Shanghai Aviation Course - 10th March to 17th March
During that week, I went to Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou. This trip was essentially a course, a NCC overseas course. But somehow, it feels like a holiday to me. A nice way to break from the Term 1 exams. The weather in China was perfect; it was not too cold but not too warm too (around 16 deg, which can never be found in Singapore). On the first day, we landed in Shanghai and took a freaking four hour bus ride to Nanjing for some reason. But I'm not complaining; I paid like only $200+ for the trip, the rest was subsidized.
Day 1 - Nanjing
So, the carpark at the Shanghai Pudong Airport. Whoa, when I exited from the airport, I can feel the cold blast of air into my face. Immediately my ears and hands started to freeze and I had to put on a cap to cover my ears, along with gloves to protect from the cold (despite it being spring time there).
This would be the highway. I took it vertically, but forgot to rotate it....
Yeah, highway. Oh right, we were going to travel to Nanjing. Since it was a night flight we took to China, almost everyone was asleep on the bus except me, since I cannot sleep in a sitting position. So I was freaking bored, and just listened to music while enjoying the scenery that Singapore would never have.
Rest stop on the way to Nanjing. We spotted a teenage girl around our age smoking away...
Yeah, the rest stop.
I know this would probably look normal to most people, but I haven't seen one in Singapore, only through the internet, and hence I took this town. It's a cooling tower.
Oh, I was shocked when I saw this. Jurong is a place in Singapore and it's the place I live in, hence I was shocked to see this in China. I had to see why it was called Jurong, and hence I waited for anotchher sign, and realised it was the hanyu pinyin version of the city -句容. Whereas the Jurong I know is a Malay word.
And four hours later, we have reached Nanjing! The former capital of the Republic of China (Taiwan), it is now just a city. But it does leave remnants of the old government, which I would visit that day and the following day.
Its supposed to be rotated.... Damn.
Oh yeah, it's food! Ordinary Chinese food like what I usually eat in Singapore except that it's freaking SALTY! The egg was salty, the duck was salty, the cabbage was salty..... Good for raising blood pressure, possibly leading to hypertension :)
Just the street.
Right then, we were heading for the Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum. Sun Yat Sen was the founder of modern China, and the Kuomintang (国民党). Great guy, went around visiting overseas Chinese to raise funds to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. He came to Singapore too :)
The carpark.
Well yeah, that's still the carpark.
And here we enter the shopping area near the Mausoleum. The guy on the left is Maj (NCC) Joseph Tan, NCC (Air) District Commander. Yes, I'm in NCC(Air).
Well we were supposed to visit Ming Xiao Ling after visiting the Mausoleum, but we didn't in the end. Look down for the reason :P
One of the shops.
Entrance to the Mausoleum.
Gates.
Ancient Chinese structures. Of course, this isn't ancient.
My tour guide was explaining the meaning of the two Chinese words on the gate to me, but I forgot the meaning of it.... If I'm not wrong it's something about the love for Sun Yat Sen by her wife...? I don't know...
Yeah. Another gate.
I'm not sure what this is, but it's not the end of the Mausoleum, because..... (look below)
Yeah, staircases! I counted up to 300+ steps, but wikipedia said there were 392 steps.
"And she's buying a stairway to heaven..." Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
This is what happens when we choose a path and decide to look back. No, we don't regret, it's a freaking nice view.
The same mausoleum...?
My friends were rushing to go back down, so I rushed to take a photo of the statue of Sun Yat Sen, and hence the blurred image. There was also a path behind the statue where we learn more about him, but my friends didn't want to go and so I didn't go as well.
I had to take this. Looks like the one I saw in Wikipedia. This is sign of the Republic of China.
Ancient Chinese words! 民 something... damn.
Yeah! Always look back and see how much progress you've made, and you'll feel proud of yourself :)
And we start the descent.
Another breathtaking picture, destroyed by the wrong orientation.
Yeah well we're going to leave the Mausoleum here.
This diagonal picture was on purpose.
Heh! Angmo in China!
The shops.
Well I'm not sure if that meant "food shop" or "hotel", since it doesn't look like a hotel but I don't see any seats for eating either.
Oho! The moon in broad daylight! It was around 4pm then.
Yeah.
Yeah. The scenery there is freaking great.
Anyway after that we were supposed to go to Ming Xiao Ling, but because the tour guide said that we don't know anything about Chinese history (that's where the tombs of the Ming Dynasty emperors are), we went to a water town. I don't know the name for this place. However as the evening comes, it got colder, my ears and hands hurt more, and the cold winds were stronger.
The water town.
It's basically a shopping street, but it was too cold for me to bother to buy anything. Yeah the weather affected my mood.
mei te si.... I took this for a reason, but forgot it already.
Yeah, ancient Chinese structures with Western shopping stuff.
A mix of Chinese and western again.
At the bottom left hand corners are my friends who were in the course as well. All of them in the course are one year younger than me except one, who's as old as i am.
"Every Breath You Take"
Gates everywhere!
Old street! (That's what the gate says)
This shop even has a Chinese-style opening in the wall. It says here Wang Da Yong Supermarket.
A great statue ruined by my sucky phototaking.
Yeah the street again.
Chinese-style doors except with glass.
Found a description for the road.
That's me going crazy.
And we're back in the bus.
Oh yeah, rock on!
And the last picture for the day. I thought Comfort DelGro was a Singapore taxi company and hence I was kinda shocked to see it on the streets of Nanjing.
And so that's the first day in Nanjing. On the second day, we spent some time in Nanjing before going to Suzhou, a beautiful city. Will post pictures soon.
Now when I look at these photos, it really makes me wish to go back to that time in China where I don't give a damn about school and all those crap. Oh yeah, with nice weather too. They say people who are old often look into their past. For me, I'm just sick and tired of my life. One full of work.
Darrell Tay. 16. Chinese Singaporean. Normal, ordinary guy. Covered by shadows casted by others. Loves my guitar, heavy metal and darkness. Or rather, I've been used to it. You can probably find photos in the archives, but I take no responsibility if your computer screen's damaged. :)
Tachyons
My blog is four years old! I never stuck to a blog this long before :)