Today I woke up at 7.45am and had a photo shot with Siew bo and the service apartment’s cleaner. However, I was supposed to wake up at 6.15am for going to Wuhan Botanic Garden. Fortunately I didn’t go there due to the raining weather according to the information given by the weather forecast. Once again, the temperature was seemed to get warmer and warmer before we have few more days left to go back Singapore. Then, I continued on doing my homework until 11am plus. At 11.30am plus, I went out to Canteen 2 and had an early lunch on my own. After had taken my lunch, I went to take a bus, bus no 907 to go to city area. However, I was supposed to drop at Guang Bu Tun but I was dropped at its final stop instead. When the moment I reached at the final stop, I saw there was no bus terminal except some roadside stalls and school building. In the beginning, I thought that there was seemed to have bus terminal on each final stop like in Singapore. But unexpectedly, it wasn’t. So I immediately crossed over the opposite side on the main road, from there I took the same bus back to Guang Bu Tun. Along the journey, I found that most of the streets were given with the surname initial such as Chen Jia Wan, Wu Jia Wan, Zhang Jia Wan and etc. Although those streets were seemed to be similar to each other but the name of it that located was not the same place. This would easily to cause confusion in the first place. After I had reached Guang Bu Tun, I was dropped from the bus. And I was thinking whether could walk to Yellow Crane Tower from here. It seemed to be near but actually it’s far if going there by walking. So I took the initiative and courage, to decide to go there by walking. With my determination, I had managed to reach the place nearby within 40-50 minutes later. The distance that I walked from Guang Bu Tun to Yellow Crane Tower was about 40-50 km or even more. It was like having a walkathon in the raining day. And along the journey, I had encountered few difficulties as one of them was the misdirection. In the beginning, there was two ways either to train station or Yellow Crane Tower there. So as I was walking on the left, I found that there was no sign of the tower and yet I was walking to the Wuchang train station direction according to what the security guard told me. So he explained to me on how to walk to the Yellow Crane Tower from there. Then, as I walked to the other side, it took me about 15-20 minutes to see the sign of the tower. When I reached the destination, I was found that there was nowhere to go for me. However, I was immediately decided to go the shopping area that I been before. When I reached the area, I found that there were quite a lot of shops that were selling clothes from local brands and some international brands. One of the local brands I saw was the 361 degree. At first, I was thought that it was the shop that was selling mathematic equipment like calculator or other measure instruments. Then, I found that it was the shop that was selling clothes with local brand. Next, I continued walking to visit some of the shops on that area. I noticed that the area was seemed to be like an endless shopping and it was another good place in Wuhan to buy clothes with latest fashion or design. After that, at about 6.30pm, I went to take a bus, bus no 521 back to Lu Xiang. From there, I had my dinner at the Macdonald’s in the Guang Lu Bu Xing Jie and went to explore around in the mall. It was a huge mall with 5 levels which just like the Suntec Conversion in Singapore but the size of it was about triple as big as the Suntec’s. As comes to compare with it, Suntec was nothing. At about 7.45pm, I walked out of the mall and took a bus, bus no 901 back to the campus after had done my exploring. As for today, it wasn’t pretty much to be observed. One of the things that I came across was the bus stops in China. Most of the places in China had the signboards to locate its destination while others like in the industrial area, there wasn’t any. As compare to Singapore, there was almost every bus stop has its signboard to let the passengers where they located. But in China, it would easily to lose track if without having an extra caution along the journey in the bus. I also found that most of the streets were given by the surname of the people. I believed that those streets were used to live by some well-known people during the past. After few weeks in Wuhan, there were some places that I found similar between in Singapore and in China. During my exploration, I noticed that Guang Bu Tun was the place used to sell computer and digital stuffs like Sim Lim Square in Singapore while other street where further from there was called Zhong Nan Street and it was similar to City Hall in Singapore.
Release road?
Freedom road?
Day 40 April 12
Today I woke up at 6.45am to do finish on my journal of yesterday before I could go out. Fortunately, I didn’t wake up later than that as I had so many assignments to be done before leaving to Singapore and I was supposed to go two places on my own for the whole day. As I was doing until 8.30am plus, I walked down and went to have a light breakfast at Canteen 2. After that, I went out to take a bus, bus no 901 to Lu Xiang. From there, I transferred to bus no 401 to Gui Yuan Temple. It was quite a long journey to travel from Wuchang to Hanyang as the duration of the distance travelled was taken me about 30-40 minutes to reach the destination. Once I reached the place, I dropped off from the bus and walked toward the temple. Before I went into the entrance door, I found that there was a few of ticketing booths that selling the entrance tickets. So I went to get one at the adult price of $10 RMB for entering the temple. When I was inside the temple, I found that the temple was divided into many sections. One of the places that I went was the Arhat Hall, known as the Rohan Hall. It was the place that consists of 500 Arhats statues which were either sitting or reclining and displayed in anger, sadness, delight and happiness expression. It was also one of the most characteristics in the Gui Yuan Temple over the years. However, there was three different ways to determine a person’s characteristics. The first way was to count from the left if male and count from the right if female. And the second way was to count as the feeling goes. Then, lastly was to count from the fate and the will by the person. As I was walking inside the hall, I found that the local people did the same ways according to the three different ways that being described on the entrance door. I believed that by doing this, it would bless the person if his characteristic was matched precisely. After had visiting the Arhat Hall, I went out to explore more around the temple. Then, I saw a huge Guan Yin statue situated outside the temple area. It was a doubled-face statue as it faced at the North and at the South. I believed that the statue was built in hundred years ago and there were some names crafted on the stone mill for the blessing. After that, I continued exploring around the area and it was nothing much other than the Arhat Hall. So I walked out of the temple and went to buy some bread as my lunch. Next, I went to board the same bus back to Lu Xiang. But this time, I was not dropped at Lu Xiang instead and headed to another destination, Wuhan Botanical Garden. It was my first and last time to visit this place. This place was also one of the largest botanical gardens in the world. As comparing to Singapore’s Botanical Garden, it was so much difference and its size of the area might up to three times of Singapore’s. After I had reached the destination, I dropped off from the bus and went to buy a ticket at the adult price of $30 RMB, about $7-8 SGD. It was much cheaper of its ticket cost than what I used to visit before in Singapore. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t seem to be good and it rained from lightly to heavily. Although it rained, I still insisted to go in as it was the only opportunity I had to visit before I got back to Singapore on this coming Tuesday. After I went in through the entrance gate, I saw there was a huge conventional hall. It was one of the places for recommending the tourists to visit. There were quite a number of plant types such as trees, flowers, leaves displayed together in the hall. There were also had different kinds of cactus displayed in the small section as well. After I had explored around the hall, I walked out of it and saw there was another small area that looked like a mini garden. Later, there wasn’t much to be explored after I had further walking around the garden. At about 4.30pm, I decided to go back to campus by taking the bus, bus no 401 and dropped from Lu Xiang to transfer another bus, bus no 901. When I reached the campus outside, I walked back to the hostel and continued doing on my homework. While I was waiting for my group members, Shaoming and Siewbo to be returned at 7.30pm plus, we three of us decided went out to have dinner at the usual place outside the campus. Later about 9.30pm, we went to attend a briefing with Mr Chua and Mr Ma at Mr Ma’s hostel room. As for today, it was a great experience for me to explore the scenic places especially Gui Yuan Temple and Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan. During the journey, I found that the local people were quite seriously towards their religions especially Buddhism. But in Singapore, most of people were “manually” converting themselves from one religion to another, like Buddhism or Taoism to Christianity.
A sign that shows no vuglarity is allowed.
Sentosa I-cafe?
