Homecoming...

Going home tonight... Yay!

HELLO Singapore~

冬至 - Experiencing Winter solstice

Yesterday was the Winter Solstice (冬至).

We only hear about Winter Solstice (冬至) in Singapore but never know what it is really like. To us, it may be just another rainy day on a hot sunny island.

冬至 is suppose to be midwinter, the start of a new year, the coldest day of winter. Indeed the temperature fell to (-9 degrees /-17 degrees) (day/night).

I went to school with wet hair but found the water in my hair froze and ice formed in my hair within a few minutes... 发如雪...

Oh ya, remember to eat your dumplings for 冬至 or your ears will fall off!!! I ate 12...muhaha... Ears are confirmed intact...

More than just a beer - Qingdao

We had an opportunity to go to Qingdao for 3 days. The agenda included a factory visit, talk with the CEO and various members of the management staff. We also had chance to look at various accounting systems that they was using. It was an eye-opener indeed.


First impressions when we landed was that Qingdao looked very much like Singapore. It is a coastal area and there were really nice beaches around Qingdao.





The airport was small but clean and spacious.





The roads were not as crowded as Beijing and I noticed that not as many people were cycling in Qingdao. Drivers were also obeying traffic rules (probably because of the traffic cameras at every traffic light) and there was no horning. We proceeded to dinner and had our first Qingdao beer from Qingdao.



It tasted like... Qingdao. Not bad at all... Guess what I found in my hotel room...百闻不如一见。。。



Not cheap somemore... Cost 15 yuan per pack...

Our transport around Qingdao... It was a Buick..



Next day was a full day of factory visits, interviews and presentations and it totally tired us out. But check out our hotel that night... It was quite posh...





Don't ask me why I am wearing googles but I like this pic! =)



Qingdao also had lots of good food. Believe it or not, there are 300,000 Koreans in Qingdao and lots of good Korean food as well.



Service was also really good. I dropped my chopsticks and got a replacement in 2 seconds without even asking for one. Seafood was also an everyday part of the Qingdao diet. Lot of exotic seafood that I had never seen in my life. This was the ultimate... (not for the faint hearted...) I never eat!!!

Bird's Nest - A Chinese Delicacy...

I woke up on Wednesday morning and it was snowing... well, sort of... just tiny flakes of snow falling but it was my first time seeing snow so I was pretty excited. I woke up early enough to see the ground covered in white but the snow melted after 10am.



It's been abut 4 months since I came Beijing but I have not been to the Bird's nest (olympic stadium) and the Water Cube (olympic swimming pool). Since I had no class that day, I decided to go with some friends. It was pretty convenient to get to the stadium and the water cube via train. Good thing also that the stadium and the cube are side by side.




The stadium...what a sight! Impressive piece of architecture, indeed!



This is a 7 star hotel, "Pang Gu" near the stadium. I think if I ever had the money to stay there and had to pay the hotel bill, I would also start seeing (7) stars...



To enter the stadium, you have to pay 50 yuan. Once in a lifetime opportunity so we paid to see how the bird's nest looked inside.



It wasn't as big as I had expected but it was cosy and very high tech. I heard the roof will close if there was rain. 麻雀虽小，五脏俱全。 Get it? 麻雀? Bird's nest? *Nudge Nudge Wink Wink... 真是不好笑。。。







Taking my first step onto the soccer pitch, I placed my right foot firmly just like Lionel Messi did. Wah, I am part of history... sort of... yay!



They had balloon figures of Fuwas(the mascots for the China Olympics) on the pitch which you could take photos with and also people in Fuwa costumes dancing around the stadium.





Attacked by Fuwa! Poor guy... After that, the same Fuwa painted himself red and attacked a cow... The Horror!





It was dark by the time that we were finished with the stadium. We moved on to the water cube. It's real pretty...





And it changes colour too!





Not sure what this is but it changes colour too! NICE~~



Well, that's 2 things off my checklist of "places I want to go in Beijing"...

最美。。。

你的美 无声无息
不知不觉让我追随
不记得何时动了情
彷徨失措从不后悔

你在我眼中是最美
每一个微笑都让我沉醉
你的坏 你的好
你躺在沙发甜甜的睡
你在我心中是最美
只有相爱的人最能体会
你明了 我明了
这种美妙的滋味。。。

卖火机的老男孩。。。

Yesterday, it was still 9 degrees in the day and 0 degrees at night... Check out the temperature today! -13 degrees at night and -3 degrees in the day!



Even while wearing like this, the cold was piercing! Thinking if I should get something else cause I heard it's only gonna get colder...



先生，先生，要不要买一个火机吗？