China Trip

This trip took place between the dates of 16th to 28th May 2011; Spring-time in China, and really hot in Singapore. The main purpose of the visit was to visit Eugene and the Great Wall, and I only went with one travel buddy - Wee Long, from Pawai (Army). Its a much shorter trip than the Eurotrip.

As usual, the order in the blog, being a blog, is chronological starting with the latest entry, so it would make more sense to use the links below; just as in the case of the Eurotrip.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Beijing

Chapter 2: Hangzhou

Chapter 3: Suzhou

Chapter 4: Nanjing

Chapter 5: Shanghai

Epilogue

P.S. I apologise for the arrangement of the Chapters. I acknowledge Chapter 1 is slightly unreadable because its quite long; I should have broken it into at least two pieces. However, the rest of the Chapters are very manageable. My apologies once again.

I also apologise for the intermittent use of the American spelling interlaced with British spelling, or typos, if you come across them. This is because this account, unlike my previous account, was written in real time on my iPad. Apple software has a unique ability to generate typos; and my default language on the iPad (pardon me I don't know how to change it) is American English. On the other hand, my default language on my fingers is British English, hence the sporadic switching between the languages.

China Trip: Epilogue

Day 13

Epilogue

Time: 12.30pm
Place: Somewhere above mainland China.

And so this account ends on the same note as it had begun; both in the sense that we're in the same place, and the degree of unexpected excitement involved in what should have been a straightforward day.

Actually - I only just looked at the map - by now we're already flying above the South China sea. Apparently I was sleeping longer than I had expected.

Waking up early this morning wasn't that hard, for some reason. After a bit of final packing of our bags, we set off. After checking out, we walked out to the Yan'an Road, dodged one 'black' cab (i.e. one that goes without a meter) and got into a legit cab.

Which is why we were surprised - no, shocked - when the cab fare came up to 70¥. And we hadn't even left Shanghai as we only were taking the cab to the metro station from where the Maglev train departs. Eugene was pissed for awhile; he took the receipt and took down the cabbie's particulars. He will be checking with his friends back in Suzhou about the reasonableness of that price. The cabbie was actually trying to persuade us to take his cab all the way to the airport; the counter was that the whole objective was to take the 50¥ Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) Bullet train.

The Maglev train here goes up to 430km/h, but during our trip, it only went up to 300km/h, which is about the same speed as the other high-speed trains we have been taking. I think it has something to do with peak period travel. Anyway one clear difference between the Maglev and the normal high speed train was the effortlessness involved in the acceleration to 300km/h. I think the train reached full speed in about a minute. Had we been on a normal bullet train, by the time it reached peak speed, it would have been time to slow down as we would have been approaching the Airport Station. Also, the Maglev train actually banks on its axis when it turns. Eugene had exaggerated here, because I don't think one would feel the banking unless one looks out for it. At least in my perspective.

And so we were at the airport in about 10 to 15 min. Eugene still needed to do buy souvenirs for his sister, so, after checking in the baggage, we went souvenir shopping.

The prices here were insanely marked up from city prices. No surprise to me, but apparently Eugene was surprised by the degree of price inflation. So in the end he didn't buy anything; instead he decided to give her the souvenirs he had originally intended for Wee Long. I can understand his predicament.

Souvenir shopping took longer than expected; and so our experience in Shanghai ended in what was a marathon sprint to the gate. I think the PA system had announced for us to come, so we came running. We were the last people to board the plane, and, amazingly, the plane started its taxi to the runway 2min earlier than the expected departure time.

And so ends the account of my China Trip. Its been an enlightening trip, and I'm thankful that the primary objectives of the trip (seeing Eugene and the Great Wall) as well as many secondary objectives (sightseeing in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing and Nanjing) have been achieved. Even more thankful that there were a few unexpected sights - Wee Long used the word Juan Dao.

Its probably not the last I've seen of CHINA but its probably the last I've seen of Shanghai and Beijing. Hangzhou is a beautiful city that we didn't get to experience fully due to weather constrictions; and I've heard lots of good things about Huangshan which we didn't visit. Most importantly, it turns out that its possible to fly budget to Hangzhou. So probably that warrants a second visit somewhere in the distant future.

Till my next trip, then... Probably the US of A. USA! USA! USA!

China Trip: Chapter 5 - Shanghai

Day 11

TIme: 12.05pm
Place: On the express train to Shanghai, waiting to depart from Suzhou.

There isn't much to report as yet today, mainly because I woke up quite late. Was damn tired from all the walking and traveling done yesterday. Wee Long woke up earlier in the morning, even if he had slept later than me yesterday. He had wanted to go to Au Chan to buy his office-bag; as well as change money. The latter, he did for me, because we were, by now, completely depleted of cash.

If I think about it properly, it was an amazing feat of prudence that we had managed to last this long with money still in our pockets, considering that; firstly, hostels didn't accept Visa, as initially expected, and that I had actually brought only half the amount of cash I had originally intended to bring.

But we're cheapskate and proud of it.

Breakfast was two Oreo biscuits for me, but I think that just means that I can look forward to a good lunch. Even if I am sure that lunch would only come after checking in at the Ming Town People's Square Youth Hostel.

I think since I have a bit of time before we arrive at Shanghai, I can afford to relate a strange story that occurred while we were stoning at the Suzhou Railway station.

Firstly, the uncivilised barbarians sitting opposite us, after finishing their food (some sort of hard boiled egg), just got up and threw the plastic bag containing their egg shells on the floor. The shiny tiled floor that was spotless and litter free. Okay, to their credit, I should say 'partially civilised barbarians' because they bothered to throw it at a part where not many people would walk on.

Wee Long and I just looked at each other for awhile, and all Wee Long could say after that was 'I have nothing to say'.

But that, amazingly, is not the end of the story. Most people who walked by looked down, saw that it was thrash, and walked away. However, one old man, limping by, looked down, walked on, stopped, turned back, picked it up, and walked on. We tried to follow the old man with our eyes to see whether he was a poor man who thought there was a possibility of using the egg shells, or whether he was the 1 in 1 billion who would have picked up the trash and threw it away into a proper bin. However, we lost him soon in the crowd.

I'd like to think that he's the former, because had he been the 1 in a billion, I really would regret not asking him for his autograph and taking a photo with him.

Looks like we still have time, so I shall relate another, albeit shorter, story. For the first time during this trip, I sat in the front seat of the cab, mainly because Wee Long was (and still is) carrying my backpack for me since I'm carrying Eugene's gigantic suitcase. But the point is, that I can actually empathise with the taxi drivers who sound their horn like there's no tomorrow; because there are so many people pulling stunts on the road. In Singapore you can avoid sounding the horn because the infrastructure is good enough, and the drivers careful enough, and the traffic situation civilised enough. But here, sounding the horn is necessary when you encounter people pulling stunts on the road, such as slowing down or not moving for no reason, cutting into lanes etc.

Okay, that's quite enough for now; I shall return after check in, or later tonight after shopping (or whatever we plan to do).

*

Time: 5.45pm
Place: Ming Town Hostel Room at People's Square.

Yesterday has finally caught up with Wee Long. He is now fast asleep, catching up with lost sleep incurred because he woke up early this morning. I'm quite tired too, but I can go without sleeping for a bit.

By the time we reached the hostel, it was already 2pm. And for the first time, we found the hostel with no difficulty at all - mainly because we had the card and we could show it to the taxi driver. So even though he didn't know the name of the road that this hostel is on, he was able to use the landmarks given in the hostel's card to bring us straight to the doorstep of the hostel.

Anyway, since it was already 2pm, we decided to walk out to eat. Our plan was to eat, then visit the museum, and finally go to the Central Area where some of the tallest buildings in the world sit. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, yesterday finally caught up with Wee Long, and we decided to omit the last item on our itinerary. Or perhaps postpone, more like.

Lunch was at a small restaurant that looked quite busy, so we were attracted to it. However, it turned out that most of the people who were eating were actually working there; since it was already 2.15pm and past the lunch peak-period. Fortunately, the food wasn't bad, though after some time, I did get a bit jelak . Wee Long, in a continued effort to save money - I have given up persuading him to try to be a little less prudent with his money, to no avail - took the cheapest dish. For the cheapest dish, I think it looked quite good - there was seafood in it. Less than S$2.50. Mine was a little more than S$3.50, so ultimately came up to S$6.

After lunch we went down to the museum. Three main reasons: first, we hadn't visited a museum as yet in China; secondly, the museum was very near our hostel; and thirdly (and most importantly) the museum was free.

The museum has artifacts from ancient China; so I am quite sure that it being free was probably the single most important reason why we were actually there. It was divided into a few sections; much reminding me of materials characterisation. The bottom floor is dedicated to stone and bronze artifacts, the upper level is dedicated to ceramic artifacts. Further up, there is a cloth and wooden artifacts place (polymers, my friends).

I just like this photo because it looks like many many little Chinese men walking... And the picture above is strangely shaped coins.

Anyway, we start from the bottom. What strikes me, is that this museum actually had bronze artifacts from ancient times. I was under the impression that these artifacts don't survive wars.

When the war-mongering civilisations of the West fought in wars, they would take these artifacts, precious proof that there was some semblance of culture in their civilisation, and melt them down to create weapons.

Perhaps the presence of bronze artifacts in this Chinese museum is evidence that they didn't fight that many wars? Or perhaps didn't see fit to melt down artifacts since they had an abundance of metal?

Ceramics too; China is famous for ceramics. Duh. Porcelain is named china, after all. But I can't really tell the difference between Chinese porcelain and the pottery of other ancient civilisations.

Interestingly, for most of the exhibition halls (bronze, stone, ceramics etc) we saw the exhibitions the opposite direction from what was intended i.e. we walked in from the exit and walked out from the entrance. So basically that meant that the articles we were viewing got progressively more ancient as we walked by. Even if the reverse effect was intended. More importantly, it meant the explanations on the articles would sometimes refer to an event or concept that would only be explained later.

Fortunately, this museum allows photography, or at least doesn't stop visitors from taking photos. So I don't have to spend too much effort describing the exhibits from memory, as you saw from above.

*

Outside the Museum - and on the way back to the hostel - stands Raffles City (Shanghai Edition). It's no accident that it's named so; it was built by CapitaLand Malls, Singapore's own land developer.

So we had to enter.

Prices were about the same price as Singapore, very far from the cheap prices of Beijing and Suzhou (remember my Yonex shuttlecocks?). Maybe slightly cheaper. But there were some distinctly familiar Singaporean companies selling their products there, such as Breadtalk and Charles and Keith.

We spent about 15min in Raffles City (Shanghai Edition) before walking back to the hostel another way. The map is quite useful and we managed to get home in no time. Even if Wee Long was visibly stressed about being lost. And I was partially disappointed that I wasn't lost.

As of now, only one of our room-mates has checked in. She's an Indonesian Singaporean lady, about in her 50s, who's in Shanghai for a while. I'm not sure what she's doing here, and I'm afraid to ask, but she's quite nice.

It also brings up an interesting point. So far we have met a Malaysian Singaporean and an Indonesian Singaporean. So I just wonder how many types of Singaporeans do we have? And then, what am I? Singaporean Singaporean?

*

Time: 12mn

Place: My bed at the hostel.

We have finally met our room-mates. Aside from the Indonesian Singaporean we had met earlier there is another Indonesian Malaysian and a Japanese not-couple. Not as interesting as our first roommates, but at least now I get an opportunity to speak Malay a bit. And the Japanese girl thought I was African. She clearly hasn't seen many Indians in her life. Or Africans, for that matter.

Scarily, she's not the first in this country who makes that mistake.

And I have discovered that Kim Jong Il was in Beijing at the same time as us. Amazing shit, considering I had no idea, from Chinese News sources. Nobody said anything. But hey, if I had known I'd have told him to come down to Singapore and have a look.

Anyway, let's just get back to the story.

We rested in the hostel room - Wee Long sleeping and I playing chess on my iPad - till about 8pm, when it was time for dinner. I wasn't particularly hungry, surprisingly, but I think that had a lot to do with the filling lunch we had had.

We had dinner a few restaurants down from where we had had lunch earlier. We chose that place mainly because the signboard outside the eatery said "delicious". You'd be surprise how far that goes in attracting customers, especially if its the only restaurant on the street which claims to have delicious food.

We were not disappointed. The food was quite nice, and more importantly, quite cheap.

After dinner, we went to do further free nighttime sightseeing - at the CBD. Shanghai is home to some modern architecture including the Shanghai World Financial Center, Pearl Tower, and the Jin Tao Tower. The SWFU is the 3rd tallest building in the world, and it achieves this without using the usual tactic of a really tall lightning spire ala the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. As with most of these skyscrapers, once you get too close, you can't get a good shot. But its quite intimidating to stand so close to such a huge building.

We took the subway back (just as we had taken it to the CBD), and within 10min we were back to People's Square metro station and walking back to the hostel. Strangely, it wasn't as cold as expected. Very strange weather.

Anyway, we had decided that we will sleep in tomorrow morning. So tired. Goodnight.

Day 12

Time: 7.25
Place: In the lobby of the People's Square hostel, waiting for the monkey to arrive.

Eugene should be arriving very soon - he had said that he would be here by 7pm. But, as you can see above, it's 7.25 and he's not here yet. Poor thing, he's coming all the way from Suzhou. Anyway, because of the above mentioned reason, I doubt I'll be able to finish this account in this one sitting.

We woke up late today, as promised. It's still not enough to fully recover from our previous exertions, though; but considering that today is our last full day in Shanghai, I think we really had to - oh he's here. Will be back later...

Time: 12.30am
Place: On Eugene's bed.

I'm here only because I'm disturbing him and because he was reading yesterday's account on this iPad. I will be going back to my bed soon enough, because we ought to be sleeping - tomorrow we have a morning flight and we have to wake up early to take the Maglev train to the airport. We just checked it out, but to our disappointment, it doesn't run as fast as it can in the morning before 8.45am, so we don't get to experience its full speed of 430km/h. Anyway, that's tomorrow's story, but I'm mentioning it here because I doubt I'll have time tomorrow on the super fast train.

Anyway I must make a correction here to an earlier account. A few corrections, actually.

Firstly, the Japanese non-couple were not friends - it was pure coincidence that the two Japanese people were sleeping one on top of the other. Secondly, I had falsely accused the Japanese girl of calling me African, but as it turned out, we hadn't met the Japanese girl as yet. The girl whom I thought was the Japanese girl was in fact the Chinese friend of the Malaysian Indonesian lady whose bed Eugene now occupies.

No wonder the 'Japanese' girl looked so Chinese. And no wonder she hasn't seen an Indian man before.

OK Eugene is chasing me out of his bed - let me move to my own.

Ah back on my own bed.

So now that we have cleared the Japanese girl of any false accusations, we can go back to our story of today.

Today was meant to be a shopping day. But guys don't shop very well; as we found out today. To whet our appetite for shopping, therefore, we decided to fulfill the request of one of Eugene's friends - Shu Hui. If you remember her, she's the same girl we met in Berlin a whole year before. She was hoping we could help her buy a bag for less than 50RMB. She had even sent us a photo showing her preference for the type of bag.

So, using the picture, we located the bag she wanted. However, the shop owner quoted a price nearing to 680RMB and asked if we want to negotiate. At once we knew that this was definitely not the bag - there was no way you'd bargain down from 680 to 50RMB. So we tried to walk out, without even bothering to bargain. The shop keeper probably thought that was a premature walk out (the final move in a bargain) and asked us to quote what price we wanted. I was quite embarrassed to say 50¥ but Wee Long went ahead and quoted the price. I probably should stop here, saying that the shopkeeper got quite amused and went ahead to tell his shopkeeper friends about us.

We didn't buy much more from the shopping centre, except for a pair of jeans for each of us. Eugene, later told us that we paid too much, and I was down for awhile because of that. Post purchase dissonance. But ultimately I think I should be happy knowing that I got it a decent price compared to Singapore standards. It also serves as a lesson to not go shopping unless I have an experienced shopper by my side; one who knows the value of stuff.

Almost forgot - I saw an interesting sight: an Italian man was bargaining with the Chinese saleslady. In Italian. And the Chinese saleslady was speaking what seemed to be fluent Italian. Interesting.

After the shopping centre, we had run out of money (we already had to withdraw money today), so we decided to put the rest of shopping on hold till evening, after Eugene had arrived. The rationale was that perhaps Eugene knew better the art of shopping and bargaining.

It transpired, ultimately, that there is no night market in Shanghai like there is in Bangkok. So our master plan to shop at night was a master plan not well thought through. But we weren't to know that just yet, so we decided to take the subway down to the Shanghai Expo.

After lunch at Subway, we took the subway to the eastern side of the Expo, because there seemed to be an interesting shaped bridge shown on the map. The bridge looked much more impressive on the map than in real life. And what's more, we couldn't cross the bridge.

To make matters worse, instead of walking westward towards the Expo we ended up walking eastward towards the river bank. And by the time I realised it, we were already too far away to think about turning back. So we decided to walk to the river front.

Our direction was right, but there was no river front - it was completely boarded up. I tried to walk towards the shore at some gap in the boards but a security guard/policeman stopped me. I theorised that perhaps that's where China is hiding their nuclear bombs. This theory falls flat for many reasons, the first being that they don't actually hide their nuclear bombs. And that it turns out that, unless I'm much mistaken, the riverside area was being developed by developers to make some touristy place that will be ready in a few years, perhaps.

Just when I was thinking this is the 'Nanjing Changjiang River Bridge Episode' once again (where we didn't cross a bridge, and didn't see the river) the boards part and reveal a worth-the-wait view of the Shanghai skyline.

By the way, that samurai-sword shaped building is in fact the SWFU from yesterday; side profile.

We were now at the famous Bund; the British influence was evident. We didn't walk too far along the Bund before turning back into Yan'an road to get to our hostel, because we had to meet Eugene back at the hostel.

As you already know, he came a little more than half an hour late, and soon after that we were out again. It was there that he told us that we wouldn't be shopping anymore today at those bargain shops. So instead we go to the more legit shopping area; to the Giordano outlet store.

Shopping there is a lot less stressful, even if the prices may (or may not) be higher than shopping at those little shops. The sight of a fixed price on a price tag was more than welcome. We spent what little money we had left there, and bought some socks. But I think perhaps I need another shopping vacation, perhaps to Indonesia or Malaysia, before my exchange to the US. After finally concluding our shopping experience, we had dinner at the McDonald's there.

Shopping, however, was not the most interesting thing that happened tonight. Recall, I said 'legit' shopping area. 'Legit' here is used generously. True, the shopping is probably more legit. But the first thing we encountered when we walked into the region, was a pimp trying to sell his wares. In total, about 4 different pimps approached us.

Eugene had earlier told us that prostitution is seriously clamped down in China. That probably explained why the pimps had to be down here, while the girls hide up in their hotel rooms. Apparently before prostitution was illegalised, the girls would be down here strutting their stuff.

The nature of the pimps, however, was surprisingly diverse. The first one looked like a normal horny man; the second like an Ah Beng; the third like a decently dressed businessman; and the fourth I forget. I think he looked like a normal horny man too.

Beijing doesn't have this vice - seems that the presence of the central government in their midst makes Beijing the example for other cities. So to set a good example to the rest of the cities, crime is seriously punished; and so these vices are not present. At least obviously.

So the rest of the night I mimicked the pimps, asking Eugene: "You want lady? We have beautiful lady. We have beautiful lady massage... " Yes. They're that direct. And yes, the thought of prostitutes still gives Eugene shivers (remember Berlin?)

Okay, it's already 1.30 and I need to wake up at 6.30 tomorrow. But at least we're going home. Tomorrow, the epilogue of this trip.

Previous: Chapter 4 - Nanjing

Next: Epilogue

China Trip: Chapter 4 - Nanjing

Day 10

Time: 9.40am
Place: On a high speed train somewhere between Suzhou and Nanjing.

And so we are finally going to Nanjing. Nanjing was a famous site of World War II, made famous in the non-fiction book "The Rape of Nanking". I wiki-ed that event and it really is quite gruesome, probably exceeding, amazingly, the brutality demonstrated by the NAZIs on the Jews in concentration camps. Even if, perhaps, the NAZIs' treatment of the Jews may have been more widespread. And so a year after visiting Dachau, I'm on my way to visit Nanking.

Ironically the hero of Nanking, John Rabe, was a member of the NAZI party, and used that fact, together with the fact that Germany and Japan were war allies, to save as many local Chinese as possible. But I'll tell you more later in this account when I get home. What I know now is purely from wikipedia.

We had to leave early this morning, the same time as Eugene, because we didn't want to hold on to the apartment key or else he would have been stuck outside the apartment. He said he didn't mind, but we did. Our train was at 9.26am so we had some time to kill (we left at 8am).

But, importantly, we needed to change our departure timing from Nanjing because we realized that we had booked too early a departure time from Nanjing. We managed to, so now we don't have to keep rushing in Nanjing. And may get to visit the mighty Yangtze River flowing through Nanjing.

Originally we had planned only to visit the Mausoleum of Sun Yat Sen (whose Mausoleum is probably more worth our while visiting than the Mausoleum of Mao in Tienanmen Square, Beijing), as well as the memorial of the Nanking Massacre. Note that I use the names Nanking and Nanjing interchangeably, but that's only because they refer to the same city.

After changing the train timing, we still had enough time to get breakfast at KFC at the station, and boarded the train after the horde of crazy Chinese people who for some reason think that there is a necessity to board the train first.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll be back tonight.

*

Time: 8.40pm
Place: On the train back from Nanjing.

What a day. I doubt we can do anything else tonight. Though I still hope we get to go down to Cold Stone to eat ice cream later, even though our money supply has nearly all but depleted. I am going to change money tomorrow. Will probably be able to get about 500RMB extra for spending, but I doubt that's enough for my shopping needs, if I want to buy more electronic stuff. We'll see, though.

Anyway, back to today.

First, a little fact. Bei Jing means Northern Capital, Nan Jing means Southern Capital. So probably it was no surprise that the Japanese decided that it was a priority to invade this city back during the invasion. And of course, as I mentioned, Nanjing is famous for a less than pleasant reason - it being the site of horrendous war crimes by Japanese soldiers back then.

But first, it's to Purple Mountain, so named because of purple clouds that apparently cover it. I say apparently because we didn't see it for ourselves; it was clear skies today. Purple mountain has a couple of tombs, but we only visit the one of Dr Sun Yat Sen, widely known as the one who revolutionized China from its archaic imperial structure.

Ironically, Dr Sun was a member of the Kuomintang Party, which ultimately lost to the Chinese Communist Party. I'm not sure how accurate this comparison is, but at this time, it seems that an accurate comparison would be a monument to an opposition party member in Singapore. Perhaps David Marshall. Or Lim Chin Siong. I don't know. And I don't think that will ever happen, at least not in the near future of my country.

Anyway, the view from the Mausoleum is quite fantastic, but unfortunately pictures inside are not allowed. The inside of the mausoleum is very unlike the other architecture that we have experience during this China Trip. But that's only because the architect was French, and worked to integrate western style of architecture with eastern styles.

The walk down from the mausoleum, which is at the top of a very long walk uphill, is much easier than the walk up; and sooner rather than later we were back on the ground(ish) level where we started. And much sooner than expected, considering the rural nature of where we were, we managed to get a cab back to the main city.

Our plans adjusted slightly, because we realized we could slot in a visit to the Chang Jiang Nanjing Bridge. So we told the taxi driver to bring us to that bridge. Unfortunately, he told us that he couldn't bring us all the way so he stopped us at what was, according to him, the safest place for him to drop us off.

However, from there, the bridge seemed an endless walk away, with not much scenery to view. And considering the fact that Wee Long doesn't really like bridges, and I'm not sure exactly how far there is to walk and what there was to see, we decided to abandon the plan and walk to get some lunch.

In the end, the walk to lunch turned out to be longer than the walk to the bridge; and the bridge appeared to be worth visiting, so it was a case where perhaps we shouldn't have abandoned the plan. In any case, goof ups happen on trips, and it's about time that happens on this trip.

Anyway, after lunch (at KFC again) we were left with only one more sight to see - the Memorial of the Massacre, and we had quite some time left before our train to Suzhou. But that just meant that we would have more time to visit the Memorial. Which turned out to be a blessing because that visit was not one to be brief about.

*

The Nanjing Massacre took about 300000 lives, starting from 13.12.1937, till January of the following year, according to the first monuments that we come across. The monuments actually remember these facts in strange way.

For example the diameter of the bell is 1.937m (which is too accurate a reading in my opinion given the allowance given for expansion and contraction) and the stone cross is 13.12m tall (I think).

The memorial itself is a large building dedicated to telling the story of the Japanese attack, occupation, and defeat in Nanjing and surrounding regions. Unfortunately, photography in the building is prohibited, so I can't show you, but to summarise, there are many testimonies of survivors of the massacre (including those who were actually machine-gunned and stabbed but yet managed to survive), foreigners staying in Nanjing who were helping the locals (eg John Rabe) as well as confessions of actual Japanese soldiers who partook in the events.

In fact, Herr Rabe's tombstone is on display in the building. It was quite strange to see Swastikas being shown in a good, humanitarian light, when in most places in the world, thanks to the atrocities committed by the NAZI party, it is more closely related to evil.

Prior to the building of this memorial site, physical evidence of the mass murder committed by Japanese forces included two mass grave sites that had been excavated. During the building of this memorial site, during excavation of the ground at this very site, another mass grave was discovered.

So, adjacent to the memorial building, there is another building enclosing the grave site, fully visible to the general public. Outside the sign says "respectful silence" but some of the visitors to the grave site, uncivilized barbarians no doubt, didn't understand that concept and were talking at the top of their lungs into their cellphones.

That's the peace monument at the Massacre Memorial Site.

Anyway, I better stop writing now - no battery on the iPad. Till later, then...

*

Time: 12.55am
Place: The floor in Eugene's apartment.

Good news has come. My new toys have arrived. So right now I'm typing with my new keyboard for iPad; and just now I was using my new iPad stylus to scribble down some notes too. After we got it we checked the price on Amazon and it was significantly cheaper. So overall good investment.

Anyway, back to the original story; from before I was interrupted by the diminishing battery on my iPad...

The Memorial Hall for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre was the last item on our itinerary today, so after that we had about 3 hours to kill before our 8.20pm train departed from Nanjing. So, unlike most people on the subway, we were calm and collected and not in a hurry.

We made our way slowly to the Main Train Station of Nanjing and were there with about 2.5 hours to spare. It was still too early to have dinner, considering that we did have a late lunch. So we stoned by the lake (yes, another lake) and watched yet another non-visible sunset.

Again, the clouds were blocking the descent of the sun beneath the horizon. But, had we caught sunset today, it would have been a major bonus. Anyway, it was not to be, and at about 7pm we decided we could move to eat and stone further at the eating place.

KFC is ubiquitous in China, so there was one more at the train station. But by now, I at least was fed up of eating at KFC, so we opted for the less popular (never though I'd ever be saying this) McDonald's. There had been another option, dumplings, but ordering there seemed unnecessarily complicated and we decided against it. Wee Long promised that there will be no fast food tomorrow. We'll see.

*

Tomorrow we have to wake up relatively early to go to Shanghai, but I myself am not too sure about what's there to do in Shanghai. Personally I'm glad that this trip to China is coming to an end because its getting a little annoying not understanding anything that is going on since everything is in Chinese.

I think I'm just crabby because its been a really long day, and I hope I'm back to my positive self by tomorrow.

Previous: Chapter 3 - Suzhou

Next: Chapter 5 - Shanghai

China Trip: Chapter 3 - Suzhou

Day 7

Time: 10.50am
Place: On a high-speed train between Hangzhou and Suzhou.

We woke up relatively early - for once, I had to be artificially woken up (by Eugene) because the sun did not permeate through the curtains of our almost-underground room.

As you might have guessed, there really isn't much to talk about as yet, because this day hasn't matured much as yet. But hey, 'there's never nothing going on'.

The taxi ride to the Hangzhou Central Rail Station was uneventful - but we are in a city where an uneventful taxi ride is the exception, not the rule. The driver barely sounded his horn throughout the journey. Surprisingly, or perhaps because he was the first gracious taxi driver we had encountered, the traffic didn't seem too bad. Anyway, about 15 min and 11RMB later we were at the crowded Hangzhou Railway station. The station was crowded with all sorts of people, from tourists on backpacking trips waiting for higher-end trains (like the one I'm on now) to farmers going home on the lower-end (and much cheaper) trains.

As always, a train ride is a very effective way to get a summary of the countryside. So far we have passed by many farms, as well as interestingly designed houses that were apparently built by the farmers themselves.

Few highlights that we will be passing by: firstly, a nuclear reactor sometime soon, and secondly a first glimpse of Shanghai. I'll try to take the relevant pictures when I get the opportunity. We'll see.

*

Time: 5.10pm
Place: Eugene's apartment, Suzhou

As it turned out, I didn't get to see the nuclear reactor or any glimpse of Shanghai. So we shall just be patient, till day 10, I think, in order to see more of Shanghai.

Anyway, back to the story.

The original reason we had decided to visit China was that Eugene had invited us to go visit when he first left for his overseas internship.. His justification was that flying to Suzhou, or rather, Shanghai, was cheap, and accommodation will be settled for us since he has a place to stay. Where we are right now, in fact. The whole extension of the trip to include Beijing was because I felt that a trip to China would be incomplete without a visit to the Great Wall.

Most Singaporeans know Suzhou - it is probably the most Singaporean place in all China. Reason being this is the site of the great Suzhou debacle, where Singapore invested heavily in developing Suzhou but ultimately that turned out to be a gross miscalculation. Singaporean ownership in Suzhou is now a majestic one percent.

Immediately after exiting the train station we were mobbed by a whole bunch of tour operators etc that were keen on getting their relevant commissions. It was almost like lunch yesterday, like hungry birds snatching for a worm.

We were forewarned by Eugene about these people, so we just ignored them and walked on. I was quite annoyed at the people, much like I had been at the street vendors of souvenirs in Paris a whole year ago. But Wee Long pointed out that at least they're working for a salary and in some way at least, are contributing to the economy, unlike beggars, for instance. Or people on the dole, even, in fact.

We finally got to the front of the taxi queue and were shortly at Singa Plaza, where Eugene stays. The Singaporean influence here is remarkable. Even the block where Eugene is staying at resembles a HDB block, void deck and all.

Lunch was at a Taiwanese restaurant a few minutes away from the apartment. Taiwanese food is interesting, a very different flavor from that which we are used to both in Singapore and the other parts of China that we have visited till today.

After lunch we had wanted to go to the main shopping district in Suzhou to look at stuff, but after lunch, Wee Long was tired and it was raining, and I was lazy, so we went back to the apartment to chill till dinnertime. I probably won't write anymore till tomorrow, purely out of laziness; but I doubt there will be anything too interesting to write about later. Apart from perhaps the fact that today is the last day of the BPL, and today will thus decide who gets relegated and who doesn't, as well as who goes to Europe and who doesn't.

I will give a quick summary tomorrow, but I think we won't be venturing too far tonight.

*

Time: 12.30am
Place: On the couch in Eugene's apartment.

As I had initially suspected, there's nothing much to report on the rest of today.

We didn't leave Singa Plaza for the rest of the day. We went to the restaurant, opened by a Singaporean, just about 50m from the apartment to have dinner. Food was decent, not the best, but not that costly anyway. Most importantly it was near home.

After coming back home we just stoned for quite some time and did some online shopping for stuff that you can only get in China (electrical stuff) and then we watched a movie. But Eugene needed to sleep early because he has to go to work tomorrow.

So it's still dependent on whether Wee Long recovers, whether we actually go out to see anything. Honestly speaking, I don't mind a chillax day. So we'll see. But we must die die go see the lake and sunset tomorrow.

Pardon the Singlish.

Yawn.. Goodnight!

Day 8

Time: 12.20am
Place: The couch in the apartment in Suzhou, again.

You might think that, since this account is being written so late in the night, today was a very long day. Wrong. Far from it.

So let me continue this account from where I left off, sorta.

As it turned out, Wee Long didn't recover fully from his sickness. So today turned out to be a very slack day.

We left the apartment at about 12.30pm and returned by 3pm. That's how relaxing our day was in the afternoon.

We just went to Au Chan, the shopping centre near Eugene's house because that was the nearest place outside Plaza Singa that we could get food and look for daily necessities. We probably wouldn't be doing justice to our trip if we didn't leave Singa Plaza the whole time we were in Suzhou. Besides, Wee Long was feeling slightly better and we needed to get out a bit.

Au Chan was about 15min walk from the apartment, a 15min walk through an industrial estate in China. By the time we reached, we were already hungry, mainly because we hadn't had our breakfast either. However, since Wee Long had just recovered from sickness, we were limited to what we could eat.

Strangely I had a craving for KFC, which obviously I had to suppress. As it turned out, the suppression was very temporary as we went to KFC for dinner in the end. Ah, at least craving was satisfied. But, back to lunch. We ended up choosing to go to UFF, or Uncle Fast Food, which sounds strangely Singaporean, but I don't think it is. The food there, however, was amazingly cheap - hawker centre prices (about S$3.50) for a set meal that was oddly classy. It's amazing. The whole of China seems to be covered by Student Prices.

Anyway, we soon discovered that Au Chan was the name of the 'supermarket' within the shopping centre, and not the shopping centre itself. I'm not sure about the name of the shopping centre, and I don't think it's that important anyway.

Au Chan itself is not just a supermarket. It's one of those Giant Supermarkets that sells everything, from clothes to foodstuff to TV sets. Like Carrefour.

It's like shopping heaven then already, but it's nothing compared to the shopping heaven later. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Again.

The prices were good - Wee Long wanted to buy a couple of bags. I'm saving my shopping for Shanghai. Mainly because I have almost run out of cash on hand. Smartass that is me took only S$350 for a 13 day trip to China. My credit card will save me soon, I hope.

Ultimately, however, we didn't buy anything. We needed Eugene's 'okay' in order to proceed, so we decided we'll come back later with him.

*

On our second trip to Au Chan (with Eugene, this time), we didn't walk - we just cabbed. It being a short distance, the cabbie actually charged us the minimum fare of 10RMB even before we reached the destination.

Oh and today I realised that the cabbies are called Shi Fu in this country. Something like how we call them 'Uncle' in Singapore.

Anyway, as you might already know, we had dinner at KFC.

And it was a good thing that we didn't buy the bag without Eugene. Because he recommended a different store, in the same building, which offered better deals. So, this time, I was truly in shopping heaven. Not just me. Wee Long bought a backpacker's bag for quite cheap (I can't remember exactly how much, though); while I bought two tubes of Yonex Aerosensa 5 shuttlecocks for S$19 each.

I also looked for some running attire for cold climates so that I would not be creating excuses not to run while in Iowa, but the store had run out of stock for that particular item. But I was, and still am, very happy with my two tubes of shuttlecocks.

It also means that I am now really low on cash and probably would have to withdraw money if the credit card is not widely accepted in Shanghai. But I think it should be quite widely accepted there, because apparently Shanghai is one of the most modern cities and most western cities in all China.

I really desperately need to buy a pair of jeans. My current one had a large gaping hole where a hole should not be. So much so that I look like I'm wearing clothes designed for toddlers in China. By the way, for those of you who don't know, don't worry, I just found out yesterday. The toddlers wear trousers which have a large gaping hole over their buttocks. The reason being, given that these toddlers don't wear diapers, it allows them to do their business anywhere without soiling themselves. Now, according to Eugene, this means that they end up shitting anywhere on the pavement that they please, without their parents cleaning up. I'm not sure how much of that to believe because personally that sounds quite barbaric. I could just hope that they (the parents) do clean up after their kids so that other people wouldn't have to look out for shit when they walk. Just like how Singaporeans should clean up after their dogs shit in public places.

Anyway, after dinner, we took a cab to the lake in Suzhou. As to why every city seems to have a lake, I don't know. But Suzhou has a lake too, just like Hangzhou. And Suzhou's lake is damn beautiful too, albeit in a different way. A different type of beauty. Suzhou's lake is surrounded by very beautifully lit up buildings, making it resemble the beautiful Singapore skyline of old. You know, the one that is only visible from the Marina Bay Sands, the very building that blocked the view for the rest of us... Anyway, I'm tired of Singapore bashing. It doesn't get you anywhere. Back to Suzhou.

The only problem with using a phone camera (or any normal digital camera, for that matter) is that it cannot to justice to the night time scenery of a city lit up. And hence, I don't think you'll be able to appreciate the beauty from the photos. So you'll just have to take my word for it, or go see for yourself.

I'm not saying the Hangzhou lake pales in comparison though; that lake has mountains behind, and you can't beat mountains behind. Of course even the most majestic mountains-behind scene will not be visible in the mist that we had when we were at Hangzhou. So I can't say much about Hangzhou's West Lake.

I bring up the comparison because I think there are many things about the two lakes that mirror each other - somebody copied somebody. What do you expect, it's China. But again, I can't comment too much on the comparisons because I didn't see the Hangzhou lake that well.

*

Tomorrow will probably be a long day. Turns out that the original plan to visit Nanjing has to be delayed by a day because we didn't manage to book train tickets on time. So we'll book them tomorrow, early in the morning, before we start on sightseeing proper of Suzhou city. Till then, then.

Geez, that was almost 2 hrs of typing. With a lot of breaks in between, of course.

Day 9

Time: 12.30am
Place: Same place as before.

A very late entry today, I know. Which is quite worrying since we really need to wake up early tomorrow morning for our day trip to Nanjing. Hence in the interest of saving time I shall not say much about tomorrow.

We started off the day by preparing for tomorrow - by buying the relevant train tickets remaining. That is, the trains to and from Nanjing tomorrow, as well as the train tickets to Shanghai.

The place where we went to buy tickets was relatively near to our apartment, but the route there was quite complicated. However, we were armed with a decent map and (to be honest) very good directions from Eugene. After that issue was cleared, we could start our proper sightseeing of Suzhou.

As you might know, if you have been following this story, we only have one day to see Suzhou. So that left us with a tight schedule today.

Two events happened that further constricted this schedule. First, our other room mate, Wei Song, forgot to bring his key card for the apartment. That meant that we had to bring it, which also meant that we couldn't come home too late, or he'd be stuck outside the apartment. Secondly, we woke up quite late - probably due to the fact that we slept quite late yesterday.

We only left at about 11am in the end.

Our first stop was Tiger Hill or Huchiu. I'm actually more familiar with the term I gave to it, just like I gave the name to Tram Road in Beijing (actually I also call that road Beijing's Las Ramblas, which is a street in Barcelona which resembles Tram Road). I named tiger hill 'the leaning tower of Suzhou'.

Why?

Tiger Hill is characterized by a pagoda tower on its peak. However, this pagoda tower leans slightly to one side. According to Eugene, the reason for this was that the Japanese, during the occupation, try to dig up grave of an Emperor to get the treasures buried with him. However, halfway through this excavation, the tower started to lean to one side, making excavation unsafe.

So it's not that the Chinese tried to copy the Pisa concept and put it in Suzhou. Though it's probably something that you wouldn't put past them.

You could extend that argument to the whole of Suzhou, to be honest. Suzhou is known as the Venice of the East (just as Stockholm is known as the Venice of the North). And, having had the opportunity to visit all three above mentioned cities, I can tell you that Suzhou does a better job imitating Venice.

Of course it's just for fun that I claim that the copyrights to Venice were infringed - I am quite certain that the Chinese idea to build a city with loads of canals was independent of the Venetian idea to do the same thing.

But ultimately you must admit that the resemblance is interesting at least.

Anyway, the Tiger Hill attraction was supposedly the must-see attraction of Suzhou, and it also probably is the most costly of the attractions. But, since we had already paid the relatively expensive cab fare to Tiger Hill, we decided to suck it in and pay the additional 60RMB to continue our visit to the hill. That also meant that we made it a point to see everything at the site.

From Tiger Hill, which is in the far north-western corner of our map, we cab to the more central shopping district of Suzhou. It's not that we are avid shoppers, it's just that we were (or at least I was) hungry. There were eateries nearby to the Leaning Tower of Suzhou, but they didn't look very appetising.

We ate at a half decent place which had half decent food for quite decent price.

After lunch it was already 3pm and we were yet to visit the other sites that we wanted to see before going back to the apartment - Suzhou Museum and the Humble Administrator Garden, which are next to each other.

Another thing - Chinese names for places of interest, when translated to English, sound really strange. But I'm sure they sound quite normal in Mandarin.

Walking to the museum and the garden, from the main shopping district, I navigate using the map and the sun to point us in the right direction. I realize that it's quite useful to come in spring, like we have, because navigation is slightly easier - i.e. the sun is in the east in the morning and in the west in the afternoon. And hence, walking in the general direction that we want to head in, we would eventually be able to find our way.

Wee Long however doesn't share my enthusiasm to use this technique of navigation. He resorts to asking directions from people - a very different technique of navigation which I'm not comfortable with. Anyway, he's much more comfortable after asking for directions and its a relief that he's not looking so visibly uneasy and stressed now that he knows for a fact that he's on the right path.

Sometimes I think we have a very different mentality on traveling. He is very destination-oriented while I'm much more journey-oriented. So when we got home much later I planned out our Nanjing Day Trip, detailed to the letter. But I still think he's quite tense about it.

Anyway, we eventually reach the Museum and the Garden, and, again, there are tickets. So we decide to just take photos outside. Besides we didn't really have much time since we had to make sure we get home before either Eugene or Wei Song or they'll be stuck outside the apartment.

Later we discovered that there was actually no entrance fee to the Museum and we didn't actually have to be home so early, so it probably would have been better had we visited the Museum.

Never mind.

*

After our Eugene and Wei Song reached home, we went out again. I mean Eugene, Wee Long and myself. First, we walked down to the lake. It was my insistence on seeing sunset. But we miss it again, mainly because of clouds in the sky. But I think that the sunset here would not be that beautiful. Nothing compared to Hangzhou. So I shall not pursue sunset anymore. Maybe sunrise. Okay, who am I kidding. Like I will ever wake up that early.

So we miss sunset, but we walk over to the harmony monument, which has our Minister Mentor Emeritus's name on it. Again, a little testimony to the Singaporean interests in Suzhou.

Originally our plan had been to return to Au Chang to buy an office bag that Wee Long wanted. But due to time constraints, we decided to put that off till tomorrow. After all, we still have one more night in Suzhou.

So we went down to a part of Suzhou that had been preserved, I think. It did look like a page out of ancient China, plus a few motorized scooters and bicycles scooting and cycling by.

If the area around Tiger Hill resembled Venice, this place really looked it. Here, motorized sampans were ferrying people along the canal ways, for probably a fraction of the price of the famous WaterBus or gondolas of Venice.

Eugene was looking to buy a painting from this area, but after finally finding the shop that he was looking for, he couldn't find a nice enough painting to buy for his dad.

After having dinner near that area, we head back to the apartment.

Tomorrow, the guy whose bed Wee Long is occupying now is returning from his trip, so Wee Long probably would have to sleep on the couch too. So tonight is actually the last time this couch is all mine.

Previous: Chapter 2 - Hangzhou

Next: Chapter 4 - Nanjing