Day 10- 13th March (Excursion to 黄鹤楼 and 古琴台)
The internet connection is getting lousier and lousier each day. It took me so long to upload the pictures and enter the net! Frustrated! :@ Late sleep + get up early for excursion = tired to the max! Met the batch at 0810 as usual before boarding the bus. The journey was about 30mins and I felt really really tired. She's the tour guide for the day :)
It was not long after and we reached the tower. 黄鹤楼 is actually a crane tower. There is a story behind how this tower name came about and there’s a poem created too. The scenery there was beautiful! The lake, trees, decorations, architecture and shops were all one of a kind. Don't you this it's very scenic? I likeeeee! ;) The tour guide then explained to us some of the unique traits about some of the features present there. I observed that the wood carvings and architecture of such places of interest are very very exquisite. Really special and nice :)
We then climbed up the 5 floors of the tower to look at the scenery and there are a few interesting pictures and carvings at each level. The view from above:I find the buildings really special- different from those in Singapore, and most of them are relatively low, unlike Singapore’s whereby majority are high rise. I reckon it is due to allow domestic airplanes to fly above without any hindrance.
Some group photos:


After that, we were brought to a restaurant in a 5 start hotel, as they mentioned, to have our lunch. It serves Chinese food, but not to the extent of typical Chinese food. The design of the hotel is different from that of Singapore’s. I believe every country just have their own distinct style. The lunch was good! :D

Next up the itenary was a visit to the古琴台. The place has several statues and sculptures which tell us their individual stories. Some examples: 伯牙, a senior officer of Jin state was dispatched to Chu state and he set out by boat.
子期 was supposed to meet 伯牙 at the foot of the Tortoise Mountain a year later. However, 子期 did not turn up and 伯牙 realised that 子期 died of illness. Being so upset, 伯牙 went to 子期’s tomb and played the music “lofty mountain and flowing water” for the last time. He broke his instrument and never played any instrument again as he feels that there is no meaning in playing after losing a bosom friend.

This is 伯牙

This tress symbolizes a special meaning for 伯牙 and 子期. It is called a bosom friend tree.
Look at the unique and colorful tiles which is used to make the roof of the pavilion.
Love to take pictures of trees and plants, especially those with weird colors :) Now that the season is changing, i believe i'll be able to capture more of these type of flowers!
More group photos :

Last site of the day, which is a park! Though I did not walk the entire area, I believe that it is a really huge one. Despite having a small range of flowers and trees there, it still seem more colorful and vibrant that our local Botanical Garden! :x Saw quite a few husband and wife-to-be taking their wedding photos there. I wouldn’t deny that it will make an awesome backdrop!
As I mentioned that I was very restless, my other friends were too. We decided to look for a nice coffee house to talk and relax instead of walking such a long distance to the shopping area and rushing back to the coach by the 2nd hour. Indeed, we found one just opposite the park! Look at the buildings! They are different from the ones i normally see. The whole stretch of road has this kind of building!
维多俐娅，Victoria Coffee House. The decoration and architecture inside has Victorian style. Most classy restaurant/ coffee house in China I’ve ever come across! Banana boat :)
Reflection
I only realized it when I was typing the beginning of this post. It is the TENTH day! Finally we’re moving on to 2 digits! :) Time seem to pass so fast. I just can’t wait to return back to Singapore. Not because I don’t like this trip, but because it is going to be something new and special that I’ve achieved and experienced after 6 weeks. Alright, but I know it is still too early to think about this.
If one is interested about history and literature, the best place to learn is definitely China. Since yesterday, during the IS lesson, steel factory visit and today’s excursion, I’m hearing about different types of China’s history and story and it never seem to be able to end. It appears that I’ve heard a lot from the tour guides and teacher, but it is only a small and brief information about China and its’ people. Comparing with Singapore, we may not have such long history that can bring us on par with the smallest city in China! D:
When I heard that we were going over to 黄鹤楼, I was quite elated. This is because I’ve heard about this tower since young and even came across the poem.
昔人已乘黄鹤去，此地空余黄鹤楼。
黄鹤一去不复返，白云千载空悠悠。
晴川历历汉阳树，芳草萋萋鹦鹉洲。
日暮乡关何处是? 烟波江上使人愁。However I never knew that this place really exists and have such long history behind it. What made me happier was that it is so beautiful :D I also think that the story behind 古琴台 very meaningful as it is a story about 2 bosom friends. I had a very knowledgeable and fun time today at all these places, and hopefully the coming excursions will be as enjoyable as today’s.

Day 9- 12th March (Visit to the Steel Factory)
As we returned back to the hostel late the precious night, I pulled myself out of bed early this morning at 645 to prepare for the outing to the Steel factory. The school arranged a coach bus to fetch both MDE and ECE students there.

The entire factory was huge and there was this bad smell when we first reached. I doubt it is good for the health of those working in the factory. We had our helmets on for safety purposes as there are rules and regulations too in the factory.
We were led by an experienced worker who has been working for 30 long years at the plant. The machineries are made in Japan but the factory is run by the Chinese. Raw materials enter through a pipe and the manufacture of steel will take place in a burning hot furnace which is connected to it.

The furnace.
There are a few of these furnace, so that more pieces of steel can be manufactured at one. After the process, the manufactured steel will move out of the furnace and will be rolled on the rollers from station to station where it is processed further. The furnace is opening.
The just-manufactured piece of burning hot steel from the furnace.
The different stations include pressing and washing. In the pressing stage, there will be 2 rolling pins look-alike that will be forcing the steel down hence making it flat. There is also another bigger ‘rolling pin’ which will give pressure to the ones below. Next up is the washing system. (the big green one at the top) This is an extra pair of 'rolling pin' for replacing the existing ones (the 2 at the bottom) There is another section to wash the impurities of the metal away making it as clean as possible.
These 3 wheels regulate the the speed of the rollers that the metal will lie on.
The duration of the steel from the furnace to the rolling and storing take only ONE MINUTE!
Loading the steel up the truck.
The workers separating waste steel and wanted metal.
Rolling up the strip of metal in process.
After the machine has rolled the whole strip of metal up.
This is the conveyor belt that will bring the processed and rolled up metal to storage.
This is a whole strip of processed and pressed metal.
We stayed at the factory for quite some time as much explanation was made. So we managed to catch a glimpse of the process when the steel exit the furnace to when it is rolled up and stored.
This is the management area, which control the operations of the entire process.
This is the first test rolling hot strip.
♥


The tour around the factory last for about an hour plus. Returned to school only at close to 12 and we rushed to have our lunch at the canteen since it is the most convenient. Went back to our rooms to have a rest before attending our first IS lesson! It is about China’s history :/ The starting was alright and I did pay much attention. However, as the lecturer speaks more and more, it began to become dry as I individually do not really like studying history. During class :)
Lesson ended early, at about 4 and we all headed out in search of a thin mattress because Charmaine and I have bruises at the side of our thigh due to the hard bed! :( But there was none. I guess we got to bear with it again tonight, till we find one!

Reflection
So quickly, a week has past and the weekend is here again! The trip to the steel factory was good I can say as I’ve learnt quite a bit about the manufacturing process. Furthermore it can be considered as a once in a lifetime experience as I think it is not easy if one wants to enter a steel factory just as a visit. Steel may just be purely a piece of metal. However it takes a lot of work and effort to create this piece of silver plate. The Chinese are rather cautious and considerate in terms of meeting special requirements. They do have machines or systems that are used in the different seasons due to the different weather conditions. Also, they have several backup equipments so as to ensure that the process will still run even if one system fails. I think this is a rather important element to all manufacturing companies as this will ensure that there is no loss of sales or waste if resources when any system breakdown. The manufacturing of steel is indeed a very tough and tedious job though it is mainly controlled by machines. This is because there is a need to watch over these machines (A LOT OF MACHINES), making sure that they are running well. Also, certain task that cannot be achieved by using the machine has to be done by Man. Despite the harsh working condition, I still notice many female workers (mainly middle aged) in the factory. I was surprised as I thought all I will be seeing are male.

The second part of my reflection is on the China History lesson which I did not pay much attention in :/ There's too much about China that i can learn, seriously. There are 23 provinces altogether: Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Sh‘anxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang! There are 5 autonomous Regions: Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi and Ningxia. Also, 4 municipality: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing and 2 Special Administrative Region!