China, China!

China China! My motherland! D land of my ancestors, my origin.

When my mom first suggested we visited Shanghai, I vehemently protested. Of all places, why Shanghai? China is such a big country (its total area is 29 times of Malaysia's).

We can visit Gui Lin (d place famous for its hills), Yun Nan (famous for its blue, blue sky), Guang Zhou (famous for its Cantonese food)... but why Shanghai? Apparently, my parents just love shopping. So much so that they need to go to civilized locations which have McD , KFC, Parkson and Robinsons. How can that be unique? How can that even be termed as 'travelling'? I voiced out my two cents worth. But, parents being parents, they will always want all their children to be at their beck and call. Since I'm still young, and being the obedient, obliging daughter, I went along with their decision; sticking to my belief that visiting Shanghai won't be much different from Bangkok, Jakarta or Singapore's Orchard Road.

However, d moment we landed at the airport, and boarded the tour bus, greeted by our energetic tour guide, I knew this would definitely be a different tour. Throughout the journey from the airport to the hotel, the guide began to introduce Shanghai's Pu Dong airport to us, mentioning that it was built on reclaimed land.

It's cold outside. 17 degrees Celcius. I'm hungry, thirsty and tired. I, am too tired to listen. I just want to sleep. And so... I slept, on the bus and later, on the hard Chinese bed.

Shanghai

On our first night in Shanghai, we were treated to a delicious meal in the form of Japanese's Obentou and famous steamed egg.





The very next morning, our first destination in Shanghai was the Pearl of the Orient.

The Interesting Signboard


D Famous Pearl of D Orient. This TV tower is 468 m in height and is the highest towers in Asia.

View from the Pearl of the Orient (Along the Shanghai Bund)

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In Malaysia, all buildings look the same. If there's a temple, all the temples will have the same shape, same colour and well... almost the same height. If there's a Wisma XXX, the building will be about 3 to 4 stories high, with grossly bright colours like yellow, green or orange. If there's a tower, the tower will be so tall with a lightning rod at its peak.

In China, however, buildings are totally different. I learned that there are many kinds of buildings: ancient buildings, modern buildings, buildings made solely from glass (which were apparently not practical as it caused heat pollution), wooden buildings and of course.. forte whose bricks were cemented with glutinous rice, water, limestone powder and a few other secret ingredients.

The shape of the buildings matter a lot in China. It has never occured to me to ask "why" until I visited Shanghai.

Why are the roofs of temples / palaces always shaped like this?

Why is this building shaped like a rocket shooting into the sky?
Why do these residential blocks have rounded sides?
Why does this building have bronze, reflective glasses?

Why does a bottom of d bridge has to be in d shape of a hemisphere? Why didn't they design it to be flat all the way?

I never knew the answer until I came to the land of my ancestors. In China, there is a reason for every single thing. The answer is all due to "feng shui". Temples have curved up roofs to chase away the evil spirits. Some buildings are shaped like a crown to signify wealth and prosperity. Some have sword like structures around them to burst the bubbles of good fortune of neighbouring businessmen. Some are shaped like a lotus to bring peace and harmony to the local community.

According to the feng shui master, even the planning of Shanghai city was according to feng shui law. In the 60's, Shanghai was a quiet fishing village. None of the entrepeneurs wanted to invest in this city because they could not see the future for this village. However, when one of the Chinese Presidents visited it in the '90s, he saw that it had great potential to be developed. He ordered all the fishing villages to be demolished, relocated the villagers and gave them a new livelihood for survival, and thus, began transforming the village into a modern city.

The law of Feng Shui specifies that to be in the direction of good fortune all the time, a conducive environment is necessary. This includes having mountains, hills, rivers and cooling weather. Shanghai is a city which experiences 4 seasons. Thus, it is always cool. No problem there. As for rivers, they already existed a long time ago, and villagers earned their livelihood from it. The only problem was mountains. Because Shanghai was in the plains, land was flat everywhere. The lands were as vast as the ocean and you could not even see a single mountain in sight even if you turned 360 degrees from where you stood. So, to create 'mountains', the town planners decided to build sky rise buildings to substitute the mountains. From one building, it became two. Soon, business improved and they multiplied to four, 16 , .. and as the mountains grew exponentially, so did the population. Today, all over the city, new buildings are mushrooming all over the corners of Shanghai. Bigger, better, more modern and more sophisticated. Each claiming to be the best!

So, as you can see, Feng Shui is a very serious matter in China. Before construction, Feng Shui Masters are paid a generous sum to derive the best direction for the main door, the materials, the shape and the interior designing of the building. That is part of the reason why there are so many lions in front of the shops and half-hollow crystals at the entrance of the shops. It is all to welcome wealth and prosperity.

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Suzhou - City of Silk and Pretty Girls

Su Zhou! Su Zhou!

When I was young, my Mandarin teachers used to teach us about the famous poems and proverbs。 Unfortunately, children, being children, always took things for granted. We never really took the effort to understand the history of China back then, and always belittled the teachers who taught us. Thinking it was just a waste of time, we studied without understanding. Memorized without putting ourselves into the shoes of the great writers and philosophers. We just repeated what was taught to us blindly and poured it all out on exam day. The next day, all would be forgotten and not only we did not improve, we became more haughty and proud. Yes. The History of China, seemed so insignificant then. We thought it was unnecessary to posesss such knowledge as it did not aid us in our exam scores. We thought it was inapplicable in our daily lives. What good would it do to have such information in our brains?

However, the guides of China proved us wrong. They were so proud of their country and their heritage. When they talked about Confucious, 唐伯虎, 江南四大才, Xi-Shi (one of d most beautiful ladies in China), you would have thought they were talking about their most beloved and respected ancestors. They knew their history really well. Which, of course, put me to shame as I did not appreciate history until that very moment. From then on, I vowed to myself to read as much as I can on the history of the world. History not only reveals the solutions of the past , it also holds the key to the future.

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Su Zhou! Su Zhou! It is so quiet here. It feels so calm and peaceful. Relaxing and cooling. So different from the bustling city of Shanghai.

As the province which receives the most rainfall in China, Su Zhou is equivalent to Venice of Italy. This city is filled with canals.

Night Scenery of YangTze River

Su Zhou is a city famous for its young, gentle and captivating ladies. During the reign of the Sui Dynasty, the King ordered all the civilians to build him a canal (Yangtze River)to travel from his palace in the north to the city of Suzhou. (In the olden days, Kings could have up to thousands of concubines and citizens would just accept it as the right of the King. ) The canal took a long time to build and in the process, many lives were sacrificed. As a result, all the citizens were very angry with the king and decided to take his life.

Meantime, the King, who was a haughty person, was too busy and excited about visiting Su Zhou to choose yet another concubine. He knew the commotion was uprising. He knew the people were planning to kill him. So, he specified that he wanted only females as the rowers of the boat, the staff and the cooks. He even made all the women in the country to stand by both banks of the Grand Canal to welcome him to Suzhou. This of course, further angered the citizens. So, when the boat arrived in Suzhou, the King was murdered immediately.

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In the daytime, Suzhou is a peaceful province. Weeping willows creep silently and hang from the strong branches of the big tall trees , providing shade for the weary travellers and tranquility for the restless souls.


Suzhou is one of the famous provinces in China for producing scholars as well! Once, when a poor scholar who spent all his savings to go to the city for a major exam and failed, he stopped at one of the temples in Su Zhou for a long rest. As he sat by the river, under the willow tree, he began to pen down his feelings into a poem as below:


As the province with the highest level of rainfall, Suzhou produces the best silk in the whole wide world. With the high level of humidity, the mulberry leaves are of such good quality that people from all over the world flock here just to obtain the silk products of Suzhou, including silk pillows, silk quilts and silk bedsheets. According to the tour guide, silk not only provides warmth to the user, it also absorbs the water in the air which aids in reducing aching of body joints, and reacts with the body chemicals to provide stronger immunity to its users. In winter, it is most advisable to use silk products as it helps to prevent colds and pneumonia.

Worms chewing mulberry leaves. Soon, they'll be in a cocoon.

These coccoon will then be boiled for long hours to soften it and its threads can reach up to 100m or more!

The coccoons are then cut open and pulled as far apart as possible. Layers and layers of it are added upon each other. It is a laborious process. It takes years to produce silk of excellent quality! So much time and man power is put into it! No wonder silk products are so expensive! I will never complain about its price again!

Wu Xi

In Mandarin, Wu Xi, means "no tin". In the olden days, people used to mine for tin. It was one of the sources of livelihood then. Because of the good money that tin brought to the town people, wars and disputes often occured and caused much disharmony among the people.

Thus, a monk who had travelled all over China, when he came to a land who was relatively calm and quiet, he was naturally curious. "Why is it that this place has no fights and petty crimes?" he wondered. As he began to investigate, he found out that this town was barren. It was void of any minerals, which meant there was no need for the people to fight over who gained more money, or who was richer than the other. No greed existed among the people here. As such, he decided to name it "Wu Xi" to signify peace to the world.

This is the most famous Buddha statue in Wu Xi. It is 30 metres tall. Yet, lightning will never strike it. According to local beliefs, this statue prevented SARS from affecting the people of
Wu Xi Province

Touching the Giant Buddha Hand for Good luck from here on! How? Walk clockwise around the hand as you place both of your palms on Buddha's palms and rotate your palms anti clockwise! Interesting, isn't it?

In Wu Xi, we visited the movie studio, sat on ancient war ships, watched fighting on horses, and tasted the best McDonalds Ice cream!


I also visited one of the biggest lakes in China! Tai Hu! It was sooo big and wide that you would have thought you were by the seaside, staring far out towards the ocean!


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The highlight of this trip was learning all about pearls. I learnt how to distinguish between real pearls and fake pearls. Real pearls are made up of minute grains of sand. Thus, the only way to know is to gnaw your teeth against the pearl grains. If it's a real pearl, you will find that its surface is rough, and not smooth.

Myth: In cartoons and comics, it has always been portrayed that an oyster produces only 1 pearl. But in reality, an oyster produces more than 1 pearl! On Average, an oyster can make about 30 pearls throughout within 6 months! The longer the rearing period, the more pearls will be produced. If its left long enough, the pearls will become bigger, rounder and darker!

Counting Pearls in an Oyster!

I also learnt to value pearls! There are several grades of pearls. The lowest quality of pearls would be white. Next in line would be pink. Better quality pearls will be of darker colour as it takes a longer time to be produced and it is quite a rare find. This includes pearls of the purple genre. The best pearl is the black pearl! If you ever see one, let me know!

Nan Jing

Nan Jing! Here, we visited the Stone City of Nan Jing! During the Chu Dynasty, to fortify the city, the King ordered all the best carpenters and builders in the city to build this forte to protect his city. This forte would be surrounded by a a very deep mote so that the enemies would not be able to attack them.

Within the walls of the Stone City. What's that hole in the centre for? It is for soldiers to peek through the walls to see the position of the enemies. It is also used as a placeholder for bombs!

The path on the city was so wide that you could even build your house in it! Why is such a big space needed? so that the soldiers could overlook the inside and outside of the city. During war, soldiers could also take turns replacing each other!

Since the fort was built to fortify the city, naturally, the King would want the wall to be as strong as possible. So, how did the King achieve that? How did he manage to do such a good job that the wall could last even after 1000 years? 2 ways. First, the materials used. In the olden days, cement had not been invented yet. To seal the bricks together, a special glue which consisted of glutinous rice, flour, limestone and a few other secret ingredients were used. Each builder was in charge of building a certain section of the wall. To instill accountability and responsibility in the builders, the King made each of them carve their names onto the brick of the beginning of their section. Should that particular section contain any flaws, the King will order the builder, his whole family and all his relatives to the galleys to be beheaded! With such fear and respect, no wonder this wall lasts 'til today!

One of the bricks with the name of the builder, his address and the names of his family members

A Wishing tree filled with wishes of hopeful devotees

Outside the Confucious temple!

Mining for Jade. Did you know that it was a rule for the miners of jade had to strip to their waist, and mine for jade bare-chested even in winter? This is to ensure that that they could distinguish between the smooth, cool feeling of jade against the rough rocks and would not miss out sieving of this valuable stone.

Internal Crystal drawing. This is a drawing on the reverse side of the crystal. The crystal is hollow. Drawing is on the inside of its walls. Everything has to be drawn as a reflection in the mirror. notice how intricate these strokes of the pen are! How careful colours are inserted into the space! How real it is!

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The highlight of Nan Jing was visiting the Nan Jing museum.


It was built just a few years back to commemorate those sacrificed in the Nan Jing massacre. It is a reminder to the Japanese government that this event really did occur. Talks are on-going to persuade the Japanese government to pen this down in their history books and take responsibility for their actions.

It is said that Nan Jing is a city with a lot of negative 'chi'. Because many of their loved ones have been killed by the Japanese in the Nan Jing massacre, revenge, unforgiveness reigns heavily in this province.

I find it sad that such a city exists. To live in bitterness and with so much spite against a particular race must take up so much energy in one's soul! I think it is tiring and exhausting! One would definitely feel much lighter should the bitterness be sweetened, the hate be turned into forgiveness and love.

Yet, as humans, we often err in our judgment and actions. We often act according to our emotions. As they say, "to err is human." It is hard to act along God's path of action. However, bear in mind that if we do, we'll achieve a higher level and be able to control more of our emotions and rise up against the surging violence of the world.

I am sad to admit that it is much easier said than done. If nobody irks me, I'm fine. If I'm provoked, I think I too will be like the people of Nan Jing, forget not and remember the things that they've done to us. I know it's immature. Yes! I will definitely learn to control my emotions and mature in my path of thought.

Hang Zhou - The City of Romance

Hang Zhou! (Night Time)

Woah! What can I say about this province? Phew! The surprises that were in store for us almost blew us away! The sceneries were breath-taking and the whole place was absolutely wonderful! The moment I entered Hang Zhou, I was transported back into the 18th Century of China!

Our first introduction to Hang Zhou was through an excellent acrobatic show! As we saw the talented young gymnasts performing their stunts, we couldn't help ourselves giving them loud applauses at every opportunity that we had! The story line of the performance was based on the history, legends, lifestyle and religion of China. These include the cave-man times, Medieval times, the famous Butterfly Lovers legend, to the Thousand Hand Boddhisatva! (This is an absolute Must See Video to have an idea of what I'm talking about!). The combination of laser lights, golden costume, long, golden finger accessories, and the tall hat were so good! To see this dance performed live in front of my eyes was absolutely an experience that I will never forget!

The next destination was an ancient street! The moment I stepped into the street, I was transported back into the 16th Century of China. Everybody on this street was dressed in the ancient traditional costumes. I even saw singing tops, games that people in the 16th century played, sugar-coated cherries and fruits, melon shaped wind instruments... ...

The shops of the 16th Century, selling herbs, pillows, you name it.

Jewellery shop

Melon Shaped instruments. They produce a very, very hollow, melodious sound. Its sound reminds me of the wind; As a lonely person, walks down a long, quiet ath, the journey is hard, the journey is tough, anad yet, the person walks on, facing the challenges ahead. "Come what may!" he said. "I will overcome it!" and a long, higher octave C-note begins trailing along the winds of changes in his life....

Have you ever seen a kid happily sucking on sugar coated cherries, strawberries, kiwi, mangoes? I was that kid on that street that particular day,

What is this man doing?<<>> (Direct Translation)

As I continued walking down the streets, I chanced upon a man clapping 2 wodden planks in one hand, rhythmically telling a story, laughing merrily, and another hand, pulling a long string behind the small stage to switch on and off the small light bulb every few seconds. I was so curious!

So, I decided to approach his booth. "Young Lady, do you want to enjoy 3 stories?" the man asked me in Mandarin, rhythimically, as he continued to clap his wooden planks.

Being musically inclined, and naturally curious, I nodded shyly.

The man then smiled, slightly amused by my response, and invites me to sit on the bench next too his small wooden both. I notice there are 5 holes in the middle of the booth. As I wonder which hole do I approach, the merry story teller tells me to sit in the middle. "Miss! Sit here! In the middle! The view is much better!"

I obey blindly. Not knowing what to expect, feeling a little silly for paying to peer into a darkened hole of a wooden box.

"Are you ready?" the man asks.

I nodded shyly again.

The merry story teller then began clapping his wooden planks and asks me, with much rhythm, "Miss! Do you see a tiger in there?"

Suddenly, it's bright in here! I see a wooden plank with drawings of a man fighting a tiger! The tiger looks fierce and it seems as if it wants to attack the man!

"Yes! Yes! I see the tiger!" I answered! glad that I could spot that tiger as he clapped his wooden planks excitedly.

The story teller switches of the light. I thought, "that's all?" and the story teller pushes my head back into the viewing hole and says, "Ahhh!It's not finished yet, Miss! The tiger looks fierce and it seems as if it wants to attack the man! They fight! and now, look! What happened to the tiger?"

"The hero fights with the tiger and now, the tiger is dead! It is bleeding all over!" I replied softly.

"Ah! Yes!" the storyteller continued triumphantly! " He's dead! and now, Miss, Look to your right. What do you see?"

I follow his instructions and look to my right! My! I gasp in 'awe'! " I see a boy peeing from a tree!" I laughed!

"Now, Look who's he peeing on?" The story continues clapping and asking.

"Oh!!! He's peeing on something(.. I forgot what it is already)." I laughed gleefully again! ehehehhe! It was so funny that I began to laugh uncontrollably!

As I continued peering into the hole, the story teller began switching on and off the tiny light bulb as he changed different story boards, with different characters, with unexpected comical endings, that I was rolling on my tummy, laughing heartily at the end of it all! By the time the story ended, My laughter had attracted such a large crowd! Slightly embarassed, yet not the least bit surprised. A few in the crowd asked me "what's so funny, Miss?"

"hahahahahahahahhahahah!" I began laughed uncontrollably again! The laughing button in me had been triggered! Overdose of laughing gas! "You have to watch it yourself! It's fun! Trust me! Very very funny!" I laughed non-stop! Couldn't even walk properly after that! hahahahahaha!That was my most memorable moment in China!

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Hang Zhou! (Day Time)

Hang Zhou is so captivating in the morning! Even its hotels are unique!

This is the wall of the hotel we stayed in! Doesn't it look gold plated?

It does have a certain '80s Western feel here!

They even design the windows with so much creativity! Interesting!

Here comes the most interesting part!

"Black jagung? Can it be eaten?" you eyes widen as you ask.
"Yup! Black jagung! Wonder what it tastes like? It's tasteless!" ^_^

Proof! People actuallyl do eat it! I ate it too!!! No fear factor here! It's just corn!



At the Tea Garden! Famous for its hand fried tea leaves

Another scene of the lake!
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Highlight of Hang Zhou

The highlight of our visit to Hang Zhou is the West Lake (or 'Xi Hu' in Mandarin) .

This lake is one of the biggest lakes in China! This lake is so big that it has 10 famous attractions!

First is the bridge! Looks really good when it's snowing!

An ancient boat... on the lake.

Next on the list is the Lei Feng Ta (or Thunder and Wind Pagoda). According to legend, a white snake who turned into a pretty woman attracted the heart of a mortal. However, it is against the law for a mortal to inter-marry with angels/half-turned angels because bad luck will befall the local community. . So, a monk tricked the white snake and imprisoned her under this Pagoda.

Another scene of the lake!

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The best part of visiting the West Lake is the 3 structures in the middle of the lake. Do you know what's so special about these 3 structures? During Mid Autumn Festival (Lantern Festival), we will be able to see 33 moons on this lake! Because each structure has five holes in it. So, let's count , how can 33 moons appear on the lake during mid-autumn festival?

3 structures, with a candles in it each and 5 holes for each structure : 15 moons

Another 15 reflections for reflection: 15 moons
One moon in the sky: 1
Moon's reflection in the water: 1
Altogether: 32

"Where's another moon then?" you ask. Well it's another lovely analysis!
Another moon is within your heart and soul! :)
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