’t be too worried. But whatever it is, I’d like to thank everyone for all the help given to me in this project. Thank you thank you…

I’m totally knackered, so I think I should go sleep now. See everyone tomorrow.

Fish and Bear Paw.

There’s a saying in Chinese “鱼与熊掌，不可兼得” – literally meaning “you cannot get both fish and bear paw” – meaning that it’s difficult to get two good things at the same time. But sometimes I think when you believe that strong enough, you can get both. What happened today was that the originally planned Mongolian trip got postponed and initially I was intending to break the tour early to go visit my aunt in Shijiazhuang. However, after spending a bit of time talking to my sister, she enlightened me that I could actually go see my aunt first and then Mongolia, and after giving it a quick thought, I went to ask about all the possible routes to go to Shijiazhuang and from there going to Mongolia. So what’s going to happen now is this:

28 Apr evening – Shanghai to Beijing by train
29 Apr morning – Reach Beijing, another train to Shijiazhuang, see my aunt!
2 May afternoon – Shijiazhuang to Beijing by train
2 May night – Beijing to Huhehaote by plane
3 May – Commencement of tour!

Must thank Yaying for coming up with that idea. Honestly if not for the fact that she gave me this idea I probably would still be struggling between going to Shijiazhuang or going to Mongolia and how to balance the two. Thank you sis!

Flattened my PSP battery for the first time today. Shin Sangoku Musou is really a great game, be it on PS2 or PSP.

Blank.

Another pretty normal day, except that I didn’t get a beating on the metro train when I was playing with my PSP. Well, as I’ve said, Chinese people are supposed to be a cultured lot. 5000 years of history after all.

Today was really very non-eventful. So much so that I really don’t know what to update about.

Shanghai.

Hohoho. I’m back in Shanghai.

These few days in Hong Kong have been great – partly because I bought my PSP!

That said, there’s nothing much to update about my few days in HK, probably because I didn’t really do much in that few days. Apart from doing the shopping on Saturday and meeting a few relatives I didn’t really do much. One thing is for sure though, I didn’t want to come back again, even though I’m not leaving for Singapore! But at least I know when I come back to Shanghai I’ve got a whole group of friends around so perhaps it’s not so bad.

Going to work tomorrow and honestly, I have no mood for class tomorrow. Probably because I’m still a bit tired.

The demonstration in Shanghai yesterday was very fired up – I was reading the papers and watching the news in Hong Kong and I was kinda kicking myself for not being there. Not just to demonstrate against the Japanese, but also to witness how a demonstration is like. Living in Singapore for the past few years have made me forget how a demonstration is like. As for the Japs, let’s just say I don’t really like them. But to be honest, I don’t know if anyone will beat me up if I were to bring my PSP out tomorrow, or the next few days for that matter, but my opinion is simple: me using Japanese goods doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m not patriotic, I can show my anger against Japanese in other ways. But what I can’t stand is Chinese people (or Korean people, or Singapore people, or whoever for that matter) trying to make themselves appear like a Japanese. Like my uncle said yesterday, these people have a massive problem:“思想错乱，黑白不分，颠倒是非，本末倒置，认贼作父，搞不清楚敌我关系”.
And know what, I agree with him. We are Chinese and we shall remain that way. We shouldn’t try to be someone else that we aren’t, especially not Japanese.

That said, I still don’t agree with people who smashes Jap-related shops. We Chinese are supposed to be a cultured lot. 5000 years of civilization – we should be better than that.